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What Lies Ahead for Bookstores in the Age of Generative AI? - DANNY CAINE, Bookseller, Poet

May 15, 2024

Danny Caine, a poet and bookstore advocate, discusses the future of bookstores in the era of AI, emphasizing community building and social change. He explores the importance of supporting local businesses over online giants like Amazon and shares insights on the human connection in book selling. Caine reflects on poetic influences, Jewish storytelling, and the role of food politics in poetry, highlighting the power of books in promoting learning and understanding for a better world.

48:22

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Danny Caine

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Quick takeaways

Bookstores are hubs for positive social change and community building.

Danny Caine's poetry connects mundane objects to deeper societal and personal reflections.

Food references in Kane's poetry spark discussions on politics, identity, and culture.

Deep dives

Bookstores as Third Places

Bookstores serve as third places, bridging public connections and private well-being. While for-profit, they offer spaces for community connection and activism, countering prevailing social systems and cultural norms. Beyond mere transactions, bookstores foster meaningful interactions, serving as hubs for social movements and sources of collective resilience within communities.

Introduction

4min

The Vital Role of Independent Bookstores in Communities

19min

The Human Element in Book Selling and Evolution of Bookstores

14min

Exploring Poetic Influences and Creative Inspiration

3min

Exploration of Jewish Storytelling, Poetry, and Food Politics

6min

Embracing Supportive Communities and Overcoming Challenges for a Better World

3min

What is the future of literature in the age of generative AI? How can bookstores build community and be engines for positive social change? What does it mean to try to have a meaningful human life?

Danny Caine is the author of the poetry collections Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy's, Flavortown, and Picture Window, as well as the books How to Protect Bookstores and Why and How to Resist Amazon and Why. His poetry has appeared in The Slowdown, Lit Hub, Diagram, HAD, and Barrelhouse. He's a co-owner of The Raven Bookstore, Publisher's Weekly's 2022 Bookstore of the Year.

“Bookselling captured my imagination and my heart as soon as I started working at the bookstore because I could see the potential for this great, amazing community-oriented work. Of course, it's a thrill to be around books, to meet authors, to read all this stuff, and to spend all day with people who love books, but what I think I really fell in love with was the sense of community, the people behind it, and the way a bookstore can really be an engine for positive social change within its community and in a broader sense as well. My whole nonfiction book project started with a tweet thread. It was about how every bookseller has to be prepared to have this discussion: a customer comes in, and they're like, this book is 50 percent off on Amazon. Why should I buy it here? So, I don't think about it quite as withholding from Amazon as much as contributing to these local community-oriented businesses.
The thing that unites my poetry and the nonfiction writing is my main obsession as a writer. It's the question of, how do you live meaningfully in late capitalism? As corporations and global capitalist forces take over the world, what does it mean to try to have a meaningful human life? I think the proliferation of objects might reflect that. A lot of what we do in this world is collect objects, and regardless of whether it's good or bad, you build a nest. I think that in Picture Window in particular, I wanted to write about the domestic in a way that I hadn't written in so far. And then the pandemic happened, so I was forced into this weird, uneasy, claustrophobic domesticity. When your attention is so focused within your own home and within your own family, every object in your house takes on a new resonance. So, when a tennis ball that you've never seen somehow shows up in your house, that's weird. It's poetic. It feels dreamlike.”

www.dannycaine.com
www.ravenbookstore.com

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