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Comment by satori99 | Hacker News Reader

    "After all, as one of the most famous writers in the
    world today, you are a legitimate subject for inquiry, 
    whether you welcome it or not."

Either I am completely out of touch, or this statement is not true.

It's probably the former. One of the mentioned novels titles sounds vaguely familiar, but I have never ever heard of Elena Ferrante.

I only read this letter because I wondered why an open letter to someone I'd never heard of was posted to HN.

* [edit] Having said that, I completely agree with and respect her right to remain anonymous, whether she is influential through her writing or not. I also completely agree with the assertion that a book, or indeed any work of art or performance, exists totally independently of it's author once published or performed.

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I'm pretty well-read, although not really in the "general literary" genre. And I also only heard about her a few months ago.

That said, the person who introduced her to me made it quite clear that Elena Ferrante is extremely well known, and was shocked that I hadn't heard of her. And I've seen then somewhat confirmed this - she is indeed pretty famous (e.g. this article).

So I understand the boat you're in... let's just consider ourselves today's lucky 10,000 :)

(And no, I haven't read her book yet, but I'm planning to).

Sounds like marketing to me, nothing more.

from the article: "global superstar"

I guess the bar has been lowered past the floor now.

She's a legitimate global superstar in fiction writing. Her books are popular enough to move the percentage of total book sales represented by translated fiction in English-speaking markets (she` writes in Italian). Strangely enough, her approach is often considered a kind of anti-marketing: no book tours, few interviews, strangely downscale cover art - people, mostly women, just really love her writing.

I guessed I stepped on the wrong narrative because just questioning this author's superstardom has gotten me to -4 on a mostly male site where most people can't even downvote. I have no opinion on this author, but can we please stop pushing everything like it is the second coming of christ just because women like it?

As I said, marketing.

I didn't downvote you, but those who did probably decided your response was not particularly well-informed. Men might dominate HN, but women are over-represented as consumers of fiction (and nonfiction), in both print and ebook format-in the UK market, for example, they buy over 2/3rds of fiction books. So simply being popular with women is enough to be a literary phenomenon.

While I don't disagree with your reasoning, I haven't read this author. However another user describes this author as "what Paulo Coelho was back in the 1990s, but adapted to the #metoo and gender politics momentum."

Now when I saw the heavy handedness of my comment's downvoting, I was surprised. Having further looked into this, I now find the root of the rot of modern discourse: the censorship of gender politics. So I stand by all my comments in this thread and I consider your well reasoned market analysis entirely immaterial to this discussion.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I don't think Elena Ferrante has anything to do with #metoo or gender politics. The author/s claims to have been born in the 40s, and started writing in the 90s. As far as I understand, she writes relatively non-political literary fiction set in a particular historical milieu in Naples that is sensitive to the intimate lives of women. She is not allegorical or self-help-y like Coelho. She just writes in a way that speaks to a very broad audience of women.

I imagine you were downvoted because you posted shallow dismissals and flamebait, both of which break the site guidelines. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow them when posting here.

I didn't downvote, but it did take me only a couple of Wikipedia clicks to bring up the article on Neapolitan Novels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_Novels). Per the article "the series has sold 10 million copies in 40 countries".

It also apparently had enough clout to get an HBO / RAI TV series produced out of it, which will possibly up the recognition factor for her name and her works considerably depending on the success.

This is not super super stardom level (the top living novelists have sold half a billion novels -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction_a...) but that's still an impressive number, I would say it is within the top tier.

(A fun comparison to another HBO show: When Game of Thrones started, A Song of Ice and Fire had sold 15 million copies worldwide -- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Song_of_Ice_and... . In a similar ballpark, in other words.)

It's not a gender politics thing. You didn't just "question" her, you directly insulted her--"marketing to me, nothing more ... the bar has been lowered past the floor now." You'd have gotten the same downvotes if you'd launched a stream of invective at a similarly prominent male author.

> I have no opinion on this author, but can we please stop pushing everything like it is the second coming of christ just because women like it?

Look, I think you're seeing things that aren't there. Your first comment probably got downvoted because it's wrong - you claimed it's "only marketing", but apparently there are good reasons to think she really is superstardom-level popular (or close to it, at least, for an author that is).

Your further comments seem to keep attributing the downvoting to "the censorship of gender politics". But seriously, you are the only one bringing gender politics into this! Like I said I haven't read her books, she wasn't described to me as some #metoo movement hero or anything. Maybe she is and maybe she isn't, but that probably has nothing to do with why you were downvoted!

Stop seeing demons that aren't there.

>I'm pretty well-read, although not really in the "general literary" genre. And I also only heard about her a few months ago.

Same thing here. I think she(/he?) is what Paulo Coelho was back in the 1990s, but adapted to the #metoo and gender politics momentum. Hence why half of the article is really, really curious about the author's gender.

She was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016 -- not one of the most influential writers, but one of the most influential people.

So it seems fair to say that she is one of the most famous writers in the world. That you haven't heard of her probably says more about you than it does about her.

> That you haven't heard of her probably says more about you than it does about her

Sure. It says I'm out-of-touch -- and doubly so when it comes to whomever Time Magazine thinks is influential.

Given where Time Magazine is today, the sad fact may be that Time is no longer influential enough to decide who's influential anymore... :(

She is definitely one of the most famous writers today.

You knowing about her isn't necessary to making the statement true.

I consider myself a reasonably well-read person. I read often and fast so I manage to get through a decent number of books, mostly novels, each year. I don't stick to any particular genres and can sensibly discuss anything from Shakespeare to Harry Potter.

I think I might get on with this author because I don't think about the authors of the books I read much at all. I have next to no interest in their personal lives or their circumstance -- only their stories. I remember the names of authors who impress me, but that's about it.

In any case I know about Her(Him?) now, so I guess I'll see if she's any good.

I've never heard of Elena Ferrante either. I read quite a lot but most of my tastes could probably easily be derided as 'genre fiction'.

I would absolutely argue she has a right to her privacy and anonymity, if that's what she wants.

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