Re: Reactions to the secret vice (was: Steg's wonderful sig.)

On Tue, 9 Nov 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

> A hundred?  Wow! Then you might as well have published in HazMat
> Magazine.
> ;-)  You see, I've published a little and earned money from it, and
> once bitten... sigh.  I'm proud of all eight fictions, not all of them
> having
> the same circulation by far.  In the long run, I'd rather be published
> than not for creations that I take joy in.  I, too, have written tons
> of material that hasn't been published,and the work to get it published
> is backbreaking and almost undoable.  Why do you think I put my conlang
> on a website?  That can't be "published" in the conventional sense, and
> it's not as yet a recognized artform, so I published it
> unconventionally.
> I'm in the publish or perish industry.  But it has some fairly strict
> requirements and tolerances.  What's your flavor of academia?
Modern and post-modern English and American literature, particularly
poetry.  I've taken a good loooooong look at OE, and decided that --
although I like it -- I cannot get much joy out of arguing whether hwile
daeges means "in a space of a day" or "for part of a day" or "for an
entire day."

I too prefer to be published; that's one of the reasons I've already
decided to publish my long poem Manifesto myself.  Sometimes, that's the
only way to do it.

> Who the parro~ka are you, hon, ;-) ;-) for setting the standard for
> taste and why should mine cohere with yours? ;-);-);-) ;-)  I can love
> Catullus or Horace for what they do in Latin, but Latin doesn't have
> to be my favorite language.  I much prefer medieval Welsh, and
> if that makes me a barbarian in your eyes, well go sink yourself in the
> Aeneid; I'll stay here with the Gododdin and howl with the warriors.
> And mind you... I'm being open-minded about it, so you be too!
Mmm, good word, parro~ka -- please tell me the "rr" is a uvular trill!  I
love uvular trills.

I was just teasing about the Latin; I am fond of it, of course, but I'm
fully aware that many people just aren't.  And, I'm convinced, Church
Latin is damned ugly -- classical Latin, on the other hand, is pretty.

> Actually, academics within academia are like any group that has to pay
> attention to respected conventions.  Derelictions are punished.
> Achievements
> within the scope of the academic community are rewarded.  It depends on
> how
> much you want to (or can) stretch the envelope.  Hard row to hoe.  We'll
> see
> what they say in Texas.
Does this mean I shouldn't shave my head and get a tattoo (my plans over
winter break)?  Ah, well. . .

I think -- and I don't presume to argue with your awareness of your
environment; I can only speak for my own -- that academia is the most
permissive environment in which to engage in eccentricity.  It beats, at
least, the factory.

Combined with my other eccentricities, my creation of artificial languages
is practically a background issue.  And, although I was rejected to sit on
the Freshman English Board (you know something is up when the head of the
department doodles during your interview), they still let me mold young
minds.