An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are • Hacker News Board

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#51

Post by marchenko » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 1:59 PM UTC

onlydeadheroes wrote: post #46

marchenko wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She's a legitimate global superstar in fiction writing. Her books are popular enough to move the percentage of total book sales represented by translated fiction in English-speaking markets (she` writes in Italian). Strangely enough, her approach is often considered a kind of anti-marketing: no book tours, few interviews, strangely downscale cover art - people, mostly women, just really love her writing.

I guessed I stepped on the wrong narrative because just questioning this author's superstardom has gotten me to -4 on a mostly male site where most people can't even downvote. I have no opinion on this author, but can we please stop pushing everything like it is the second coming of christ just because women like it? As I said, marketing.

I didn't downvote you, but those who did probably decided your response was not particularly well-informed. Men might dominate HN, but women are over-represented as consumers of fiction (and nonfiction), in both print and ebook format-in the UK market, for example, they buy over 2/3rds of fiction books. So simply being popular with women is enough to be a literary phenomenon.

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#52

Post by xkcd-sucks » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:16 PM UTC

Veen wrote: post #43

superflyguy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salinger has certainly got this reclusive business down to a t - nobody's seen or heard anything from him for a good 8 years now.

It’s easier to avoid appearing in public when you’re dead.

Tell that to Carrie fisher

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#53

Post by onlydeadheroes » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

marchenko wrote: post #51

onlydeadheroes wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guessed I stepped on the wrong narrative because just questioning this author's superstardom has gotten me to -4 on a mostly male site where most people can't even downvote. I have no opinion on this author, but can we please stop pushing everything like it is the second coming of christ just because women like it? As I said, marketing.

I didn't downvote you, but those who did probably decided your response was not particularly well-informed. Men might dominate HN, but women are over-represented as consumers of fiction (and nonfiction), in both print and ebook format-in the UK market, for example, they buy over 2/3rds of fiction books. So simply being popular with women is enough to be a literary phenomenon.

While I don't disagree with your reasoning, I haven't read this author. However another user describes this author as "what Paulo Coelho was back in the 1990s, but adapted to the #metoo and gender politics momentum."

Now when I saw the heavy handedness of my comment's downvoting, I was surprised. Having further looked into this, I now find the root of the rot of modern discourse: the censorship of gender politics. So I stand by all my comments in this thread and I consider your well reasoned market analysis entirely immaterial to this discussion.

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#54

Post by marchenko » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:55 PM UTC

onlydeadheroes wrote: post #53

marchenko wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't downvote you, but those who did probably decided your response was not particularly well-informed. Men might dominate HN, but women are over-represented as consumers of fiction (and nonfiction), in both print and ebook format-in the UK market, for example, they buy over 2/3rds of fiction books. So simply being popular with women is enough to be a literary phenomenon.

While I don't disagree with your reasoning, I haven't read this author. However another user describes this author as "what Paulo Coelho was back in the 1990s, but adapted to the #metoo and gender politics momentum." Now when I saw the heavy handedness of my comment's downvoting, I was surprised. Having further looked into this, I now find the root of the rot of modern discourse: the censorship of gender politics. So…

Not to beat a dead horse, but I don't think Elena Ferrante has anything to do with #metoo or gender politics. The author/s claims to have been born in the 40s, and started writing in the 90s. As far as I understand, she writes relatively non-political literary fiction set in a particular historical milieu in Naples that is sensitive to the intimate lives of women. She is not allegorical or self-help-y like Coelho. She just writes in a way that speaks to a very broad audience of women.

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#55

Post by sverige » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 3:03 PM UTC

nroets wrote: post #10

fipple wrote: post #3

I’ve never seen anything in an “open letter” format that didn’t sound like it was written by an asshole.

There are some good open letters by shareholder activists, especially if you understand the broader context: Pensioners enjoying meager dividends while management getting fat paychecks.

Yes, but those people have an investment to protect. This article reads as an extended attempt to bully a writer who values her privacy into surrendering it to please people who have no real right to know anything beyond what she has already revealed. It's such a vile attack that I couldn't finish reading it. "Asshole" doesn't begin to cover it.

