ColumnDear headline writers. This is not Spinal Tap.

Made you click! Quite a task, it seems, in today’s hyper-competitive online media marketplace. After all, this story is just one of dozens, maybe even hundreds, that will compete for your attention today. And the truth is that some of us will use any trick in the book to get at your precious eyeballs, including cry-wolf, volume-to-11 headlines.

We all get snagged this way from time to time. Evidently, some—let’s say quantifiable lots—more than others. In many ways, we seem to have come full circle back to the days of the penny press and its yellow journalism, with an omnipresent din of hawkers on every digital street corner: Extra! Extra! Every single word guaranteed to be over the top!

But really, is everything an extra? Is there nothing interesting that remains appropriately under the top? Apparently not much.

The noise starts early in the day, for some even before we get out of bed, our smartphones serving up morning copy that promises to be “truly unbelievable!” and photo stories that are nothing short of cap-S “stunning!” and cap B-“breathtaking!” Yes, the a.m. rush isn’t complete without being informed that today—every day, in fact—is the best of times and the worst of times, the end of something as we know it, and the magnificent start of something new. Do we dare miss out?

Here’s one from Upworthy, a good site with a lot of compelling material: “This Is Not A Joke. You May Laugh, But You Shouldn’t. It’s Quite Horrifying—It has to be seen to be believed. But you still won’t believe it.” Really? This is about a bizarre napkin designed to cover the mouths of Japanese women while they eat hamburgers. Insanely weird and sexist? Yes. Warranting a headline that would make a civil defense air-raid siren blush? Maybe not.

Moving on, how does (did?) this grab you: “Antibiotic resistance will mean the end of just about everything as we know it.” Right. That’s from Salon, a way-too-frequent flyer on click-me-now air, and purveyor of other gems such as “Psychopaths: Some are just like us!” (Are they?!) and “Embrace your small penis, men: Everyone else is lying anyway!” Mmhmm. Thanks.

Of course, nothing screams like good sex—or rather, porn. Lots of porn. “Food porn.” “Ruin porn.” “Nature porn.” And, for the more bookish, here is a related, sexualizing the unsexualizable trend that won’t seem to go away: I call it “A Million Shades of 50 Shades.” Politics: “Israel’s 50 shades of dismay over Iran nuke deal.” (GlobalPost). Science: “50 Shades of Grey (Matter): How Science is Defying BDSM Stereotypes.” (Huffington Post) Literature: “You Want Erotic? The Countless Shades of Anaïs Nin.” (Yeah, well, that last one was mine. At least I went for book on book.)

Of course, there are easy pickings on both our Left and Right. Obamacare: “Worse Than Slavery.” Debt ceiling: “How to prepare for the… apocalypse.” The cacophony in this category is truly beyond the pale. Even down-the-middle CNN (I know, if CNN represents the middle, we’re in real trouble) recently offered us this, just in case tornadic destruction wasn’t enough to grab our attention: “Grandma’s Last Words: ‘Get Me Out.’” Thank you, CNN.

Want more? Just Google something. Anything. You’ll find a headline to suit your most highly caffeinated, info-active mood about all things est—biggest, baddest, worst, best. The hunt for something incredible (in the strictest sense of the word) is like shooting fish in barrel. In fact, you don’t even have to search. It will come to you. (To avoid piling on, let’s pass for now on deliberately misleading headlines, a story unto itself: accuracy as collateral damage.)

Yet strangely, it doesn’t seem too long ago in Webville when superlatives more or less meant something, and an Onion headline was an Onion headline, and not mistaken (at second blush, at least) for real information.

Step Right Up

In a past lifetime, when I was a first-year Journalism grad student in Chicago, headline writing was part of a fearsome, nuts-and-bolts J-school boot camp. (One prof was a formidable ex-marine, in fact, boasting a handlebar mustache and a hair-trigger red pen.) The effort was like puzzle-solving—and not everyone was good at it. Limited space, limited words, a story to represent and (just as with the lead) a promise to be fulfilled if a reader should take the time to engage. And, yes, eyeballs to grab, too. All told, creating a headline is like wrestling with a mini Rubik’s cube.

The idea of selling your story often taps into a different side of the brain than actually covering it. Indeed, in most editorial worlds, headlines are not written by the writer of the piece itself, but by talented copy editors and, increasingly (online), by editors themselves. Writers who have been around will tell you of the countless times they opened their paper (or magazine, or laptop) and saw their copy under some weird words that made them think hmmm—or, more likely, “oh god, no.”

