Editors Forsaking Fiction

Rachel Donadio has an interesting essay in the New York Times about the de-emphasis of short fiction at several of the form's former champions: The Atlantic, Esquire, The Paris Review and others.

'We're living in a newsy time,'' (Philip) Gourevitch (editor of The Paris Review) said. ''There's an intense emphasis on topicality that also happens to coincide with a time when fiction is not particularly topical.''

"I think people seem to feel more comfortable with nonfiction,'' said Adrienne Miller, a novelist and the literary editor of Esquire. ''The tragic theme here is that literary fiction has very limited cultural currency now. Fewer and fewer people seem to believe fiction is still essential for our emotional and intellectual survival.''

Besides the fact that Miller (author of the well-received The Coast of Akron) begs the question of why--in the face of an indifferent reading public--she bothers writing novels, both quotations remind me of network television executives who bemoan the death of the sitcom while simulataneously shoving twenty new reality shows onto their fall lineup, saying that reality shows are what people want to watch right now. No, they don't, which is why most reality shows--other than blockbusters like The Apprentice and Survivor--quietly fail. (Anyone see The Contender last week? Anyone?)

While noting that nonfiction titles typically sell well, Donadio adds:

the nonfiction best-seller list is well stocked with books that have the shelf life of skim milk. They may be good for the next quarter's earnings, but they probably won't do wonders for the all-important backlist, the books kept in print over the years because they continue to sell.

Nonfiction is topical, and when the topic fades from the public's attention so does the marketability of those titles. Case in point: the numerous Wall-Street-as-ethical-cesspool books from the early 90s (The Predator's Ball, The Ga-Ga Years, Liar's Poker etc.) which sit in boxes in my attic, after failing to sell for $2 on eBay. It's fiction that has staying power, remaining in the public's consciousness decades longer than last week's then-timely essay on the current state of Mideast politics.

''In recent years we have found that a certain kind of reporting--long-form narrative reporting--has proved to be of enormous value...in making sense of a complicated and fractious world,'' Cullen Murphy, the (Atlantic's) departing editor, wrote in an e-mail message.

James Fallows' and William Langewiesche's Atlantic pieces do exactly that...for the first three pages, anyway. Then my eyes glaze over at the prospect of reading their last twenty-six pages of dense prose. Let's face it--I'm not 22 years old, single and utterly alone any more, and I don't have the time or the enthusiasm to read this sort of nonfiction epic. I want to read both imaginative, well-written short fiction and thoughtful, concise nonfiction and essays. Which is why I've drifted away from the mainstream magazines and toward better-balanced independents like The Sun, Another Chicago Magazine, Barrelhouse and several other all-fiction journals.

Murphy, Gourevitch and Miller are of course entitled to direct their magazines in any direction they wish. But in doing so, they've lost my readership, as well as many others who feel the same way as I do. These influential editors have the power to ensure that short fiction remains vital and relevant in today's society, but have willfully declined to do so. As they implicitly announce the slow death of short fiction, their own guilty hands tremble on the switch of the respirator.