LITERATURE AND GHETTOIZATION

I was talking today with one of the managers of a large chain store which is stocking my novel. I should be grateful and in many ways I am. This place, despite being a conglomerate, has won a lot of my admiration with its complete uber-efficiency and its willingness to take chances with my book which is in some ways is a bit more experimental than the garden-variety bestseller. What I was struck by is their insistence that the book appear exclusively in the gay and lesbian section. Yes, OK, marketing has its realities and we know that the gay and lesbian community is a major force in book purchasing. But realistically, I think one of the problems our culture faces as market forces rise up and dominate things, is that writing is valuable because of its innate value. And its ability to have universal appeal. Literary minds and styles as diverse as Proust, Wiilliam Burroughs , Virginia Woolf and Carole Maso are on the map not because they're gay per se, but because they're great writers who continouously probe, provoke, incite, and force us to reconsider our worlds. I'm curious to see where the next few years will lead us in this direction as more and more of queer culture sets the standard for what's hip, what's in vogue, and what defines the avant garde. Best to everybody, David