Black Swans Don’t Change Everything

It’s been a week of “black swans” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s term for major unpredictable events. Like the Sex Pistols at the Free Trade Hall or the rise of Napster, the way we do things today can change quicker than we ever expected. It’s worth recalling that “black swans” in the arts don’t change everything, at least not forever. The rock dinosaurs were shook by punk, but came back with a vengeance post-Live Aid, whilst T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” remains less popular than Rudyard Kipling’s “If” a century on.
I’ve been thinking a lot about innovation over the last few days since in times of trouble it seems to be the “thing” that more than any other can lift the economic doldrums – and in art, as in business. The joining together of the two is what concerns us here. Although based in Cambridge, Salt Publishing has a number of Manchester authors on its list including Elizabeth Baines, Neil Campbell, Steven Waling and David Gaffney. Their latest initiative is an intriguing one – both simple and complicated – for it’s sending its authors on “virtual book tours” around the world’s literary blogs. Such a carbon friendly initiative has to be applauded and I look forward, as we gear up for next week’s Manchester Blog Awards, to follow the progress. I’m sure it won’t see an end to the author reading, but it might make a nice change.