fiction files redux discussion
New Yorker Releases "20 Under 40" List
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See, and I went back in here to add Othmer and then thought... hmmm... and now I find out you're a charter AARP member.
Sigh. Losing on both counts. Ben is 67 and JE is 41. I guess I better get cracking if I want to make this list.

http://www.themillions.com/2010/06/a-..."
I hope that everyone knows that is a fake list that The Millions made to show who might have been on a list had they made one in 1970. I was confused at first.
well it's fake in that the New Yorker didn't publish it as such and it's a list generated in retrospect but it's not fake in that all those authors were under 40 in 1970

It probably won't stop until we get: 'five month old foetus dictates masterpiece from mother's womb decoded in a series of kicks to the stomach. New York Times calls it 'a spectacular literary achievement.'
I hate newspapers and chattering classes shit. can you tell?
to Martyn's point though the list generated by the millions in retrospect is a very good illustration of something important
in 1970 the New Yorker wouldn't know that Fear and Loathing was still a year away from being published in Rolling Stone magazine in serialized form by a 33 year old fringe journalist with only one previous book to his credit (a book at that point 4 years old with nothing to show for the intervening 4 years but a handful of magazine articles) - indeed, would the New Yorker of that time acknowledge Hunter S Thompson as 'proper author' even if he had published his magnum opus?
nor could the editors of the new yorker possibly know that at age 39 Toni Morrison was only just beginning an illustrious career that would eventually lead to nobel laureate-hood
nor that at age 34 Don Delillo was still a year away from publishing his first novel
etc etc etc
I would wager that more often than not authors of novels age into their ascendency in their 40s because it takes some living to build up a book in you unless you're one of them one hit wunderkinden
in 1970 the New Yorker wouldn't know that Fear and Loathing was still a year away from being published in Rolling Stone magazine in serialized form by a 33 year old fringe journalist with only one previous book to his credit (a book at that point 4 years old with nothing to show for the intervening 4 years but a handful of magazine articles) - indeed, would the New Yorker of that time acknowledge Hunter S Thompson as 'proper author' even if he had published his magnum opus?
nor could the editors of the new yorker possibly know that at age 39 Toni Morrison was only just beginning an illustrious career that would eventually lead to nobel laureate-hood
nor that at age 34 Don Delillo was still a year away from publishing his first novel
etc etc etc
I would wager that more often than not authors of novels age into their ascendency in their 40s because it takes some living to build up a book in you unless you're one of them one hit wunderkinden
I had a poetry professor in college tell me that I was obviously "done" writing my childhood, that I needed to get out there and live a little, and then I would have something to say. She was right. Maybe I didn't have to totally stop writing for 17 years, but she was still right. At 37 I don't really know that I have something to say that's useful but I'm working on it.


It probably won't stop until we get: 'five month old foetus dictates masterpiece from mother's womb decoded in a series of kicks to the stomach. New York Times calls it 'a spectacular literary achievement.
¡ Me acuerdo !
Wharton . . . late;
Hawthorne . . . late, (w/ the exception of the Romance, Fanshaw);
Dostoevsky . . . late, (began; but then that long break—well, prison will do that),
Hmmmm. They all seem like "heavy hitters."
Hmmmm. Perhaps, experience DOES count for something.

Kerry wrote: "Dan wrote: "Now that's a classic Martyn rant!"
It's kinda nice, isn't it??"
not enough rants up in here
It's kinda nice, isn't it??"
not enough rants up in here
Dzanc Books released an alternative list. Check it out here:
http://emergingwriters.typepad.com/dz...
Interesting...
http://emergingwriters.typepad.com/dz...
Interesting...

She's on the list with Dan Brown and J. K. Rowling. Popular Fiction sneered at by Literary snobs.
The list probably won't be a big surprise, but the issue for which the list was made is going to be a double issue, focusing totally on Fiction! The link is below.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/...