Author: newpoplit

Against Close Reading

Rant

THE A.I. CHALLENGE: ACT, REACT, OR FREEZE

CURRENT literary ideology at the highest levels services not the needs of the art, but of college English departments. Usually coming from former English majors afraid to challenge the memory of their professors. Unfortunately, that description includes our nation’s literary critics. Those who via essays and reviews determine the direction of the art.

Their current thing: Close Reading. I haven’t yet read any of the new books on the topic– though I plan to when I get a few days to devote to it. Or weeks, or whatever investment in time and commitment is required. Sounds like a challenge. I’ve seen close reading compared to close listening in the music field, a technique engaged in by music students, usually at high-priced academies, particularly classical music students. My personal opinion about close listening is that at best it’s beside the point. As a genre, classical music has remained static for sixty years. (Ever since close listening began?) During that period, recorded and performed music exploded in popularity and importance, a direct result of the fusion of various strands of roots music into rock n roll and its many offshoots. Pure cultural energy which morphed into what the Beatles described as “intelligent pop,” leaving the museum version of music far behind. The lesson: Top-down direction of culture and art doesn’t work. Culture is organic: from the people up.

If literary mandarins truly believe they can increase literature’s role in American culture through “close reading,” I can only say, “Good luck!”

Not that that’s their goal. In the face of an increased AI botbook assault, close reading is a strategy geared toward mere survival. Retreating within the literary castle and pulling up the drawbridge. Or within a monastery, as if they were medieval monks preserving ancient scrolls.

Writers, editors and publishers can do better! At New Pop Lit we’ve gone on the attack. We were among the first to oppose the entry of AI writing and art into the literary realm. First, with a petition begun in March, 2023. (More urgent now than then. Please sign if you have not already done so.) Second, with my report at the Lit Mag News Substack in September 2023.

RELEVANCE AND INTELLIGENCE

Our two most recent feature fiction offerings express both necessary objectives: relevance and intelligence. Currently “Top of the Pop” at this site is a short tale about the madness of AI: “Ghost In the Machine” by Andie Weber. All about the purpose and sole principle of an AI tech company: making money! Our featured story before that, “Crypto” by Jonathan Stone, is also as topical as can be, about a young investing genius and his aloof personality.

(ALSO, don’t forget our Fast Pop Lit site, where we’ll be placing more of our effort once we catch up on things. Currently we’re featuring there a terrific poem by John Zedolik, “Ubi Est?” Or, “Where Is It?”— fitting our ongoing theme of societal loss and change which is all-too relentlessly– ruthlessly– accelerating.)

THE POINT of this post is this is no time for writers to bury their heads in the sand. Not when masses of people, here in America and around the world, are being displaced, in a variety of ways. Writers– novelists, poets and playwrights– have traditionally been the conscience of civilization. If not us, who else?

Literary change is coming.

-Karl Wenclas, Editor

Dystopian Fiction, Dystopian Life

Pop Lit Fiction

A NEW SHORT STORY ABOUT A.I.

Dystopian fiction has been around a long time– at least since Mary Shelley’s still timely 1818 novel Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. The difference between her world and ours is that we now find ourselves living in a full-on dystopia, in which we’re losing the distinction between what’s real and not-real, human and not-human. It’s likely to become worse, as tech moguls and venture capitalists are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI companies and AI devices– ever more dreamed-up money-grab gimmicks to separate the gullible from their bucks. After all, the AI wave needs to be monetized. Someone needs to pay for it. That targeted someone being YOU. Us. All of us.

ON THAT happy note we present a new short story about one such company and consumer: “Ghost In the Machine” by Andie Weber. It’s fiction. Sure it is.

We hope you like it!

C. Ryan: Yeah, now I’m speaking your language. And AfterLife is the hottest new word in profits. This isn’t just your average chatbot, it’s bigger, better, and way more lucrative—and with the projections our finance department has put together, I can assure you this money-making snowball isn’t going to stop rolling anytime soon.

The Future of Fiction?

