"The real literary editors have mostly been fired. Those that remain are all "bottom line" editors; everything depends on the money"
About this Quote
A poet is admitting, with a wince and a sneer, that the gatekeepers who once fought for language have been replaced by accountants with style guides. Ferlinghetti’s jab lands because it’s not nostalgic in the soft-focus way; it’s an obituary for a particular kind of cultural authority: the editor as midwife, scout, and sometimes adversary who could recognize risk before it looked profitable.
The intent is bluntly diagnostic. “Real literary editors” implies a disappearing craft: editorial judgment rooted in taste, patience, and a willingness to lose money on work that might matter later. “Mostly been fired” shifts the blame from individual cowardice to institutional design. This isn’t a story of talent drying up; it’s a story of employers deciding that discernment is an expendable expense.
The subtext is Ferlinghetti’s lifelong suspicion of American commodification, sharpened by his own history. As City Lights’ cofounder and the publisher who backed Howl through an obscenity trial, he understood literature as a public act, not a product cycle. When he says the remaining editors are “bottom line” editors, he’s naming a managerial class that treats books as content units and readers as a market segment. The scare quotes around “bottom line” add contempt: a euphemism that pretends to be neutral while quietly redefining value.
Context matters: late-20th-century conglomeration of publishing, shrinking review space, chain-store and later algorithmic dominance, and the casualization of editorial labor. Ferlinghetti is warning that when money becomes the only argument, “literary” stops being a standard and becomes a marketing adjective.
The intent is bluntly diagnostic. “Real literary editors” implies a disappearing craft: editorial judgment rooted in taste, patience, and a willingness to lose money on work that might matter later. “Mostly been fired” shifts the blame from individual cowardice to institutional design. This isn’t a story of talent drying up; it’s a story of employers deciding that discernment is an expendable expense.
The subtext is Ferlinghetti’s lifelong suspicion of American commodification, sharpened by his own history. As City Lights’ cofounder and the publisher who backed Howl through an obscenity trial, he understood literature as a public act, not a product cycle. When he says the remaining editors are “bottom line” editors, he’s naming a managerial class that treats books as content units and readers as a market segment. The scare quotes around “bottom line” add contempt: a euphemism that pretends to be neutral while quietly redefining value.
Context matters: late-20th-century conglomeration of publishing, shrinking review space, chain-store and later algorithmic dominance, and the casualization of editorial labor. Ferlinghetti is warning that when money becomes the only argument, “literary” stops being a standard and becomes a marketing adjective.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|
More Quotes by Lawrence
Add to List
