Why this stuff matters

Changing culture of literature:

"When Lawrence Ferlinghetti stood up last week at his City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco to announce the finalists for the 2006 National Book Awards, he made sure to remind those in attendance that this was a political event, noting, 'It's a great tribute to democracy, that prizes like these still exist.'

Later, at an informal reception, the 87-year-old poet and publisher took a moment to elaborate. 'The real culture of America,' he declared, echoing a speech he made last fall after winning the National Book Awards' first 'Literarian' Award, 'is not corporate monoculture and television. It's the writers, teachers, universities, libraries and librarians. That's the mainstream culture of America.'

It's hard to say what's more unexpected: to hear Ferlinghetti invoke the mainstream or to see him take part in an event like this. Since the early 1950s, he has been a counterculture icon, the publisher of Allen Ginsberg and Subcomandante Marcos, who sees literature as a force for change. Still, the issue he raises — that of the mainstream and literature's place within it, of why this stuff matters — is one readers and writers have no choice but to take on."