News

THIS QUESTION is asked by Valerie Stivers in a new column at Compact Magazine— in which New Pop Lit and its editor are mentioned. The topic? What Stivers calls “Rebellion Lit”– which really means, in the context she uses the term, those writers and literary projects who believe the literary game– the art, how it’s produced and how it’s marketed– needs to radically change.

Stivers lauds the ambition but is skeptical of the ability of those mentioned to achieve the objective. Speaking only for this project– possibly the others– our chief focus at this point is simply to bust open the door and break literature and creative writing out of its stultifying box. To point a direction– and hope others will follow. The idea, first, is to begin moving. Attempting new ideas, as we’ve been doing, whether the idea is multi-dimensional writing, or fiction and poetry involved in the here-and-now. Fortunately(?) some other rebellious literary person (John Pistelli) was used by Stivers as example of the failure to fully embody the New. Which would be like famed jazz drummer Buddy Rich’s remark in 1956 about Elvis Presley and his rockabilly combo that “These guys can’t even play their instruments!” Within a few years, rock music entered new realms of creativity and popularity, while hyper-skilled Buddy Rich was forgotten.

SIMULTANEOUS to these contentions, we posted a day-late “May Day” column of our own at our colorful Fast Pop Lit site, here, about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novella May Day— a long-ago work which itself might answer questions raised by Valerie Stivers’ column. Does it? If you have thoughts on this or related matters, let us know!

More 2025 Fiction

Pop Lit Fiction

What should 2025 fiction– of the here and now– look like?

COULD it capture today’s chaotically volatile up-and-down economy and markets? The “let’s make a buck” societal mindset? The culmination of a tech wave of ambitious innovators and hustlers eager to make fortunes? Who are these guys? Have any writers captured the personality and/or mystery of them?

Well, yes– in our new feature short story, “Crypto” by Jonathan Stone, one of the most intelligent short story writers around.

NOT ONLY is it a glimpse of a unique moment of history– this moment– it’s an excellent story, about the pursuit of a kind of excellence. We’re sure you’ll agree when you read it!

Nine figures doesn’t happen every day, but for Mark, its pathway is utterly unsurprising – money that comes from money. Ahmet’s eight figures is inherently far stranger – produced from nothing but an idea, walked into the right receptive investor at the right market moment. When it came time to transfer proceeds – required distributions per the fund charter, and then unloading into cash equivalents when they all dumped their shares – Mark had overseen the allocation to Ahmet’s brokerage account. A deposit requiring phone calls and letters with signatories. Eight figures in a fell swoop. The American dream, on steroids. Or better yet, hallucinogens.

Literature As News

Pop Lit Fiction

LET’S GET RELEVANT!

“Literature is news that stays news.”
-Ezra Pound

Except writers today aren’t even trying to get the first part right. To make fiction and poetry a vibrant part of today’s debates. IF literature is to survive and thrive in this time of new technologies, it needs to become part of the cultural conversation. Literature carries into this battle unique assets: its ability to not only describe everything happening, supplemented by the reader’s own experiences and memories– without the expense and apparatus of television and movies– but also to move inside the heads of people, to understand them and to show what they’re feeling and thinking. Because writing consists of condensed information– still the quickest, most efficient and least expensive way of communicating knowledge (letters and words a sophisticated data network)– it can address current issues and events quickly. To compete in this hyper-noisy age it needs to address the world quickly, in compelling, insightful and knowledgeable ways. Which we attempt to do in our new feature story, “The Advisor” by New Pop Lit editor Karl Wenclas. We hope you read it.

Allison noted the room’s evident props. Paintings of several past presidents, prominently displayed. The current president had added his own pagan touches– garish gold statuary. In-your-face exhibits of his well-known lack of taste. Allison realized that for the Advisor, the President was himself a prop. Allison by now knew the Advisor’s worldview– he admired the orange man, but only as a historical relic. As if P.T. Barnum or Colonel Tom Parker were in the room. A cutting-edge businessman for his time– master salesman– but his time had passed.

