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April 22, 2005

The Village Voice takes an analytical look at Lit Bloggers, surveying the fresh ethical questions they face:

"Literati are increasingly turning to the blogs for discussion, gossip, analysis, and a sense of community. Inevitably, publishers have noticed the power of these informal networks to generate word-of-mouth buzz—the holy grail of marketing—and are looking for ways to harness it. In turn, many bloggerati are on the verge of becoming that contradiction in terms, the professional enthusiast. So what happens now, when these amateurs are faced with the chance to wield influence and become insiders? . . .

We read the best of the litblogs for the way they sift through the media ether, make interesting juxtapositions, provoke intelligent conversation, and connect lesser-known writers with an eager audience. In an era when books have been pushed to the margins of the cultural conversation, maybe that's more than enough. But as Lipsyte warned in a recent e-mail to Sarvas, bloggers "need to remember the eternal draw, too: a cranky individual with smart idiosyncratic tastes and a good bullshit detector."

Posted by Rachel at April 22, 2005 02:22 PM

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