Insularity of Mind

Over at the Guardian, International Man Booker judge John Carey denounces the virtual conspiracy that keeps world literature out of the hands of British readers.

Dr Carey said foreign literature was “neglected” in the UK, and to an outsider the British publishing industry could “seem like a conspiracy intent on depriving … readers of the majority of the good books written in languages other than their own”.

If such laxity had applied 50 or 60 years ago, “that would have meant, for the English reader, no Kafka, no Camus, no Calvino, no Borges,” he said.

As bad as things sound from this excerpt, they’re even worse here in the U.S.