<rant style=“subject: humanity; validity: slightly catastrophizing but based in reality;”>
Just went to Mission Valley Borders to comfort friends who work there. This morning, driving past, there must have been 100 vultures crowding the door. Just now there were hundreds and hundreds of them, the cashier line going all the way to the rear of the store and back to the front, almost every shopper with armloads of stationery and mass-market crap, DVDs and gift books.…
Where were all you fuckers before?!? When every bookstore is closed and Walmart is our only browsing venue outside of Amazon’s stunted “Look Inside” feature, well, may you and your children stew in your under-read stupidity. Go ahead and join Sarah and Michelle in the ranks of library-devaluing “academic” (read: people with more than a high school education) haters, you pathetic stooges and unquestioning Fox news absorbers! Fuck you all!
[UPDATE]
It gets better! I walked back to my car, taking pains not to be hit in the parking lot by the 40 or 50 endlessly circling cars. When I arrived at mine, two women, both intent on taking my spot, started to inch up so as not to lose the spot to the other. By the time I started backing out, they were staring at each other, both so close to my car that I could no longer leave. I pulled back in to the spot (had I not had to return to work, I’d have camped there all day just to spite their sorry bitch asses), honked and waited. One of them finally backed up, and after I left, she lost the spot to the other lady, who she proceeded to park in with her white SUV, blocking all other cars from getting past. I only just barely saw the beginning of their altercation in my rear-view as I got the feck out.
My ongoing attempt to not hate people, and to cultivate compassion, is dealt serious setbacks by incidents like this. What I should be thinking is “May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,” but instead I am inwardly chanting “May all beings who have caused suffering suffer themselves. May your cars be dinged, may you be viciously ticketed by under-quota cops so that the books you purchase today cost you three times as much as if you’d bought them from a book-and-mortar before it died.” And then I feel ugly and bad for thinking ugly and bad things. How come I have to have existential guilt, and none of those assholes do? It isn’t fair!
</rant>
<tears style=“frustration: high; despair:high;”>
Just so I don’t get jumped on, I do understand that not everyone who shopped today at Borders was a Tea Party member, and not all Tea-Baggers are “library-devaluing academic haters” or “pathetic stooges and unquestioning Fox news absorbers”, I will not deny that the over-funding of pro sports and military, and underfunding of schools and libraries in this right-wing town (Yes, yes, San Diego is not a Blue city, much to my chagrin) do reflect the same certain “I’ll get mine, and you can go screw yourself” attitude of many of the Baggers I have met. If I have offended, I apologize. I am able to see gray areas most of the time.
Yes, the big chain is closing (usually this makes you happy, does it not?).. It also means that some portion of the population will be moved back into the mom-n-pop stores. Hopefully the increased sales can help support growth of some of those stores and they can hire some who were displaced. Don’t forget, the glass sometimes is half full too.
I understand the sentiment, and I’m not a fan of the MMPB format myself, but it seemed that your comment was more along the lines of “genre books are crap,” which is more than a little classist and ignorant. If that was not what you meant, then disregard this.
If it was, I encourage you to study the publishing industry in the twentieth century when pulp fiction and dime market novels were introduced — the mere fact that they were more affordable than ‘literary’ hardcovers caused outrage among the hoi polloi. Another point to consider is that the vast majority of ‘literary fiction’ is written through the lens of the white, male, straight, cis-gendered, Christian, upper– or middle-class gaze, and the few times that it is not, the publishers have usually chosen it because it caters to that gaze.
Also, anyone can be an asshole. There are just more of them in the conservative parties in general.
You know, probably the only reason the Buddha never got into an argument about whose parking spot it was, is that daddy payed a driver to do it for him. (I’m actually not kidding.) You’re wonderful to encourage your own peaceful reaction, but hey, sometimes the everyday grind gets us all a little grumpy.
Daddy probably also payed [sic] someone to check his grammar.
Beth:
It was not meant to be a dig at genre fiction, although it does reflect upon it a bit. I am a fan of genre fiction — or, rather, I do not make my own reading choices based upon genre. I am a quality whore. To be honest, I think that the phrase “genre fiction” really needs to go away, as genres are slowly melting into each other, as well as into “mainstream” fiction (thank Dog). As far as the classically defined genres go, however, I will admit to a bias of sorts. I think that genre fiction, like poetry written in strict form and music composed to sit neatly in its specific genre, is easier to write — given that most of the form and structure is constrained by the definitions of that genre — but harder to write well. While the art-to-tripe ratio may be no different in the romance or sci-fi sections of the bookstore than in the straight fiction section, I believe the degree of badness — or at least of predictability of story and character — certainly is. I am a huge fan of Le Guin, of Willis and Gaiman, of Banks and Mieville and King and McCall-Smith and Peters/Pargeter. Therein lie well-built worlds, finely-crafted tales, characters by whom I am moved in many directions, and sometimes enough predictability to foster a comforting familiarity. However, the multiple book store walls of Star Wars and * Realm serials and team-written bodice-rippers with titles that all fit the [love-related noun]‘s [adjective] [abstract noun] pattern sit as proof of the ease of production that results from their framework being strictly given. That having been said, Grisham is just as big a criminal in this arena as anyone else, as are many others (that I am too under-caffeinated to pull out of my brain at the moment)… No, I am a firm believer that there is crap everywhere, but brilliance to be found everywhere as well, tho some mines require blasting techniques where others may only require a pick and some time and effort. Why did I use MMPB in my list as tho it were a swear, then? That was probably a bit snobby, I’ll admit, but the preponderance of romance novels — in armloads of 5 to 10 — I saw in line made me judge-ish. I’ve got a bit of assholery in me, it seems.
Also, I agree that assholes are everywhere, but it takes a devotion to a black-and-white worldview to truly hone the skill. :)
Aaron:
You are right in that I would normally root for the mom-and-pop underdogs, and I do like the idea that Borders’ downfall might bring them back to a more prominent position, but despite shopping at them as often as was possible, far too many of them have already closed. Borders’ death will not be enough — nor was it soon enough — to make a difference. Also, the MV Borders had a lot of staff who were true “booksellers”, who cared, who knew their shit. I mourn for them, and hope that they can find work. Lastly, my anger the other day was mostly at the narrow-mindedness of the bazillion shoppers who were there solely to save a buck, and were painfully rude — yes, the majority of them! — in the process. The store was a shambles by noon, there were harsh words about what was in stock, they shoved and evil-eyed each other, and the parking lot was downright dangerous. I just got worked up because I hate being angry at people (believe it or not), and confrontation and rudeness makes me unbearably sad. They were like looters after the fire rather than shoppers before the fire, it seemed to me.
Gabe:
While I am more than fine with general rage, I do not do well being angry at specific persons (other than myself). I am working on it. *hug* Thank you for being kind to me when I cannot be. And I know that, as a kid, the Buddha was a bit of a spoiled, rich hipster, but he overcame. As far as payeing goes, how could a kid with a silent “dh” in his name possible know how to spell?