Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Monday, April 15, 2019
A rant of my thoughts after this course
Our last class is tomorrow, and since I haven't posted on the blog in a while I figured - or Jae suggested (he's sitting across from me right now) - it would be fitting to consider what I have learned from this course.
Reflecting back on course selection for this semester, I remember choosing to take this class because I'm a writer who would like to be published someday and a course entitled "Publishing in the 21st Century" was a likely place to begin thinking and learning about that process.
Since then it's been a wild ride. We blew through 16 chapters of family, company, and publishing history. We considered a number of book excerpts and essays on editing and the publishing industry. And we spent half our classes googling any relevant (however that word might be defined) material. We also had the opportunity to interview several people who are currently working in the publishing industry for their inside view on it.
Throughout our course there has - of course - been the recurring theme of: "Is it any good? And will it sell?" When considering what material gets published and how. Another theme from the beginning of the semester that resurfaced in our last class is: "Does Literature last? Or does what lasts become Literature?" I think we've come to the consensus that the answer to all those questions is yes, but in varying degrees and situations.
Another theme we've been considering more recently in class that has captured my interest is how the publishing industry will (hopefully) become more diverse. I especially enjoyed Sarah's project on the romance genre being used to effect change in this area. Professor Stockman's question of whether or not white people should submit less work to promote diversity in the publishing world also provoked interesting conversations.
In my research for my final project on literary agents I also thought about this lack of diversity. Because agents' primary role is networking, after an agent establishes a strong network of editors, other agents, and editorial teams, he or she no longer really needs the support of an established agency to back his or her projects. As a result there are so many (and I mean SO MANY) small agencies started by agents who simply left their former agency to start their own business. The ease with which it seems people can (for lack of better words - and no pun intended I promise) have agency in this area, made me wonder if it would allow for more diversity in the publishing industry. If it is relatively easy for someone to just start their own agency, maybe we'll see more agents of color. With them joining the ranks of gatekeepers in the publishing industry the world of publishing would likely become more diverse.
After more research, I realize that this does happen to an extent. It's still necessary, however, for people of color to be allowed into the industry initially in order to build their network. Once they do, though, they can begin to have an affect on the diversity of the publishing industry. I don't want to steal my own thunder, so I'll leave the rest to be said in my presentation tomorrow.
As the course is coming to a close, though, I guess I can say that I have learned what I hoped to learn, and maybe it will come in handy someday.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Sara: My summer 2019 TBR list + open to any recomendations!
I'm going to leave soon to go back home, and you guys have no idea how happy I am to leave this country for a while. It is funny because then when I'm in Madrid I kind of miss Boston, but then I come back and I'm like "ugh why am I in such a cold, dark and expensive city whyyyy?". Anyways, I'm going back home and I will have some free time to catch up with my reading. I have a huge pile of paperbacks in my room that I had for a while because as sometimes happens, when I went looking for something to read and checked my bookshelf I thought that I had nothing to read so I kept buying books and more books (hence, the reason my parents bought me a kindle as a subtle hint of "please Sara stop spending our money and space in more books please and thank you") and this Summer I'm going to try to stop this pattern.
I created a folder in my Goodreads called summer19 and in there I put the books I already own that I have not read yet. This is the list:
1. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown - I actually bought this book a while ago right after I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand because I loved loved loved the story so much I wanted to keep reading stories about athletes during WWII, but I never got around to read it. This summer hopefully this will be one of the first ones I will read.
2. The Nix by Nathan Hill - I bought this one because I liked the cover, and the story sounded interesting enough.
3. The Secret History by Donna Tartt - I found this book one day while browsing through Goodreads and it had a lot of reviews and a good rating, so I ordered it via Amazon but then never read it. The story sounds mysterious and cool, and this summer I really want to finally finish it.
4. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger and Gene Stone - Fun fact about me: I'm the super obnoxious kind of person that is obsessed with healthy food and the origins of the ingredients and food I eat and all that fun stuff. I'm sort of a hypochondriac, and I'm constantly thinking about diseases I might have at some point in my life and how to not die young and whatnot, so I bought this book but I've only read a couple of chapters. This summer I want to finish every single one.
5. La Verité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert by Jöel Dicker - My aunt bought me this book a couple of Christmas ago, the Spanish version, and I feel bad I haven't read it yet so I'm finally doing it this summer.
6. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - Again, another book I found interesting, bought but never got to read. Apparently, Tom Holland is going to act as the main character in the film coming out based on this book, and I'm obsessed with him so I really need to read this book before the film comes out (whoever is still processing his last scene in Avengers Infinity War, please know you are not alone Marvel really went too far with the whole thing and my Tom deserves an Oscar and he is the best Peter Parker and he is too pure and good for this world)
7. Just Kids by Patti Smith - I've heard her life was really interesting, so I'm looking forward to finally read this one.
8. 11/22/63 by Stephen King - I hate horror books but I feel one should read a Stephen King book at some point in life, so I picked this one who has amazing reviews and is in the Fantasy and Historical Fiction genre. Win-win.
9. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - I had to read this book for a high school essay, and the funny thing is that I read half of it and really liked it but never finished it because in high school you do weird stuff like that so this summer will be the time I get to finally finish it.
10. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - I thought the blurb sounded interesting, and I was in a memoir mood when I bought it but then never read it, so another one for the TBR pile this summer.
11. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (!!!!!!) - I know I said I would try to read books I already own but I lied a little. This is the second book by Helen Hoang, the author of The Kiss Quotient, and is about a character introduced in the first one who is Michael's cousin and has autism too and I'm so freaking excited for this one it is crazy how much I like this author. It comes out on May 7 and I'm going to definitely buy this one and read it as soon as I have it with me.
I created a folder in my Goodreads called summer19 and in there I put the books I already own that I have not read yet. This is the list:
1. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown - I actually bought this book a while ago right after I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand because I loved loved loved the story so much I wanted to keep reading stories about athletes during WWII, but I never got around to read it. This summer hopefully this will be one of the first ones I will read.
2. The Nix by Nathan Hill - I bought this one because I liked the cover, and the story sounded interesting enough.
3. The Secret History by Donna Tartt - I found this book one day while browsing through Goodreads and it had a lot of reviews and a good rating, so I ordered it via Amazon but then never read it. The story sounds mysterious and cool, and this summer I really want to finally finish it.
4. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger and Gene Stone - Fun fact about me: I'm the super obnoxious kind of person that is obsessed with healthy food and the origins of the ingredients and food I eat and all that fun stuff. I'm sort of a hypochondriac, and I'm constantly thinking about diseases I might have at some point in my life and how to not die young and whatnot, so I bought this book but I've only read a couple of chapters. This summer I want to finish every single one.
5. La Verité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert by Jöel Dicker - My aunt bought me this book a couple of Christmas ago, the Spanish version, and I feel bad I haven't read it yet so I'm finally doing it this summer.
6. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - Again, another book I found interesting, bought but never got to read. Apparently, Tom Holland is going to act as the main character in the film coming out based on this book, and I'm obsessed with him so I really need to read this book before the film comes out (whoever is still processing his last scene in Avengers Infinity War, please know you are not alone Marvel really went too far with the whole thing and my Tom deserves an Oscar and he is the best Peter Parker and he is too pure and good for this world)
7. Just Kids by Patti Smith - I've heard her life was really interesting, so I'm looking forward to finally read this one.
8. 11/22/63 by Stephen King - I hate horror books but I feel one should read a Stephen King book at some point in life, so I picked this one who has amazing reviews and is in the Fantasy and Historical Fiction genre. Win-win.
9. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - I had to read this book for a high school essay, and the funny thing is that I read half of it and really liked it but never finished it because in high school you do weird stuff like that so this summer will be the time I get to finally finish it.
10. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - I thought the blurb sounded interesting, and I was in a memoir mood when I bought it but then never read it, so another one for the TBR pile this summer.
11. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (!!!!!!) - I know I said I would try to read books I already own but I lied a little. This is the second book by Helen Hoang, the author of The Kiss Quotient, and is about a character introduced in the first one who is Michael's cousin and has autism too and I'm so freaking excited for this one it is crazy how much I like this author. It comes out on May 7 and I'm going to definitely buy this one and read it as soon as I have it with me.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Molly Kauper- not plugging my blog but totally plugging my blog part 232534
Hi! So today I posted on my other blog about my experience getting scammed by some brands on Instagram. Y'all should check it out- it's super random and sad but...informative? I'm really not trying to just plug my blog, but I spend a lot of time on it so, like, this is what I do instead of reading outside of class :)
https://mollykauper.wordpress.com/2019/04/10/that-time-i-got-scammed-by-some-instagram-brands/
https://mollykauper.wordpress.com/2019/04/10/that-time-i-got-scammed-by-some-instagram-brands/
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Yaodi: I'm having a BLAST
This is a page out of the novel The Dancing Bride by Cynthia Woolf that I'm currently reading, I chose it because it was the BookBub (thanks Evelyn) algorithm's top pick after I checked off all of the romance tags. I think this single page has a bit of everything of what the story contains and it's GREAT hahahaha. I'm almost done and I'm probably going to keep reading more (its a series!).
Evelyn M: A Confession of the Scam I Have Been Pulling All Semester
Hello. This blog post has two points: 1. To clear my conscious and have you all tell me that what I did wasn't that bad and 2. To discuss the stigma against certain majors
I am here to come clean about a miscommunication that turned into a major lie that turned into like mild identity fraud. BUCKLE UP LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
SO, on the first day of my capstone class (Entrepreneurial Growth Strategy for Technology Ventures), everyone in the class introduced themselves and were thus sorted into groups for the entirety of the semester based on various skills — i.e. a finance person, a marketing person, etc.
In my introduction, I said the TRUTH, that I was a Business major, this class was my capstone, and that I was an English minor who was looking to get into publishing post-grad. Having an English minor seems pretty rare in D'Amore McKim so my professor (KEVIN) immediately grasped onto this and turned it into my whole personality.
Over the next few weeks, it became apparent that he had forgotten I was an English minor, and instead thought I was a full-blown English major who had stumbled into his class. The first few times, I corrected him — as he would comment, "Ah! My English major!" whenever I raised my hand — but ultimately I gave up and just accepted this as my new identity. Whatever, right?
