This is the fourth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, and Part III before continuing.
2215
“Who was Devon Garner?” Phoebe said as she scrolled through more articles and interviews with Chandra White.
Just because the Internet allowed everything to be documented didn’t mean historians of the Digital Age had all the information they needed at their fingertips. On the contrary, the abundance of information and documentation made it that much more difficult to find the noteworthy pieces.
Phoebe was one of the unlucky few who was currently tasked with separating the inconsequential from the gold. Her progress had been slow but steady, and Devon Garner was a name she repeatedly came across. White mentioned him in interviews and had quite a bit of correspondence with him, both on social media and off.
“He was a contemporary of White’s,” Paul said from across the room. “He wrote a few books about the individual’s struggle against society.”
“No one reads them now?”
“Some of the higher literature classes might teach one or two of his books, for comparison, but he’s not as widely studied as White.”
“Why not?”
“Hell if I know. Maybe just because he didn’t write as much as she did. She was very prolific and her books were widely read. They were translated into dozens of languages and read all over the world, whereas Garner I think never gained recognition outside the U.S.”
“That’s sad.”
“Depends on how you look at it. I’m pretty sure he won some awards in his lifetime, and I don’t think White ever did.”
“She sold more copies, though.”
“Loads more!”
“And everyone growing up in America two hundred years later knows her name and has read at least one of her books. Meanwhile, Garner has faded into obscurity.”
“I guess it all depends on what your goals are. He was widely considered the better writer in his time.”
“Yeah, but he was a white man and White was a black woman. We know that, at the time they were writing, it was exponentially easier for white men to get published and recognized than either women or people of color. Besides, isn’t it the test of time that matters? Who cares how many awards you got when the book came out if no one reads it two hundred years later?”
“I told you, some classes still teach his stuff.”
“Yeah, one or two books. I’ve never heard of a whole class devoted to his writing, whereas every college across the galaxy has at least one class devoted to White.”
“Really? You’ve been to every college in the galaxy?”
“You know what I mean. Her books are standard fare and Garner is a nobody.”
“So?”
“It’s just sad. He probably thought he would be the one everyone would read until the end of time, yet here we are, sifting through his Instagram account to try to find pictures of his friend.”
“You could probably still find some people today who would say he was the better writer.”
“Just a few snobs with a PhD in American literature, and who cares what they think? Majority rules, right? According to the majority, White was the better writer.”
“There are some who would say the idea of the majority ruling is terrifying.”
“Only because they don’t happen to agree with the majority.”
To be continued …