Marvelous. Laugh-out-loud observations on the metastasis of logrolling. I shared with my wife, who is on approach to land her first novel and roll to the gate for an enthusiastic welcome by her not-yet-adoring public (bagpipe fanfare off to the side). She who sleeps with me has been slogging through the publisher's requirement to solicit blurbs from names that mean anything to anybody, as if anybody ascribes meaning to blurbs in the first place. My bride has felt hurt by rejection from other writers who live in the same town, breathe the same air, but have politely declined to blurb, perhaps because they have something better to do, like, um, write their next novel? Can't wait to read a novel that is entirely acknowledgments and blurbs, (insert image of) hippos wallowing in the mud puddle. How fun to watch them splash themselves!
Morning all, Love today’s post re Acknowledgment effusions! Been silently wondering about this since first encountering their emergence on the fiction side ( Seemed a bit grandiose when most of us thought that a one-liner dedication on the imprint page was plenty).
Love coming on here to see what you're moaning about each week and whose turn it is for you to be mean to. Superlative and extensive thanks to all involved in the above.
Warm and peculiarly appropriate thanks to Eleanor Livingstone for (among other things) pointing out that (most fortuitously) this week's Moral Maze is on the thorny issue of gratitude https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0028l07
Agree about aspects of like culture on social media but disagree completely with regard to acknowledgments. Writers should feel free to acknowledge whoever they like.
Saying thank you is a way of showing your generosity of spirit and gratitude, it could be that, there is an aspect of ‘for show’ to some degree but it’s not really for someone else i.e. you (!) to judge whether a person is genuinely thankful or not, we all have absolute freedom and liberty to be grateful in strange ways. If someone wants to thank Taylor swift for inspiring them, though they may never have met her, what is the harm? it is a kind side of human nature to be grateful. Taylor Swift deserves acknowledgment!
The Nagra page is great! More of that, please... I, too, dislike the "acks" escalation. Though I don't think of it as a social media thing, more the natural extension of the way the poetry ecosystem works. "Trading favours" sounds bad but it's also just a neutral description of a barter economy.
It may also be connected to changing social mores (millenials place a very high value on "agreeableness", I think...). Once these things start rolling they're very hard to stop. Until they get out of hand and provoke a backlash.
Marvelous. Laugh-out-loud observations on the metastasis of logrolling. I shared with my wife, who is on approach to land her first novel and roll to the gate for an enthusiastic welcome by her not-yet-adoring public (bagpipe fanfare off to the side). She who sleeps with me has been slogging through the publisher's requirement to solicit blurbs from names that mean anything to anybody, as if anybody ascribes meaning to blurbs in the first place. My bride has felt hurt by rejection from other writers who live in the same town, breathe the same air, but have politely declined to blurb, perhaps because they have something better to do, like, um, write their next novel? Can't wait to read a novel that is entirely acknowledgments and blurbs, (insert image of) hippos wallowing in the mud puddle. How fun to watch them splash themselves!
Morning all, Love today’s post re Acknowledgment effusions! Been silently wondering about this since first encountering their emergence on the fiction side ( Seemed a bit grandiose when most of us thought that a one-liner dedication on the imprint page was plenty).
Love coming on here to see what you're moaning about each week and whose turn it is for you to be mean to. Superlative and extensive thanks to all involved in the above.
Warm and peculiarly appropriate thanks to Eleanor Livingstone for (among other things) pointing out that (most fortuitously) this week's Moral Maze is on the thorny issue of gratitude https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0028l07
Agree about aspects of like culture on social media but disagree completely with regard to acknowledgments. Writers should feel free to acknowledge whoever they like.
Saying thank you is a way of showing your generosity of spirit and gratitude, it could be that, there is an aspect of ‘for show’ to some degree but it’s not really for someone else i.e. you (!) to judge whether a person is genuinely thankful or not, we all have absolute freedom and liberty to be grateful in strange ways. If someone wants to thank Taylor swift for inspiring them, though they may never have met her, what is the harm? it is a kind side of human nature to be grateful. Taylor Swift deserves acknowledgment!
In a strange way, I am grateful for your opinion on this opinion piece....
https://substack.com/profile/279325664-john-shane/note/c-100147387
The Nagra page is great! More of that, please... I, too, dislike the "acks" escalation. Though I don't think of it as a social media thing, more the natural extension of the way the poetry ecosystem works. "Trading favours" sounds bad but it's also just a neutral description of a barter economy.
It may also be connected to changing social mores (millenials place a very high value on "agreeableness", I think...). Once these things start rolling they're very hard to stop. Until they get out of hand and provoke a backlash.