the wonderful satirical novel by George
Gissing, in which the character Jasper
Milvain both scorns pandering to an
audience and cynically pursues the fi-
nancial upside of doing so. The growth
of K.D.P. has, for all its problems, helped
to rectify another issue that Gissing
raised in his novel: nepotism in the
writing and publishing industries. Al-
though literary fiction, thanks to its
many gatekeepers, is still dominated
by those with the right connections
and background, the fiction that most
people actually read is being produced
by a more diverse set of writers than
ever. If we could find a way to get that
sort of levelling of the playing field in
the so-called high-end-fiction sector,
we’d be rewarded with richer stories
that would shape the literary world for
the better.
Sandeep Sandhu
London, England
1
BOXED INKelefa Sanneh, in his excellent piece
about the social-media star Jake Paul’s
move into professional boxing, shows
how Paul’s unexpected career trajectory
has taken him away from a “seemingly
luxurious” life as an influencer with an
infamous reputation (“Punching Down,”
November 8th). Never in my life as a
Black and gay man did I think that Paul,
a white YouTube prankster, could open
my eyes. Whether or not I like the way
he found success in his boxing career, I
can’t help but admire it. How do you
take privilege and expand on it? In trad-
ing yachts and jets for the boxing ring,
Paul has found a life full of thrills that
I, along with many people who look
like me, wish we could have. There’s
power in his success story.
Malik Clinton
Philadelphia, Pa.DANCING AGAIN
Jennifer Homans, in her review of the
New York City Ballet’s long-awaited
return to the stage, notes that today’s
dancers approach the now classic George
Balanchine repertoire, which has defined
the company’s identity and aesthetics
since its beginning, with “spine-straight”
rigidity and orthodoxy (Dancing, No-
vember 8th). There is “no fragility or
spontaneity in sight”; the dancers have
traded “vulnerability for perfection.”
Homans laments that the company’s
zipped-up approach to the founding
choreographer’s ballets is not “some-
thing anyone can undo.” But, to the
contrary, much could be done if the
keepers of the George Balanchine Trust
opened his works to new interpreta-
tions by dancers and choreographers.
Balanchine himself remade dozens of
his dances during his long career—
notably, “Serenade,” a ballet set to Tchai-
kovsky’s “Serenade for Strings”—alter-
ing the sets, the costumes, and even the
steps themselves. If today’s artists were
given license to update Balanchine’s
ballets for our present moment, the
spontaneity and danger that Homans
wishes for in City Ballet’s dancing could
be regained. Ironically, such interven-
tions might allow the audience to ex-
perience Balanchine’s ballets more as
they first appeared in the choreogra-
pher’s imagination.
James Steichen
San Francisco, Calif.
1
ONE CHEER FOR KINDLE
I agree with Parul Sehgal, who, in an
essay about how Amazon is changing
book publishing, says that the com-
pany’s capitalistic practices have led to
a deluge of formulaic content that is
driven by audiences’ preferences (Books,
November 1st). As a preamble to her
discussion of Kindle Direct Publish-
ing (K.D.P.), the arm of Amazon that
allows writers to self-publish for free
and that algorithmically encourages
them to prioritize quantity over qual-
ity, Sehgal invokes “New Grub Street,”
•
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