`Cult'ivating a new bestseller

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and Stephen King's The Green Mile reached a different literary playing field yesterday afternoon, when the University Women's Club discussed bestseller cult followings. English and German Professor Tina Muller lectured on the culture of the bestseller before about 20 women at the Faculty Club. Muller, who presently teaches "The Culture of Bestseller Literature," explained her fascination with the bestseller and the theories behind such success. The Women's Club, comprised of women who are Penn graduates or wives of faculty members, meets regularly to discuss topics of intellectual, cultural and social interest. Generally, writing a bestseller requires a certain amount of uniqueness and a huge amount of luck, according to Muller. She said experts agree that success is no fluke for long-lasting and consistently bestselling authors, such as Stephen King, John Grisham and now J.K. Rowling. "The authors all have a certain amount of formula and innovation," Muller said. "There is serious substance in their writing that pulls you through it." In opening her lecture, Muller joked that she could not discuss bestsellers without including talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey's booklist has skyrocketed the careers of multiple authors, Muller said. Bestsellers have many factors behind their success, she explained, including historical context and surrounding current events. After extensive research, sociologists have found that these elements are crucial to shaping a novel's success. When Erich Segal wrote Love Story in 1970, the book earned enormous success, staying on The New York Times bestseller list for a year and achieving world-wide acclaim, despite bad reviews. "The public was ready for this book," Muller said. "With all the student and civil rights movements, Segal tapped into the public sentiment of the time, tying in feelings of generational conflict and social class barriers." Muller stressed the importance of looking beyond the numbers. She said that the abundance of bestseller lists in the media is "cultish," a word she used to describe the present statistic-crazy society. Her course attempts to explore the case history of each individual best-seller and place each in a grander picture. She added that the class also creates opportunities for digging deeper on intriguing topics in bestsellers. By including Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer in her syllabus, Muller hopes to bring to light issues of injustice toward Native Americans.