Mojo Books and Music and Lack of Globalization Rant

[varjohaltia]

Since there's some time between when I leave work and when I have to be at hyanan's class, I've occasionally grabbed dinner at Chipotle's and spent the remaining time at Mojo, a used book/record store in the strip mall of earlier Merlin's (in)fame. They're nowhere near as comprehensive as Just Books was, and their prices seem a bit higher, but unfortunately I've ended up with quite a bit of new reading and less money in my pocket. They are beginning to have a decent selection of more interesting quality works from authors no longer obtainable elsewhere, such as Jack Vance.
They do, however, have the best foreign language section I've seen. Not to say it's good, but it actually has a few titles of foreign language fiction, not just the obligatory high-art titles which I tend to not like at all. I'm sure Günter Grass is a wonderful writer, but I want more action and fantasy and scifi! Considering the ethnic and cultural melting pot that is the U.S.A. I continue to be baffled by the difficulty in getting foreign language resources such as DVDs, television and books here. Cuisine, no problem; novels, tough luck. Part of it is the utterly stupid regional system of media companies where they license content by geographic region and then attempt to prevent cross-region trade, but even so, I'd imagine that one should be able to go to Amazon to mail order German fiction or DVDs, and not have to go to Amazon.de and pay more for shipping than for the product.

Comments

[roguer.livejournal.com]

That's because you're the "wrong" kind of immigrant. You come from Europe. If you were looking for Hispanic books and movies, I'm sure you would find plenty. I run across many Middle Eastern stores, offering food, books, and music. And though they might not be as easy to find as the first two, there are certain to be spots in town where you can find Chinese (or perhaps more generically Asian) pop culture.

But European? You guys are supposed to just come over and be Americans, right? ;)

-Roguer

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

I know. Hispanic, Asian and Indian stores are around; then again those are the largest minority populations as well. While there's some media content in said stores, I don't see videos or books in most Asian markets, though.

[hyanan.livejournal.com]

I have to say that some of this has to do with being in The South. Up in The Northeast, foreign language resources were much greater, or at least it seemed so to me. :)