In any case, no matter who’s behind what’s on top of a story, there’s nothing wrong with selling copy with snappy headlines. They can be fun and creative and (hopefully) expository—an art form unto themselves. And no one, myself included, wants you to pass over his or her work for want of intrigue. (Kudos, by the way, to someone in these pages who recently walked the line and came out shining with “The Universe is So Weird! There’s Plastic on Saturn’s Moon?”)

Moreover, facts (and there so many of them) are facts: In the not-too-distant past, each day we were confronted with a limited number of “stories”—a newspaper or two, maybe a magazine or three, some TV to choose from. But today, we’re hit with thousands of them during our waking hours, most of which come to us online, as for-profit media outlets scratch away and beg so very hard for our mindpsace. Let’s be honest: no one should expect a publishing effort to be okay with simply fading into the background.

But as readers, many of us need to do a better job considering the cry-wolf factor as we scan our screens. (Face it, there’s not going to be an uprising anytime soon that says to HuffPo, Salon and all the others, “keep pulling that crap with the headlines and you’ll lose market share.” It sure would be nice though, huh?) Maybe it is just one breath of awareness before we offer up our prized click. That nanosecond when we can say: “Wait. Really? Am I really going to reach for that bright shiny thing?”

Finally, consider that subtlety isn’t dead—it’s just, well, subtle. Noise isn’t the key to good copy or truthful news. In fact, it might serve to tell you that what follows is not as advertised. Discernment is what it’s cracked up to be. The more game you bring, the better gems you are going to find.

I guess it’s like anything else in the days of the horrifying, unbelievable, incredible Information Age—it’s our job to consume wisely and be on lookout for what is real and true under the sea of hype. That said, headline writers, please stop screaming at me! On a scale of 1 to 10, even for the sensational, 10 is enough. This is not Spinal Tap.

(As I write, this just in: “Man who stripped naked and stuck a fire extinguisher hose up his bottom in a hotel corridor walks free.”—The Independent. Seriously?)

Scott Adelson is EcoSalon’s Senior Editor of HyperKulture, a monthly column that explores opening cultural doors to initiate personal change. He is also the author of InPRINT, which reviews and discusses books, new and old. You can reach him at scott at adelson dot org and follow him @scottadelson on Twitter.

Related Reading:

HyperKulture: Dear Oprah, Please Tell Us Who We Are — Atheists, Feminists And Other ‘Others’ Need To Know

HyperCulture: From The Sanbox to Syria – Tribe, Ego and Decision Making

HyperKulture: In Swoon’s Way – Time traveling and Staring Down Florence Syndrome

InPRINT: You Want Erotic? The Countless Shades of Anaïs Nin

InPRINT: Albert Camus and the Biggest Question of All

Images: Cory Doctorow (top) and The Library of Congress

The post Read this F*&%ing Story! — Spinal Tap Headlines and You: HyperKulture appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnRead something different. Sustain your mind.

I’m reading Beloved by Toni Morrison. It’s a good thing too, and not just because it’s a brilliant novel. The truth is that I never got around to this acclaimed classic for all the wrong reasons. In fact, looking back on why this book escaped me brings up something I think I’ve always been aware of, but tend to avoid talking about.

Why have I not read Beloved? A great many people consider it to be a—if not the—Great American Novel. Published in 1987, the book depicts slavery, its aftermath, and its impact on African-American families—specifically mother-daughter relationships. It’s beautifully written, and as arresting and powerful as anything I’ve ever read. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and is consistently on every “best books of all-time” list worth its salt. Yet sadly, it’s within all these points that I find my answer.

Truth be told, and as dry as it sounds, I’m a white, middle-class man. While I fancy myself a progressive thinker, Morrison’s book challenges my fiction comfort zone—that is to say, my “go to” list of what I normally choose to read. It’s not that I ever thought Beloved wouldn’t be a quality read—it’s just that I can be lazy. I’ve always thought of the book as intensely female- and family-oriented, and, of course, it’s focused on an excruciating, criminal and evil part of our cultural heritage. It’s not that I purposely choose to avoid these perspectives and subjects—it’s just that given the choice, I’ll usually default to something “more my speed.” My easy brain says: “Right. Pass. Maybe one day.”

