Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Bernstein in Sweden

It seems like one thing all Swedes want to know is how is it that Charles Bernstein inspires all his students to be so active and enthusiastic (starting journals etc). I of course can't tell them the secret, other than that I too have noticed it.

Even Jesper Olsson who publishes OEI, a leading literary journal in Sweden, actually got his inspiration to start it from the year he spent in Buffalo.

It's the opposite from my time in Iowa, which taught us that it was somehow cheap or distasteful to start one's own journals. When Joyelle and I started Action Books, Iowa people were on the whole definitely un-enthusastic, saying things like "there are too many presses already" or "that's not my thing."

It is I suppose the difference between trusting/distrusting/respecting one's students.

5 Comments:

Blogger Amish Trivedi said...

I had a similar response when I suggested to a recent Iowa grad that we start a publication.

Interesting...

8:10 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I guess Harriet Monroe, James Laughlin and André Breton were all "cheap and distasteful" when they started their publishing ventures.

9:52 AM  
Blogger François Luong said...

That last comment was me.

9:52 AM  
Blogger Johannes said...

I do want to say that that attitude in Iowa may be a thing of the past since it's been a while that I was there.

12:23 PM  
Blogger Amish Trivedi said...

You are more correct than you think you are.

8:20 AM  

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