On word blizzards, uncertainty and versions of reality

I read this really sweet article the other day in the New York Review where the author, Tim Parks bemoans the mountain of books being published today - both as physical printed-on-paper books and ebooks. He posed the question: how does one make sense of it all and navigate through the blizzard of words. He takes you through a short history of writing and publishing and the rise of the Critic and Literary Prize, which have also proliferated to the point of pointlessness. He leaves us with the following options suggesting that it is a battle you have to fight on your own everyday:

"How to respond, then, to this now permanent condition of overproduction? With cheerful skepticism. With gratitude for those rare occasions when we come across a book that speaks to us personally. With forgiveness for those critics and publishers who induce us to waste our time with some literary flavor of the day. Absolutely without indignation, since none of this is anyone’s particular “fault.” Above all with a sense of wonder and curiosity at the general and implacable human determination (mine included) to fill endless space with dubious mental material when life is short and there are so many other things to be done."

Image Source: http://www.goodreads.com/

This reminded me of a character from Murakami's Kafka On The Shore who had a very interesting filter - he would only read books by an author who had been dead for at least 25 years. Clearly its a jape at the reader who isn't applying any such filters (otherwise I'd have to give up reading Murakami himself who is very much alive and writing wonderfully strange, delightful and insightful works).

A friend of mine once described him as The rock star among contemporary writers. What I appreciate about his work is that no matter how strange his worlds get, they are always lyrical. He uses a lot of songs and music references to express a certain mood or to underline a point. One of my favorite examples is how he repeated these lines from the song Its Only A Paper Moon:

Image Source: https://www.worldcat.org/

" It's a Barnum and Bailey world,

Just as phony as it can be,

But it wouldn't be make believe

If you believed in me."

in his novel 1Q84 to underline how displaced the protagonists felt in the world with two moons. You'd be forgiven for thinking the song was written for the novel.

Image Source: http://lipmag.com/

Marquez had explored the theme of two people separated by life and circumstances reuniting decades later in life in Love In Times Of Cholera but unlike the stubborn hope and certitude that Marquez gave his characters, Murakami's characters in 1Q84 know the pain of real danger to their existence and the very real possibility of dying without ever meeting one another. But then again, one shouldn't compare one's right eye to the left. In very much the same way the absolute, impossible, foolishly romantic and final 'forever' that ends Love In Times Of Cholera cannot be compared to the courage and hope with which Aomame tries to alter her reality in 1Q84 - knowing fully that her new reality may differ from her older reality and that one cannot really go back to what was.

Going back to Tim Parks' dilemma - how does one deal with this reality? I tend to stick to recommendations from trusted friends. It is a Barnum and Bailey world, but I get by with a little help from my friends.