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#56

Post by wlesieutre » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 3:20 PM UTC

Scarblac wrote: post #24

avvt4avaw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the other people on the list this year. Donald Trump. Cardi B. Hugh Jackman. Satya Nadella. Sean Hannity. Jacinda Ardern. Elon Musk. Oprah Winfrey. You can argue about the exact selection of people. You can say that Time is 'politicised'. But this is clearly a list of people who are very well known. It's not embarrassing to admit that you had a blind spot about a particular author, musician or politician. But…

That's a list of eight names, of which I only recognize four (Trump, Jackman, Musk and Winfrey). I think the problem is that the world is much more fragmented than we assume it is.

You've probably heard of Satya Nadella on HN, he's the CEO of Microsoft

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#57

Post by chrissam » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 3:22 PM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #14

I don't blame any writer for wanting to be anonymous. In today's world, your race, gender, sexual orientation, age, hair color, clothing style, political affiliation, birthplace, and any other discernible group identity will be used to analyze, market, and categorize your work into the appropriate tribalist-identity. To quote from Ferrante's Wikipedia page: Ferrante holds that "books, once they are written, have no n…

> Some people just want to write a book...and have it be read as a book, not a sociopolitical statement. Call it the "craftsman ethos", if you like.

I've read My Brilliant Friend. I liked it a lot (I'll probably read the other three someday), and I'm not curious about the identity of the writer.

At the same time, Elena Ferrante gives interviews. It's one thing to write novels pseudonymously and have them published. It's another to give interviews - when you do that, you're taking on the role of public intellectual, and you can't really blame people for being curious about who you are.

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#58

Post by fishtank » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 3:29 PM UTC

squarefoot wrote: post #16

keiferski wrote: post #14

I don't blame any writer for wanting to be anonymous. In today's world, your race, gender, sexual orientation, age, hair color, clothing style, political affiliation, birthplace, and any other discernible group identity will be used to analyze, market, and categorize your work into the appropriate tribalist-identity. To quote from Ferrante's Wikipedia page: Ferrante holds that "books, once they are written, have no n…

"... will be used to analyze, market, and categorize your work into the appropriate tribalist-identity." And destroy you should you write something that others don't like. Privacy is becoming an invaluable good whose loss can't be undone.

Who has been destroyed in this fashion?

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#59

Post by soundwave106 » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 3:44 PM UTC

onlydeadheroes wrote: post #46

marchenko wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She's a legitimate global superstar in fiction writing. Her books are popular enough to move the percentage of total book sales represented by translated fiction in English-speaking markets (she` writes in Italian). Strangely enough, her approach is often considered a kind of anti-marketing: no book tours, few interviews, strangely downscale cover art - people, mostly women, just really love her writing.

I guessed I stepped on the wrong narrative because just questioning this author's superstardom has gotten me to -4 on a mostly male site where most people can't even downvote. I have no opinion on this author, but can we please stop pushing everything like it is the second coming of christ just because women like it? As I said, marketing.

I didn't downvote, but it did take me only a couple of Wikipedia clicks to bring up the article on Neapolitan Novels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_Novels). Per the article "the series has sold 10 million copies in 40 countries".

It also apparently had enough clout to get an HBO / RAI TV series produced out of it, which will possibly up the recognition factor for her name and her works considerably depending on the success.

This is not super super stardom level (the top living novelists have sold half a billion novels -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction_a...) but that's still an impressive number, I would say it is within the top tier.

(A fun comparison to another HBO show: When Game of Thrones started, A Song of Ice and Fire had sold 15 million copies worldwide -- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Song_of_Ice_and... . In a similar ballpark, in other words.)

Re: An Open Letter to Elena Ferrante, Whoever You Are

#60

Post by mathattack » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 3:49 PM UTC

This country has a tradition of semi-anonymous writing. (See the federalist papers) I think with AI semantic analysis, the ability of writers to remain anonymous will be threatened. Software will out anonymous writers.

For non-fiction, this is important. (Is it worthwhile to know that a book about public Health Care is authored by a pharma exec?) Can the same case be made for fiction? Or is the damage of not getting art too big to dispense with the pretense of anonymity?