Now I think I do better than most when it comes to reading outside my box. My reviews come in around the 50/50 men-to-women ratio and I even wrote a piece encouraging a good-faith gender exchange of reading material. But the fact remains: My bookshelves are crammed with people like me—white, middle-class men. (Ouch.) Yes, among my collected authors are writers of different genders, ethnicities and sexual orientations. I even have a couple books by conservatives. Hell, I have dozens of books by people who aren’t even like me!

Dozens!

(Yeah. I own many hundreds of books.)

Taking Action

Here’s how I came to be reading Beloved (and how I almost, stupidly, passed on the great book yet again): A couple of weeks back I was writing an InPRINT column on historical fiction. My plan was to mention some examples in the essay portion of the story, and then recommend 10 terrific titles. Because of my audience (and yes, because I have at least some commitment to broadening my brain), I went through my usual drill before choosing which books to include and asked myself: How many of these are by men and how many by women? How many are by African Americans or other people of color? Have I included writers with varying sexual orientations? Then a similar examination of plot lines, characters and themes: Is there a healthy mix? “Hmm. I should add another woman… and another person of color. I got it! Beloved! Two birds with one stone!” Off I went to my local bookstore.

On the way I began to have second thoughts. Was I manipulating my list for gender, race and political reasons? Was I forcing myself to read something that I might not ordinarily pick up because it was the “correct” thing to do? Was I being reactive to the fact that our media and publishing culture has been both sexist and racist in its coverage and promotion of the fiction we read?

“Yes, yes and yes!”

And so I stepped on the gas. And yes, Beloved is an amazing book. (I’ll let you know more about it when I’m finished.)

A Challenge For Us All

It is true that we live in a world that’s biased, bought and paid for when it comes to the fiction that’s proffered in our bookstore windows and on our computer screens. Indeed, this applies to almost all of the information we’re encouraged to take in these days (see what passes as “news”). The largest media outlets, book publishers and bookstores all, for many reasons, seem to have made little progress when it comes to breaking through diversity barriers in terms of gender, race and sexual orientation. And while that could be the biggest story in fiction today, there’s one place we can all start to address the issue—with our own choices.

Each of us can personally challenge ourselves to actively reach out and encounter who and what takes us outside what we know. For those of us who love fiction, there is no excuse not to read about the world from a point of view other than our own. Indeed, it is through the eyes of others that we can best gain a more robust perspective of our culture—its subjective truths and glories and failings as they apply to more than just our own insular lives. For this white boy that includes following a Nobel Prize-winning, master storyteller into the tragic life of an African American mother and slave. Where might it lead you?

________________________

With your help, InPRINT would like to run a follow-up to this column. We’d like to hear from you about your experiences reading a story by someone representing a point of reference or view outside your box. Better still, go out and get such a book now. Take some action to broaden your horizons, and then tell us about it. You can reach us at InPRINT@ecosalon.com.

Editor’s note: News & Culture contributor Scott Adelson’s biweekly column, InPRINT, reviews and discusses books new and old, as well as examines issues in publishing. You can reach him at InPRINT@ecosalon.com.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

InPRINT: Once Upon a Time: Great Historical Fiction – 1 Genre, 10 Novel, 5 Centuries

InPRINT: John Irving is Angry – Again.

InPRINT: You Want Erotic? The Countless Shades of Anaïs Nin

InPRINT: Albert Camus and the Biggest Question of All

InPRINT: Gatsby, Paradise and the 1% – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Pre-Occupation

Top image: cliff1066TM

The post InPRINT: A Novel Challenge – Take Action and Read Outside Your Box appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnHigh fives, ladies, we’re the fixer-upper gender!

In light of the recent release of the Tush Tickler, your guide to “analplay adventures for everybooty,” you might be tempted to think there’s no personal development book under the sun left to be published, what with books being published where the sun don’t shine. You would think wrong. There are mines, rich veins, whole mountaintops of self help publishing left to be penetrated for our betterment. And isn’t that what it’s all about, ladies? Less thinking wrong, less thinking generally, more betterment?