ALSO: Speaking of fiction, we have a flash fiction piece– about an overturned salt truck and other things– by the one-and-only M.C. Schmidt now up at our Fast Pop Lit site. The title: “Mandala.” How is that topical, you ask? Well, here in Michigan it snowed yesterday. Talk about good timing!

The Three-Dimensional World

Pop Lit Fiction

MULTIPLE VIEWPOINT FICTION

TODAY we offer a multiple viewpoint story, “The Museum of Jeremy’s Summer” by Andrea Donderi. Why do we like multiple viewpoints? Because it’s a way to present a more rounded, three-dimensional view of reality. We’re all raised in two-dimensional corridors where everything is a linear progression. Grades, schools, hierarchies. Stepping ever onward, farther, faster, on treadmills like hamsters. Like our mad technocratic society. “Progress.” Culminating in humanoid robots and AI devices doing our thinking for us. The writer’s task is to pause for a moment to address where we’re at, describing the people and world around us. Which Andrea well does.

ABOUT our new story: It’s subtle, the kind of artistic work which sneaks up on you, gradually immersing you into the narrative, its setting and characters, then suddenly. . . Impact! We know you’ll like it.

There’s something about how Christabel drives, slow, crouching over the wheel, her foot probably hovering on top of the brake —such a contrast with her crisp city linen clothes and sleek dark hair and that English voice of hers. And the way she and Jeremy keep glancing over at each other, just to check that everything’s okay. What kind of guy stays away all summer from a woman like Christabel and a kid like Jeremy? An English guy, evidently. Name of Adrian.

ON OTHER FRONTS

WE’RE SERIOUS about getting our Open Mic feature going again. See our latest post at it– “Life Cycle” by Kyle Van Horn— one more of the many new literary talents out there.

On American Dreams

Pop Lit Fiction

MOST AMERICANS still believe in the Dream, or want to believe in it. Often difficult to, given rising costs, a widening wealth gap, and of course contentious politics. Amid it all, the American Dream remains. People grasp for any semblance of it– even illusory caricatures of the Dream like crypto coins and other gimmicks.

Where we live, downriver from Detroit, we see and hear expressions of the American Dream. Two young fast food workers opening their own hamburger stand, for instance. Or the many immigrants– those most put-upon persons at the moment– mostly from Mexico and the Mideast running sixteen-hour food trucks on street corners as prelude, they hope, to the real thing. In so doing, mimicking what immigrants to America have done over the decades (a great novel about this: City for Conquest by Aben Kandel, written in 1936) while adding value and variety to beaten-down neighborhoods. America was once a beacon, a welcome mat for ambitious hustlers of every stripe. Much of what we know today as America, economically and culturally, was due to them. We here in our little pop-lit world believe America can still be that beacon– and not open solely to those who can pay a five-million dollar “gold card” fee!

WHICH BRINGS US to our new feature short story, “Fame and Fortune” by Alan Swyer, about two cousins pursuing their own ambitious dream in California, the Golden State. (Which has itself been put upon, by nature, of late.) It’s kind of a Cinderella story, capturing those quintessentially American qualities of ambition, creativity and opportunity. Needed reading.

We hope you enjoy it!

By the time he was alone in Steve’s guest room, Jeff’s head was spinning. Growing up, he’d always revered his older cousin, who had long served as a role model. It was due to Steve that Jeff became passionate about the Red Sox and Celtics. And, though not gifted athletically, he had worked hard enough to overlap with his older cousin for a year on their high school baseball team. Then, after following Steve’s path through Brown and B.U. Med School, Jeff chose to specialize in pediatrics once Steve suggested that they eventually form a practice together. 

Yet suddenly he couldn’t help but wonder what in the world he’d gotten himself into. 

Artistic Focus

spoken word

Amid the ongoing chaos and struggles of life, how does any arts project maintain a semblance of momentum?

