Consuming Silences--How We Read Authors Who Don't Publish.

Consuming Silences--How We Read Authors Who Don't Publish

Myles Weber

U. of Georgia Press

330 Research Dr., Athens, GA 30602-4901

www.ugapress.org; [e-mail]

ISBN 0820326992 $19.95 148 pp.

With an approach that is partly exasperated while offering trenchant analysis at the same time, Weber searches for what to make of the phenomenon of authors who have stopped publishing yet continue to draw public attention and receive considerable critical interest. Weber sees this phenomenon as inextricably related to the major postmodern topic of the death of the author. But it could be more than this or something other than this, such as a shrewd marketing move, terminal writer's block, or loss of interest in writing. For whatever reasons, J. D. Salinger, Henry Roth, Tillie Olsen, and Ralph Ellison--for prominent examples--published nothing for long stretches, while at the same time aroused widespread public curiosity and saw their reputations grow. The fact of their not writing was integral to their image as authors, interpretations of what they did publish, and their influence on following generations of writers. With his idiosyncratic perspective, this author who is an assistant professor of English at Ashland U. sheds new light on aspects of postmodern literary theory and also media gamesmanship.