They say print is dead. This simply isn’t true, because we have women, and as long as we have women, we will think of new books to improve them. Just check out these hot new self help titles for 2012!*

Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned From My Dental Hygienist. Everything

“Some people say cleanliness is next to godliness. Some people also say pearly whites are next to pearly gates.” – Fox News

Raising Self Esteem by Broadcasting Everything Wrong With Yourself in Social Media

“Stunningly original approach to self help. Guaranteed to be a smash hit. Step aside, 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Move over, The Secret. Sure to be an instant classic.” – Kirkus Book Reviews

Life Without Contraception in This Country

“A brilliant guide for the suddenly lesbian.” –  San Francisco Chronicle

Just Keep Telling Yourself It’s Not Personal, and Other Coping Techniques for Losers

“Denial is not to be stamped out, but amplified, explains this sage and insightful personal development primer that is the best thing I’ve seen yet at this low paying self help book review job I absolutely adore and vastly prefer to writing my novel.” – Internet Book Reviews Reviews of Books Best Book Reviews Online Internet Resource for Book Reviews Win Free Money, a subsidiary of Demand Media

If You Could Only Be Perfect!

“For the adult child who longs for the odd comfort of daily remonstrations at the hands of a tyrannical parent, this cruel, critical, fault-finding, nagging book is a lifeline nearly as judgmental as Mom herself, and certainly as disappointed as the Baby Jesus. The accompanying photo album for holding embarrassing childhood photographs to show prospective suitors is a thoughtful touch from the publisher, which clearly spared no expense in the creative development and packaging of this timely title. Now, more than ever, we need self-loathing.” – Brigham Young University Press

So He Left You for a 25-Year-Old She Probably Squeaks, and Other Crass Koans to Help You Feel Less Bitter About Being 50 and Divorced with a Credit Rating Shot to Hell Thanks to That Jerk Who Is So Immature Even the Therapist Despises Him Especially After She Slept with Him Because He’s Not Even Good in Bed! I Know!

“The author holds a canny grasp on the marriage zeitgeist, which is to say, the divorce zeitgeist.” – the Guardian

The Art of the Fake Orgasm

“A helpful how-to for pretending to reach climax during sexual intercourse, this delightful guide is full of creative tips for faking orgasm, along with dozens of real stories from women – and men – of all walks of life. This work would have been enhanced by the inclusion of expert insights from health professionals instead of the author’s friends. Still, a useful book for those interested in mastery of fake orgasms.” – Publishers Weekly

Is It Just Me or Does Nonviolent Communication Feel Like Suffocating Inside Sweaty Flannel Sheets?

“That’s not the actual title, but it should be! The NVC Myth: My Years of Suffering Through the Most Annoying Form of Communication on Earth really nails it. I knew exactly what the author meant the second I saw the book. For the stage five clinger not wanting the relationship to end and therefore having difficulty accepting the other party’s lack of interest, NVC must be a thrilling godsend, a therapeutically validated method for maintaining the connection for as long as humanly possible. For the party who isn’t the control freak endowed with epic levels of neurotic insecurity, NVC feels pretty much like you’re still dating the person only this time completely against your will.” – Amazon buyer itsworsethanherpes

How to Stop Beating Yourself Up for Misplacing the Keys for the Seven Millionth Time Today in One Easy Step Which We’ll Just Put in the Title: Anytime You Lose Something It Will Always Be Wherever You Left It, Except if There’s an Earthquake Then It Might Not Be Right Exactly Where You Left It But Probably Still Pretty Close By

“Though the entire contents of the book are on the cover, the intrepid reader or average New Yorker will soon grasp the many layers of this fundamental truism of life resting poetically within a simplistic single line. At once simple and nuanced, by turns pithy and existential, at once hilarious and brutal, by turns banal and profound, at once postmodern and tragic, by turns brisk and solemn, at once boring and random, by turns witty and frank, at once silly and bold, by turns like a girl wrote it and intelligent, at once riveting and poignant, by turns refreshing and compelling, this book is a triumph, an opus, a masterpiece, a tour de force. Deeply present. Deeply personal. Deeply provocative. Deeply shallow, while being deep in a shallow way. A Midwestern sensibility delicately permeates this experimental title, which is paradoxical in a richly ironic sense, reminiscent of the very best early work of Dave Eggars but also the biting disgust of a slightly older, slightly puffier Jonathan Franzen; both quiet like DeLillo and noisy like Safran Foer, if they were beverages. The book for the times, the book of the times, the book and the times.” –  The New York Times Book Review

What To Do About Your Wide Set Cleavage

“Wide set cleavage is a problem most women have, though many simply don’t realize it. This step-by-step guide takes the reader from DIY all the way to surgery, with scaffolding diagrams, resources, and plenty of tips for each stage of the journey to more attractive breasts.” – Allure

We need so much help. So much.

