出版与作家生涯2022cnn.com
老牌文学杂志正艰难求生
Long-standing literary magazines are struggling to stay afloat
导读
这篇 CNN 报道讲的是《The Believer》等老牌文学杂志接连停刊、难以为继的处境。对写作者来说值得一读，因为它逼着我们思考：当人人都能免费发布内容、注意力被无限分割时，文学刊物凭什么还值得读者付费订阅；评论里既有对学院式批评把普通读者越推越远的批评，也有对“把阅读的隐性收益讲清楚”的实操建议。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
别把读者当成必须解码的对手：如果你的文本只对受过特定理论训练的圈内人可读，你就自动放弃了大批潜在读者。
- 02
把阅读的“隐性好处”说清楚——让读者在读完之前就知道自己会得到什么，这是文学刊物和写作者共同的功课。
- 03
发表门槛降到零之后，稀缺的不再是内容而是注意力，写作的竞争力转向稳定的质量与可信的筛选（编辑、刊物、个人品牌）。
- 04
《伦敦书评》逆势增长说明：有明确立场、质量稳定的长篇写作，仍然能找到愿意付费的读者。
HN 评论精选
学院式过度阐释把普通读者挡在门外，也损害了文学圈的公信力。
我怀疑这和许多大学里的文学批评与阐释变得越来越激进有关：鼓励天马行空的解读，明确不鼓励考虑“作者到底想说什么”。我有个朋友从日本文学博士项目退学，因为他觉得在那个系里想往上走，只能刻意做出最离谱、最左倾的解读，他觉得这既不诚实也不尊重作者。这不仅让文学圈外的人疏远，也让圈内人难以真诚沟通，订阅量自然会受影响。
pcmoney查看英文原文
I wonder how much it has to do with the aspect of literary critique and interpretation in many Universities becoming more radical. Eg. Many Universities support a practice of literary interpretation that encourages pretty wild takes and explicitly discourages taking “what we think the author was trying to say” into account. I had a friend drop out of Ph.D in Japanese Lit because he felt the only way to progress in his dept. was to purposefully try to come up with the most wild interpretation he could that leaned extremely left and he felt that was intellectually dishonest and disrespectful of the author. This not only alienates people outside the literary bubble but makes it harder to communicate in good faith inside of it. This would have a chilling effect on subscriptions even inside the literary community.
文学刊物要像生活方式品牌那样把阅读的隐性价值显性化，但别把文学彻底商品化。
我花很多时间琢磨这类问题。读东西——尤其是读纸质书——有一种隐性收益，写作者都懂，而文学杂志的任务就是把这种隐性收益显性化。整个模式需要更新，需要在技术和实体空间上投资。文学一直是最早的“生活方式品牌”，杂志和灵活的出版方可以从瑜伽馆、纽约的冲浪用品店、冥想课程那里学点东西。但必须拼命抵抗的是文学的过度商品化。文学要在21世纪找到能活下去的形态，就得把那份隐性收益讲明白。我快在芝加哥开一家咖啡馆，同时做成写作与阅读的“游乐场”，也在做一个把文学生产流程形式化的网页应用。我相信文学有韧性，老机构也许得先倒掉。
blockwriter查看英文原文
I spend a lot of time thinking about, and trying to solve for, these sets of issues. There is an implicit boon that one gets from reading, perhaps especially reading print, a phenomenon which writers know well, and the job of literary magazines is to make this implicit boon explicit. The whole model needs to be updated, and investments into technology and physical spaces need to be made. Literature has always been the proto 'lifestyle-brand' lifestyle. I think literary magazines and nimble publishers could learn a thing or two about the dynamics of lifestyle-brands. Take, for example, yoga, surf-shops/apparel stores in NYC, and meditation more and more. What one has to struggle against at all costs, however, is the commodification of literature. For literature to discover its survivable form for the 21st century, it really must focus on making that implicit boon explicit. I could go on and on and on about this subject. I am very near to opening a coffee shop in Chicago that will also function as a kind of arcade for writing and reading. I have also been developing a web app to attempt to formalize the process and craft of literary production. I believe literature, and even new literature, to be resilient, and novel implementations will be discovered. Long-standing literary institutions do perhaps needs to fail first.
发表门槛消失、注意力被分散，守门人式的文学杂志失去存在理由。
这类刊物失败的经济原因挺明显：把作品“发出去”的门槛从未如此之低，这些杂志再也当不了守门人；同时注意力这种稀缺货币正被越来越多的东西分走。我很好奇现在的文学生产量和过去相比究竟如何：还在写吗？更难找还是更好找？质量在变吗？
asdfasgasdgasdg查看英文原文
The economic reasons for the failure of these types of publications seem pretty obvious. The bar to "putting your stuff out there" has never been lower. These magazines cannot be gatekeepers any longer. While at the same time attention, that dreaded currency, is being spent on a wider and wider variety of pursuits. I'm curious about the actual volume of literary work being produced compared to days past. For those who still partake: is the work still being produced? Is it harder or easier to find? Is the quality changing?
反例：定位清晰的深度评论刊物仍能逆势增长。
《伦敦书评》到2020年已连续20年发行量增长，之后又涨了13%。推荐大家订阅。
martingoodson查看英文原文
The London Review of Books marked 20 years of increased circulation in 2020, and has grown by 13% since then. I think it would be of interest to some people here and I highly recommend buying a subscription: https://www.lrb.co.uk/.
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