Lauren Conrad, of The Hills fame, is reading Craig Clevenger’s The Contortionist’s Handbook. Let me repeat…no, just read that sentence again; this is text, not audio, you lazy bastard.
What does this mean to those of us who have long been in the know about Clevenger’s amazing writing? The optimist in me says, “great, maybe good literature will catch on to the reality TV addicted masses.” The pessimist in me, one admittedly self-interested, says, “there goes my dirty little hipster secret.”
This forces the question: are some books considered good, simply because they aren’t so widely accepted? Think of the hipster elitist who will parade his love of fifteen obscure films before admitting his having read even one best-seller. The logic is always that the blockbuster shit is crap.
For the most part, I would agree (Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is one recent best-seller that I would defend to the grave). Best-sellers often cater to the lowest common denominator, ensuring commercial success, but by intention never willing to alienate a reader, re: never willing to say anything truly important. This isn’t the hipster in me talking; this is the commercial model, tried and true.
So, when something like this happens, where a celebrity endorsement pushes a book that by no means caters to the lowest common denominator, what happens? Is this how paradigm shifts start? After Oprah’s promotion of The Road, has the audience for intelligent post-apocalyptic books increased? Or, will future post-apocalyptic books simply be dumbed down, giving the new audience what they want, but not willing to push the genre even further?
For now, this once, I think I have to give a reality star my blessing.
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Well, I don’t know who she is, which is probably a good thing. I’m just wondering if I would want to hear a woman reading this. Seems odd to me.
But I’d give it a listen, I suppose. I’m open minded lately.
Slight misunderstanding, I think. She’s not voicing the audiobook. She is just reading the book, as it’s on her to-read list.
The audio book is read by Ray Porter. I’m not sure who he is. But the audiobook for Dermaphoria, is read by Mr. Clevenger himself.
I love the picture personally. Lauren’s sunny CA veneered smile and spray tan with the contortionist. Yes I too am torn between excellent for Craig, sad for us poles (which is in fact ambivalence, I never knew the true definition, but I digress…)
However, in the end, I think a blow for the hipsters is a boon for good literature, and maybe with Lauren (does this mean Audrina will follow? can Audrina actually read?) reading the Handbook, others will follow to books that alienate and ask and go out into the world unafraid. Much like Alice’s restaurant, maybe it’ll be a movement!!!