This is the latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life.

*Note: These are not actual books nor actual reviews.

Image: quinn.anya

The post The Insider’s Guide to Life: 10 New Self Help Titles You Don’t Want to Miss appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnRead and sustain.

In the land of the giants, it’s sometimes hard to get noticed. Indeed, mammoth publishing houses dominate our well-read skyline. They command the windows and displays of what’s left of nation’s bookstores, are evident in every push communication from Amazon and other online behemoths, and monopolize the bestseller list. This isn’t to say that Random House, Penguin Group, HarperCollins, et al, are not putting out some beautiful and important titles, but feeding the profit beast can certainly divert resources from the “less likely to’s” when it comes to both publishing and promotion.

Maybe by chance, or maybe not, given large publishers’ cash-back-first approach, but of the books I’ve read this month, two of the finest standouts are from small, independent presses – Coffee House Press and Red Lemonade. This isn’t to say that Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station and Vanessa Veselka’s Zazen (both released in 2011) haven’t received critical kudos. But for those who haven’t been alerted to them due to a lack of marketing, these two very different books are great reads as well as exciting portents of what’s on the horizon for American fiction; both are their respective author’s debut novels.

Leaving the Atocha Station, by Ben Lerner

Adam Gordon is a young American poet who has earned a prestigious fellowship in Spain, where we find him negotiating expatriate life, hopelessly “other” while at the same time blending in in ways a mere tourist could never hope for. He’s working on an amorphous multiphased “project” designed to explore a link between poetry and politics and history that may or may not make sense, may or may not come to fruition and, indeed, may or may not even exist. He’s erratic, arrogant, addicted and often fraudulent; clinically, in fact, he’s a little off. Still, he has his charm, which is a good thing, because in Leaving the Atocha Station (Coffee House Press) we spend some quality, thoughtful, often frantic time inside Gordon’s head exploring “the absence of profundity” in favor of observations that – at the expense of what might be considered a traditional plot – explore the relationships between perception, truth, reality and communication.

Gordon’s storyline bounces back and forth from the mundane to the profound. It’s always interesting, sometimes pathetic, often morally challenging and just as often funny. Unlike some postmodern gymnasts, Lerner connects the dots between thought and prose experiments and a character’s experience in a way that leaves us entertained, at times upset and, in the end, moved. This connection represents a critical vein in modern American fiction that Lerner taps into and drives forward. His Adam Gordon is a sad, yet in some ways hopeful character for our frenetic world.

Zazen, by Vanessa Veselka

Unlike Lerner’s effort, Vaenessa Veselka’s Zazen (Red Lemonade) dives bravely into plot, with the author’s gymnastics reserved for language that soars and swirls in waves, reminiscent at times of Thomas Pynchon at his most accessible and Tom Robbins at his most fanciful. Vaselka’s book is, however, hardly derivative. Della Mylinek, a recent paleontology graduate, grinds away at life in the near-future (perhaps) in Portland, Oregon. It’s a dystopian world with America on the decline, trudging from war to war as what could be the sons and daughters of the Occupy movement have a choice to make: stick it out and fight the power, or skip country for third-world safety, away from the bombs and strip malls that equally disrupt the bleak horizon. Pick your existential poison, be it Hamlet or the Clash, and cue “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”

Her degree behind her, Della is apparently damaged, given to snark, and serving up tofu in a vegan restaurant called Rise Up Singing. Tickets out of town in hand, she’s unable to make up her mind on the Big Questions as she navigates the impact of her troubled past. Veselka’s hard-driving storyline is populated by dyed-colorful characters weaving their way through a hopelessly grey landscape, marching into events ranging from mass funerals and protests to orgies to down-on-the-farm family gatherings. Everything in Zazen is radically charged: language, plot and subject matter. It is barren and beautiful, and deeply unnerving – a modern story for our modern times.

Editor’s note: News & Culture contributor Scott Adelson‘s biweekly feature, InPRINT, will review and discuss books new and old, as well as examine issues in publishing.

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Book ‘Em: 10 Best Reads from 2011

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From Chick Lit to Victim Books: Problems With The Women’s Book Club

Main image: purdman1

The post InPRINT: Small Presses, Big Fiction – 2 Books You Shouldn’t Miss appeared first on EcoSalon.