For us, as much as possible we’ve begun attempting to filter out media/social media noise and stick to our ambitious plan. We’re taking small– some might say incremental– steps, but the pieces of what we wish to become, to accomplish, are being put into place. Of course we’ll require the help of ambitious writers and other talented performers and artists. Our “Pop Lit” framework is in place. We just need to do a better job of inhabiting it! The goal: to become a vehicle for a more exciting, more colorful brand of literature to speed into the culture. (Our newest launched publication– not an in-house printed book or zeen, because based on its subject and themes we needed to move with more speed– is the novella The Loud Boys, now available here, the ebook version at other places.)

ONE SPOT on our project’s site we need to become more active is our Open Mic. Great recorded spoken word, of which we’ve provided a lot since we started the option, beginning with a recording purporting to be of classic American film actress Katharine Hepburn made during the final years of her life. A dubious contention, we know, but we posted it regardless.

TODAY we present spoken word centered around another classic Hollywood actress: Marlene Dietrich. The piece is called “Dietrich in Heaven” and it’s by hyper-talented New Mexico-based poet and performer John Biscello. We know you’ll love it!

January 2025 Fiction

Pop Lit Fiction

THE YEAR 2025 has begun with a bang– with assaults of nature both hot and cold, California windstorms propelling unprecedented fires in the land of tech moguls and gross inequalities, while the East Coast and Midwest endure waves of snow and frigid temperatures. As if the universe-or-God has said, “Enough!” to mankind’s wars, all-encompassing technological systems, and ever-growing insanity.

AMID THE MADNESS, we at New Pop Lit struggle on with efforts to introduce sane, human-designed literary art into the mix– which at the same time depicts, relevantly and truthfully, the world we live in. Along with reminders of our common humanity.

Which talented writer Shelby Raebeck does ably– more than ably– in our new featured story, “The Ghost of Camp Hero,” using multiple-viewpoint technique to give different perspectives on three young people trying to find themselves– and to find ways to communicate their needs, goals, confusions and frustrations. Well worth reading.

Next afternoon after school, not bothering to wait for Lance, I biked into the village of Montauk and took the town bus to East Hampton, walking the rest of the way to Freetown. I turned into the driveway and found Lance sitting on the porch, looking up at me like I was a total stranger. Like if I take you in to be with my sister fine, cause I took you, but on your own you better not even walk up my driveway. 

(Note: The NEw POp LIt human-generated novella The Loud Boys is now available in a paperback version, here.)

The Idea Factory?

Opinion

ONE OF our aspirations for this website and its assorted blogs is to be an idea factory for the literary arts– experimenting with new techniques and strategies in an attempt to break out of the niche within which are trapped not only indy projects like ours, but increasingly, literature itself, within the vast noise of the noisiest society in world history: 330 million shouting, screaming voices, many of them writers.

WHICH IS WHY we reject “One Size Only” thinking. The notion there’s only one way of doing things– or, as Henry Ford famously said, “You can have any color car you like as long as it’s black.”

Colors in our presentations? “Can’t do that!” say people who still watch black-and-white TV, look only at black-and-white paintings at the art museum, and read somber tomes of bleak descriptions of alcoholic Bukowski-wannabes lying comatose in back alleys.

Pop motifs? Over-the-top characters? Dramatic situations? A faster-than-usual pace? “NO!!” other lit people scream, who’ve been trained to believe only that which is inaccessible and difficult qualifies as “Literature” with a capital L, meant for a well-screened cognoscenti. “Connoisseurship”; “heightening of the prose style” and all the other rationalizations for artistically playing it safe.

Yet for writers to escape the prison cell this society has placed them in, they’ll have to crash out. With crowbars, battering rams and dynamite.

We’ve taken a few modest steps in doing that, including the novella The Loud Boys, available via ebook at several outlets, with print version coming. Hyper-pop fiction, which includes multidimensional writing.

(An excellent review of it by Michael Maiello just came out at his Substack, here. Please read the review –and while you’re at it, become a subscriber of his. Michael’s columns are consistently interesting.)

ALSO, we have two multiple-viewpoint stories to be featured here in winter and early spring, along with other striking offerings. Multiple viewpoints are a precursor to the multidimensional version. Watch for them!

OTHER plans are in place. Now, if we can just get our hands on some artistic dynamite. . .