Ailment: Shit Midas Disorder
Manifestation: Publishing
Case Study: Subject believes that every publishing project he touches turns to crap. Ailment made acute presentation when subject received news that ambitious edited collection (the complete manuscript of which had been with excited acquisitions editor of major publisher for one full year) finally was rejected on the grounds that it "fell outside the scope of their general lists." Subject is further distraught/confused because reviews were positive. However, subject is getting all to used to strong reviews being coupled with rejections, which slowly takes toll on former joy at research and wanting to (to use the parlance of our time) "engage in discourse." Subject exhibiting some symptoms of Eggs in One Basket Disease, as he thought that payoff from huge amount of labor put into this project would take him one step closer to being viable as possible future candidate for possible tenure-track position in department he is indentured to. Also showing signs of Sour Grapes Disorder, making flippant and unreflective proclamations about the state of academic future. [analyst note: Real blame may lie with the inherent flaws of blind review process for humanities research, a journal system overburdened with increasing publishing requirements for tenure (and even for initial jobs), and a publishing structure that favors conservative research or brand name institutions or insider information or academic nepotism].
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3 comments:
Hey, I can do this post in two words: rejection sucks.
I have a completed manuscript that has just been returned from pretty much all the places I sent it to -- I went for the strategy of putting eggs in many baskets so that I could collect a whole bunch of rejection letters --and I can't decide whether I am going to send it out to more places, wait until May when I have time and revise it once again, or just forget about if for a while because writing new stuff is more fun.
Not that I have time for writing right now anyhow....
And hey, weren't you going to go outside, enjoy the warm weather, and then write a post so that all of us snowbound people in the north could enjoy it vicariously?
Rejection does suck, but it shouldn't become a way of life. The ailment is in the relationship some of us develop with rejection.
Maybe "go outside" is what I can't decipher on my to-do list. I actually was walking across my campus this afternoon in my shorts and a t-shirt. Sunday I took my weekly bike ride through the city. Today I was pruning some of my garden plants (stuff like hibiscus and butterfly bush). I will try to spread the vicarious wealth of my warm environment soon.
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