Because that's how it turned out, I guess, and the British did get a head start back when book mass-production really took off? I don't see the point in anything sinister.
Anyway, I'm guessing there are a lot of famous authors I assumed were American but are really Canadian. Canadians are stealthy that way.
Hail Martin Septim!Because while we (America) were establishing ourselves as a nation, England was cranking out literature. England was the center of the world back then.
edited 29th Dec '11 5:44:01 PM by Jimmmyman10
Go play Kentucky Route Zero. Now.Garth Nix and Kate Forsyth, Australian.
Umm, can't think of any others.
edited 29th Dec '11 8:32:52 PM by NoirGrimoir
SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)Wut? Who are you people reading?
I was gonna list some, but here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Authors
Hey, don't forget New Zealand-born Margaret Mahy! She's written some pretty good YA fantasy. And then there's Jaclyn Moriarty, a rising Australian YA novelist.
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That kinda proves the point; look at how few of them are Canadian, Australian or New Zealanders, even though they are also Native English Speakers.
Also, keyword: Famous. Can't recall an Author who became *very* famous who wasn't American or British.
edited 30th Dec '11 8:44:52 AM by ryzvonusef
Herald of the Literature Sub-Forum. Share me your favourite book/series/author!![]()
Three young countries with small populations having significantly fewer famous authors than the largest native English speaking country in the world and the birthplace of the English language? It doesn't seem that odd to me.
Lets put down the facts: around the same time Literature was becoming a major deal, as in anyone can write and publish, England was conquering the world.
Go play Kentucky Route Zero. Now.Population of 23 million vs 62 million isn't even close to enough to explain the disparity.
Here are some hard numbers: Authors of Series with over 100 million copies according to Wikipedia:
- American: 10
- British: 7
- Irish: 1 (CS Lewis)
If you were going proportionally by population alone, you'd expect at least 2 Australian authors on there, but there isn't a single one.
edited 30th Dec '11 7:45:30 PM by storyyeller
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayAustralian stories seem to have difficulty finding American publishers, so the problem may be self-perpetuating (as in, American publishers don't publish them, so they don't sell to the large American audience, so they don't have as high sales figures and American publishers aren't willing to publish them.)
Then again, Deltora Quest somehow managed to become popular in Japan, so America definitely isn't the only international market available.
edited 31st Dec '11 3:20:36 AM by feotakahari
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something AwfulEh, I also find it kind of weird that most Australian stuff I've read is very 'British' if you get me. It doesn't have a big 'Australian' flavor. I think people would actually be more interested/attracted if it stood out a bit more. Then again this may be publishers' fault.
SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)In defence of Australia and New Zealand, I think it's worth noting that the other countries under discussion here have had a head start. Australia only existed as a nation since 1901, and its nationhood was still basically attached to Britain by the hip until the 1960s. New Zealand is even younger. People were too busy doing the things you do when you're trying to get workable settlements and build up a nation, to write many books.
Basically, we're still setting up the foundations of our literary scene/s in Australasia, rather than contributing to a literary scene that already has solid foundations. That's how I see it, anyway.
I think this is where the UK has its advantage - it has entire epochs of literary creativity to work with, whereas the US just has a few centuries, and the rest of us don't even really have that. You can be much more creative when you have much more to work with.
Personally, I think it's the whole the "Britain is the centre of the world" attitude that has been around for centuries. Not so much nowadays obviously, but back then America, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, not to mention a whole load of other countries, were the colonies, too busy rebelling or trying to make a living to focus on literature. Britain was the homeland, the centre of all knowledge and arts. The other countries were there primarily just for resources. What did they need fancy books for?
Morituri te SalutamusI don't think it's about merit—after all, it's easy to name really, really good Australian authors. (I'm a John Marsden fan myself.)
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something AwfulYes, but I, atleast, wasn't considering *all* the books created since Time immemorial, merely the regular output. For example, how many english books, publish since the start of the 3rd Millenium, have been published by Non-British/American authors, and became renowned all over the world?
The only one I can recall is Canadian author of Malazan Book Of The Fallen, and even then I am not sure whether it was published in Canada, or the US.
Is it perhaps, that Canadian/Australian/New-Zealanders/Caribbean/what-have-you Authors are simply not promoted? Or does the population there not have a literary-bent?
edited 2nd Jan '12 2:30:17 AM by ryzvonusef
Herald of the Literature Sub-Forum. Share me your favourite book/series/author!^ I think I can answer your post. The point I was making earlier is that the longer your country has been developing its literature, the greater scope there is with which to develop genre, style, format, and artistic conventions that can be inspiring to later writers. I think it is fairly inevitable that there is a less regular output from countries such as Canada, Australia, NZ, the Caribbean countries etc.
To put it another way, in the UK a new author can play around with the literary greats that have shaped their country's literature into what it is. In the UK, PG Wodehouse, Shakespeare, CS Lewis and so forth are British works depicting the British people and the British way of life. A British author can draw on PG Wodehouse, say, so accentuate their chatty comic take on life to make a great idea even greater (which is basically what Douglas Adams largely seems to have done, using a very British Wodehousian style to write sci-fi satire - he added a fresh concept to an established British writing style, and went crazy with it). A Caribbean author might be inspired by Wodehouse certainly, but to transpose it into a Caribbean context they would have to create from scratch a more Caribbean feel and style to the writing so it makes sense - and, of course, they would have to have been able to associate with the foreign work in the first place.
To resort to trite truisms, all new ideas feed from old ideas. If a New Zealander has mostly British/American stuff to work with, I don't think it's so surprising that there are less New Zealanders who get fed enough ideas to become truly famous and internationally respected writers. In some ways this is likely self-perpetuating. Granted, this is a fairly nationalistic depiction of the creative process, but when the American or British character of a work is often so characteristic, recognisable, and pervasive in US/UK fiction, I think it is a realistic one.
Also, according to wikipedia Deltora Quest has sold over 15 million copies worldwide as of 2010, whereas Malazan Book Of The Fallen had by 2006 sold only over 250,000 copies. =P
edited 2nd Jan '12 4:43:37 AM by Ckuckoo
^ Is it really that hard to use other countries' literary elements in realistic fiction? I know it's not hard to use them in speculative fiction (I've found that American, French, and Japanese elements can mix quite nicely.)
edited 2nd Jan '12 5:07:47 PM by feotakahari
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

It seems to me like a disproportionate share of famous (English language) authors comes from the UK. The only non American, non British author I can even think of is Eoin Colfer and he's Irish. Why are there no famous authors from Australia or New Zealand, or other English speaking countries?
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play