The Ecstasy of Influence by Jonathan Lethem

Do you know who Jonathan Lethem is? He’s a writer of contemporary literature, and a pretty “important” one. He wrote Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude, which might be familiar titles to you. He’s what he might call a “white elephant,” a supposed eminence of the medium, trotted from one public radio interview to the next. 

He is a huge nerd.

And like all huge nerds (by definition!), he loves to talk about, and takes very seriously, the media he consumes.

The Ecstasy of Influence is a collection of some of Lethem’s nonfiction work, and it focuses on the extremely particular cannon of his personal interest—Don Delillo, Thomas Pynchon, J.G. Ballard, Phillip K Dick.  It’s a series of love letters to figures like Bob Dylan and Italo Calvino. And, look. I love those guys. I love Bob Dylan so so much. I can’t even begin to tell you! And the goddamn name of this blog comes from a very particular Italian short fiction writer.

And his essays are full of a random spattering of really good stuff. His introductory essay is great, and it’s even courageous (insofar as any kind of writing can be courageous in America in 2012) in the way it recognizes and semi-rejects the social script of the good, humble, grateful novelist.  His piece about Calvino and completeism is great.

But I can’t love Lethem.

This is a good opportunity to admit I’ve never read any of his fiction. Ooops! I don’t know why. I bet he’s great. I think partly it’s that his most famous book is called Motherless Brooklyn, and I don’t know anything about New York or have much of an interest in it.

But there’s also the other thing. Lethem, in his essays, is a fierce defender of Genre. Even more particularly, he’s a bulldog of tough, urban genre, the kind I imagine to be soaked in substance abuse and self-sufficient sub-cultures. I don’t like those kinds of people.

I mean, I’m sure he’s a great guy! And I like that kind of literature just fine. But I don’t like people who take their defense of Genre very seriously.

Oh boy. How do I even explain why? Is there even a real reason?

Here’s the thing. There is a conversation that takes places a thousand times a day between people who like to read. This conversation is about the merits of things like science fiction and fantasy, detective stories and westerns. “Why don’t people take such things seriously!” the readers of George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss cry. “It's the boring serious fiction that needs to go!”

And I’m very exhausted with the genre side of things. Here is why: I read mostly contemporary Literature. Capital L, award winning stuffs. But I also like a LOT of genre books. Ray Bradbury is my all-time favorite author. The Once is Future King and Watership Down are, for my money, some of the best and most accessible books ever written. Everyone should read them!

And everyone I know who likes “Literature” also likes good genre stories. Literally, every single person I know with an interest in, say, William Gaddis, is also interested in--I don't know--Gene Wolfe. The only closed-minded readers I’ve ever met are those who are particular to one genre: the engineers who only like sci-fi, the women who have a series of particular mysteries they love.

Lethem understands that to a certain extent intellectualism is a show, and he almost—almost!—admits in his essay “What I Learned at the Science Fiction Convention” what I had wanted to say to him so badly since page one: Alternative-ness is as much an affectation as is erudition!

Anyway, I’ve taken a side road here.

The title essay is the showpiece of the book. You can read it here, and it’s all about plagiarism and influence and borrowing in creative writing. This is as important and tricky an issue as I can imagine for people interested in fiction. He does a great job, and that’s all there is to it. It's clever and smart and great.

Although in a weird way, I prefer Malcolm Gladwell’s exploration of the topic in “Something Borrowed,” because, while it lacks the stylistic fireworks or rhetorical depth of Lethem’s piece, it’s just so crystal clear and simple and personal and I think everyone interested in intellectual property should read it.

That’s all I’ve got! Dinner time!