Not Comics: That Recent NYT Bookstore Piece As Trollery

There are a few notions in this article passed along by that nice man Leon Avelino taht I hadn't considered, concerning this article I linked to in the NYT about bookstores in NYC making rent. The first is that by stating its thesis in terms of the survival of stores, they're doing a disservice to bookstores generally by making them all sound like they're dying. The second is that phrasing the question that way is part of an attempt by the publisher to drive up traffic by introducing a second argument ("are bookstores dying?") into the equation underneat the actual issues involved with the rent. The third is that such effort to help aren't really helpful.

It's a fun read, and a different way of looking at the piece. I think if you look at articles like that as samples rhetoric, they are intending to troll and they aren't really going to be helpful except to perhaps create a space or a concept that will allow the actual people involved to make a move with greater ease or wider support if they have to. I mean, I think everyone knows that NYT articles are general primers not specific tools for change, right? The idea that the conversation being a negative one has its own effect is a fascinating one, though, and one I'll consider.
 
posted 5:49 pm PST | Permalink
 

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