Book snobbery?

There’s a bit of a kerfuffle going on in the comments section of a Pub Rants post about Paris’ Hilton’s book, Confessions of a Heiress. Commenters, many of them anonymous (of course), are raving about what right Nelson has to promote a book that is 1) ghost written, 2) “by” such a person as Paris Hilton, 3) trash, and 4) “keeping other more worthy books off the shelves.”

Naturally, they indulge in the usual name-calling and attacks against the blogger. I can’t for the life of me figure out why, if they so disagree with the agent’s taste, business model, business practices, advice, etc. — not that they think they are harmful, just not what they are looking for in an agent — why they just don’t stop reading her blog? Obviously it’s not providing anything to them. But anonymous insults? Not debate, but insults… I really don’t see what the point is. Can it be anything other than a bitter rant?

(Oh, and one commenter totally proved the Harlequin Rule! That rocked.)

Here is my comment:

Book snobbery can work both ways. I’ve seen devotees of genre fiction say they wouldn’t read “pointless, depressing” lit fic. They are just as much book snobs. As KN said, read what you enjoy and be proud of it–whatever it is. You don’t need to justify your choices or put down anyone else’s.

The ghost-written aspect doesn’t have any place in this conversation. No one said, “Wow, that Paris, what a writer she really is.” The book is a product, and an enjoyable one. It’s presumptuous to assume that the ghost writer is offended, or unhappy with their flat fee, or wants to publish his or her own work. Is it what it is. The ghost writers I know enjoy their contracts and the money it makes them.

Say you wrote a screenplay, and it was being made into a movie. You have the choice to put it out with obscure actors who no one is interested in seeing, or guaranteed box office draws. People make those choices, and are not burned in effigy for them. But with books it is assumed that there should be a different standard.

I enjoy several series that I know are ghostwritten, either secretly or as an understood business model (such as packaged YA.) They are what they are. How many works of art “by” Raphael do you enjoy, knowing that Raphael himself might have worked very little on it? Does it make the painting any less pretty?

Paris Hilton’s book is not keeping any other off the shelves. There is “space” for celebrity vanity projects on lists that is separate from the space that is held for serious works of literature or romance novels, or what have you. No one says, “well, this guy could be the new Don DeLillo, but hey, how about another book ‘by’ Paris Hilton instead?” and if anything, the cash cow that is a celebrity vanity project provides money to the publisher that they can use to buy and promote their original projects.

The acrimony here is quite misplaced.