THANK YOU, 1980s: Stephen King ... and American Express?

Writer Stephen King shilled for American Express in a 1985 commercial that is ... well, it's just plain hilarious.

Perhaps it was a needed respite for the prolific writer. King spent the 1980s penning, among many other things, Cujo, The Dark Half, The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, Firestarter, It, Misery, Tommyknockers, and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.

For myself, I admire much of King's writing and certainly his work ethic. His On Writing remains one of my favorite books on craft (I say why in my review), and his speech upon accepting the National Book Award's lifetime achievement award is persistently cheer-worthy. The words "Right on!" may or may not have escaped my lips when I read this.

I salute the National Book Foundation Board, who took a huge risk in giving this award to a man many people see as a rich hack. For far too long the so-called popular writers of this country and the so-called literary writers have stared at each other with animosity and a willful lack of understanding.

But giving an award like this to a guy like me suggests that in the future things don't have to be the way they've always been. Bridges can be built between the so-called popular fiction and the so-called literary fiction. The first gainers in such a widening of interest would be the readers, of course ...

Tokenism is not allowed. You can't sit back, give a self satisfied sigh and say, "Ah, that takes care of the troublesome pop lit question. In another twenty years or perhaps thirty, we'll give this award to another writer who sells enough books to make the best seller lists." It's not good enough. Nor do I have any patience with or use for those who make a point of pride in saying they've never read anything by John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Mary Higgins Clark or any other popular writer.

What do you think? You get social or academic brownie points for deliberately staying out of touch with your own culture?

Comments

[Amy]

Absolutely! As a bookstore employee, I actually make it a personal mission to read works by authors like Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts, not merely from a commercial standpoint (those definitely move fast on the shelves) but also in an effort to relate to customers and make recommendations. I wasn't required to, but I think it's sort of a shame if bookstore employees don't - like waitstaff who are encouraged to try all the specials.

But then again, I'm an American Culture major - I consider it part of my continuing education ;)