America... Land of the Manipulated?

America… Land of the Manipulated?

Richard Ohmann’s essay entitled “The Shapes of a Canon: U.S. Fiction, 1960-1975” discusses the idea that the American public is being influenced by a select few of elite, upper class if you will, society of people. These people depict which books are Bestsellers and which will be gathering dust in the backroom of Barnes and Noble in a cardboard box.

So is America the land of the free, or the land of the manipulated? Yes I think a lot of people in higher places can dictate some of our actions, in government and in the bookstore. But, we are still individuals. America is still the land of individuals making their own way and making their own decisions (within reason of course). So that means that people can still choose to buy that book that isn’t on the New York Times Bestseller list. If you want to do it, do it. If you want to read it, read it. No one is stopping your from being an individual, especially an American individual reader.