Applause: Aram Saroyan

STARTING OUT IN THE SIXTIES: Selected Essays by Aram Saroyan (Kindle edition)

Here is a wonderful collection of essays by the author of Genesis Angels, which I consider the best book ever written about the Beat generation. My writing career started out in the sixties, too, and hence I readily identify with much written by Saroyan about the changing literary landscape, mostly to the detriment of serious writers. 

These changes are widespread through all the arts. In my screenwriting class I show my students a documentary called "The Monster That Ate Hollywood," which focuses on changes in the film industry, and to screenwriters, after the buyout of film studios by huge multinational media corporations. The same thing happened in publishing. As a result, family-run businesses by book lovers and film lovers became subsidiaries run by corporate VPs with no book or film background. The arts became a severe bottom line business.

In an MFA program in the sixties, I never met a single writer who was working on a story about vampires. Many of my students seem to want to write about nothing else. "Literary novel" was a badge of honor, not the pejorative term it is today. Saroyan writes:

elimination of the mid list book is, I think, a euphemism for the elimination of literature itself as a part of our mainstream culture. There are, of course, many reasons why

Saroyan talks frankly about his writing career in the essays that dominate the focus here. I didn't realize Genesis Angels was trashed by some "heavyweight" reviewers (idiots!). But there is much more to relish, especially his reflections on well known writers and artists he's known over the years. It's a versatile collection well worth your time.