The reality behind the phrase “corporate shake-ups”
Despite all the attention being given to the tumult at Random House, the real, out-of-control bloodletting seems to be going on at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where tips to MobyLives have it that among those fired were fiction editor Angelie Singh and one of the most prestigious and acomplished and admired editors in the business: Drenka Willen. She is best-known for being the editor of four Nobel Prize winners: Günter Grass, Jose Saramago, Wislawa Szymborska and Octavio Paz, as well as other well-know authors including Umberto Eco and Amos Oz. Given that HMH has announced it won’t be buying their new books any time soon, and now has fired their truly beloved editor, one has to wonder if those writers will now stay with the house. Or, to put it another way, do the proprietors of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt really know what they’re doing?
No one needs to answer the question at the end of the blog. Isn’t this what conglomerates have always done: go haywire when the going gets tough? Only in this case it appears to be a clear case of psychosis. This shouldn’t be surprising either, considering a “cultural” industry is owned by a bunch of hedgefunders on some tax-haven island. That, too, is now part of modern culture!