American writer Erica Jong – especially noted for her novel ‘Fear of Flying’ – tells it like it is in this video, where she expresses her attitude toward publishers: “They’re thinking about the bucks – they’re not thinking about the future.”
“I get tired of the publishing world, which I think is very badly behaved at the moment.” The way publishers prioritize is inexplicable to Jong, who feels that you’re judged by how many copies you sell rather than the quality of your work: “Who the fuck cares if Gwyneth Paltrow publishes a cookbook? I don’t. Probably the recipes aren’t even her recipes.” By that short-sighted standard, two of the greatest 19th century American poets, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, wouldn’t even have been known today, as one was
self-published and the other not published at all.
Erica Jong (b. 1942) is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She has published more than 25 works of both fiction and non-fiction but is perhaps most known for her 1973 novel ‘Fear of Flying’ which has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold over 27 million copies. The novel was considered controversial due to its portrayal of female sexuality linked to second-wave feminism. In 2015 Jong published the sequel to her debut, ‘Fear of Dying’.
Erica Jong was interviewed by Pejk Malinovski in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival in Denmark, August 2016.
Camera: Klaus Elmer
Edited by: Kasper Bech Dyg
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2017
Supported by Nordea-fonden
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