Cargo Community - Forum

Opinions on Scottish Literature?

Scottish publishing doesn't specifically interest me. It's a hotchpotch of companies that all have the same interest-money-and I'd be highly surprised if many other people on this site care that much about it. All of you at Cargo seem to focus constantly on it like it's a mainstream thing but it really isn't. Lay off it, please.

I was pissed off when Cannongate killed off Rebel Inc. They published
some top quality work. Bukowski, Brautigan, Fante, Trocchi, Hamsun etc.

I know Cannongate now print a lot of these same authors but it's not
the same. With a Rebel Inc book you were always guaranteed something
away from the mainstream.

peshwarinam
Scottish publishing doesn't specifically interest me. It's a hotchpotch of companies that all have the same interest-money-and I'd be highly surprised if many other people on this site care that much about it. All of you at Cargo seem to focus constantly on it like it's a mainstream thing but it really isn't. Lay off it, please.

Now, I'm not an expert on the publishing industry, but isn't it ALL a "hotchpotch of companies that all have the same interest - money"? Maybe you aren't understanding the point of Cargo. We aren't pretending it IS mainstream. What Cargo is trying to do is give a chance for new Scottish talent to be recognised, and I think that that is a very respectable thing. And lets be fair. Cargo IS a Scottish publishing company. What else are they going to focus constantly on? The air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? I somewhat doubt it.

when are new cargo books coming out?

Yes, but the point is that we all love and are fascinated with books-not publishing. I like fishfingers but I don't care how Morrison's got them there.

That was directed to Liam_Davies.

Nick
I was pissed off when Cannongate killed off Rebel Inc. They published
some top quality work. Bukowski, Brautigan, Fante, Trocchi, Hamsun etc.

I know Cannongate now print a lot of these same authors but it's not
the same. With a Rebel Inc book you were always guaranteed something
away from the mainstream.

Apart from Bukowski, all the other authors you mention are very hard to find new. Richard Brautigan basically has one book in print. The rest are all old, second hand sold as new on amazon etc.
The thing with Canongate is that once you have an author that not only wins the Booker, but ends up being the highest selling Booker winner ever - and that is saying something - it's natural you get pulled away from what got you there. It'd be unfair to call them lucky for getting Life of Pi; lucky would have been then printing the manuscript by mistake and accidentally mailing it to the Booker judges. However, their catalogues are very focussed on foreign/translated writers now. It's inevitable Scottish ones get left behind.

As far as caring about 'Scottish publishing', I guess it's the same way some people discuss record labels or DVD imprints. I know it doesn't impress or interest others, but I don't think you can deny Scottish literature is feeling stale these days.
It's because the game has changed.

With the glut of creative writing courses up and down the land, there are more eager youngsters desperate to 'get published'. My contention with this, is why do they want it? Is it purely for the act of getting published, or is it because of that throb Nabokov used to talk about that, that itch in your spin that won't let your story go away; it demands your attention, and then an audience. It's about feeling like you have something to say. It doesn't have to have a political or cultural agenda, as Cancer Party undoubtedly is, but as long it seeks a style, or a voice. Those two elements are sadly lacking.

I'd also like to see someone stand up and affirm not only that they want to be the best, but think they are the best. If you don't, then I really believe you should go home. Now it's not about denegrating others, or not enjoying the many other talents out there, but to aspire to get up there. That's where Scottish writers need to get to.

Great literature doesn't sulk in the corner of the room. It comes and gets you and throws you down the stairs, then rips your clothes off and ravishes you right there on the carpet. It doesn't give a shit if your knees are burning, it just wants to hear you scream out in an agony of pleasure (sic). We need literature that's going to give you a good seeing to.
At the moment, there's too much tentative finger banging in the dark going on.

Prime example would be Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis. Here's a guy that writes his first novel in years that starts with a 50 page autobiography, then the rest about a character called Bret Easton Ellis. Say what you want about the sub-Dean Koontz mess that ensued after the halfway stage, but the perceived narcissism of the pretence had nothing to do with that. I would say there is simply not a writer in Britain that would dare to try something like that. Maybe only Martin Amis or Will Self.

I've said it before, but Scotland really does have a problem with culture and ambition.

Andrew,

Is that you declaring you're the best?

I think you're right though, we need writers who will get in your face and say 'I am awesome, read my book and quiver at my genius!' We need more rock n roll and the mayhem that goes with it!!

As for a lot of new writing it seems that there are good writers out there but with nothing original to say. Just the same old boring shit that you've read a thousand times before. I'm a member of an online writing community (www.greatwriting.co.uk - In case you were interested) and there are many talented writers on there but few with anything worthwhile to write about and it's annoying as hell(mainly cause I can't write that well!).

Cancer Party was all the better because it was angry, fucked up and like nothing I'd read in years, I can see why it was compared to Trainspotting. So if Cancer party Grabs you by the balls then will your next one rip them right off? (not sure I want to be around when that mess ensues!)

Nick

P.s. Loved the implication that Scottish literature is just 'fingerbanging in the dark'!!

Nick, interesting you bring up this subject of being the 'best'.
I was talking with a friend at Discombobulate tonight about why this apparently matters to me. It's more that in striving to try and be 'the best', you find the greatest level of truth, because if you don't try, then you won't get there. That seems fairly obvious to me. I don't mean through implication that I am 'the best' writer around; that's silly. And arrogant. What I do believe, though, is that in time I could be, and I'll at least try. I can't understand why anyone would be in this game if they weren't striving for that. It doesn't mean you have to think everything you read on the way up there is shit, but analyse it, and see how you can better it.

I don't think my next novel, The Immaculate Heart, will rip your balls right off. I think it will suprise your balls, and make them recoil a bit. In many ways it's darker than Cancer Party, but it comes wrapped in a modern-day Matilda story, and a failed love affair from 1940s. It's like dousing a kid's blanket in cyanide: it still looks nice and warm from a distance.

But I'm glad that some swagger is appreciated. I've always said that I respect the reader over everything else; which is why I refuse to give them what they think they want. They have to trust that the writer is going to take them to demented, excrutiating, and transcendent places, without the fear of what that will be like.
Good writing is like plumbing: just making connections. You've got to get your hands dirty sometimes, though.