WELL, it soon became apparent that because he thought I was an English major in a 4000 level Business class, he was exceptionally impressed whenever I did something correctly. Like, condescendingly amazingly impressed. I was the person in our group to give our Midterm presentation, and when I said the phrase "First-mover advantage," Kevin literally stood up and clapped for me, announcing to the class: "AN ENGLISH MAJOR DID THIS! INCREDIBLE!"
....And it was obvious I was getting better grades because of this.... Kevin truly dropped his expectations of me to the FLOOR and so whenever I did anything mildly correct, I would get a 100%. And this has continued all the way to the final. In EVERY SINGLE CLASS he mentions that I'm an English major. What's a girl to do??
At this point I'm like, Yeah, Ok, I LIED! and Im benefitting from it! But isn't a lie of omission not quite the same?? And also, doesn't Kevin kinda deserve it?? He obviously believes English majors have the IQ of like 17 and is just throwing me a bone, so EXCUSE me for taking it!!!
So, what's the verdict?? Should I come clean during my final class?? Do I make a speech about English majors and stand on the table and deliver it? Do I take this secret (And an A in the class) to my grave?! IS THIS FRAUD?!?!?!?
I am here to come clean about a miscommunication that turned into a major lie that turned into like mild identity fraud. BUCKLE UP LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
SO, on the first day of my capstone class (Entrepreneurial Growth Strategy for Technology Ventures), everyone in the class introduced themselves and were thus sorted into groups for the entirety of the semester based on various skills — i.e. a finance person, a marketing person, etc.
In my introduction, I said the TRUTH, that I was a Business major, this class was my capstone, and that I was an English minor who was looking to get into publishing post-grad. Having an English minor seems pretty rare in D'Amore McKim so my professor (KEVIN) immediately grasped onto this and turned it into my whole personality.
Over the next few weeks, it became apparent that he had forgotten I was an English minor, and instead thought I was a full-blown English major who had stumbled into his class. The first few times, I corrected him — as he would comment, "Ah! My English major!" whenever I raised my hand — but ultimately I gave up and just accepted this as my new identity. Whatever, right?
WELL, it soon became apparent that because he thought I was an English major in a 4000 level Business class, he was exceptionally impressed whenever I did something correctly. Like, condescendingly amazingly impressed. I was the person in our group to give our Midterm presentation, and when I said the phrase "First-mover advantage," Kevin literally stood up and clapped for me, announcing to the class: "AN ENGLISH MAJOR DID THIS! INCREDIBLE!"
....And it was obvious I was getting better grades because of this.... Kevin truly dropped his expectations of me to the FLOOR and so whenever I did anything mildly correct, I would get a 100%. And this has continued all the way to the final. In EVERY SINGLE CLASS he mentions that I'm an English major. What's a girl to do??
At this point I'm like, Yeah, Ok, I LIED! and Im benefitting from it! But isn't a lie of omission not quite the same?? And also, doesn't Kevin kinda deserve it?? He obviously believes English majors have the IQ of like 17 and is just throwing me a bone, so EXCUSE me for taking it!!!
So, what's the verdict?? Should I come clean during my final class?? Do I make a speech about English majors and stand on the table and deliver it? Do I take this secret (And an A in the class) to my grave?! IS THIS FRAUD?!?!?!?
Light Reading: Trace Evals
My go-to prose in the past week or so has been scrolling through the very wonderful and intuitive database that holds aaaaaall of the Trace evals (since apparently none of the professors I want are on Rate My Professor)! I think they make it intentionally frustrating to protect the shitty professors. At the end of each semester, I find myself too tired to really articulate how horrible a professor is (but always leave good comments for my favorites). And so I appreciate the art and effort behind a scathing TRACE eval. One unnamed professor had multiple comments (multiple!) describing him as 'narcissistic', so I was able to quietly and triumphantly cross that guy off my list of Fall 2019 possibilities. I had a dream last night that one of the other professors I wanted to take was in the Trump administration, though, so I'm really not sure what that means. Can't be good. I just don't want the ratio of good to bad professors that I had this semester, which was a clean 50/50. (Don't worry, professor, you're in the good half). The right professor makes all of the difference. I have no plans for grad school at this time due to 1) lack of money and 2) lack of patience, but that doesn't mean that I'm fine with an asshole professor who can't string together a coherent thought and gives out arbitrary B+s to everyone. It's not that I'm so picky! It's that this semester, one of my professors read out loud from a packet of Bible quotes for 32 minutes. Not an exaggeration. So I'm trying to avoid that in the future. For anyone who also wants to avoid that, treat yourself to some light reading on the TRACE database.
Project
Hiii everyone for my project I made a podcast episode with some ppl talking about a bunch of book and reading related topics, here is the soundcloud link lol if you so choose to listen to it:
https://soundcloud.com/villain5000/literature-episode-1
I also just posting for easy access if I need to pull it up in class :)
-peter
https://soundcloud.com/villain5000/literature-episode-1
I also just posting for easy access if I need to pull it up in class :)
-peter
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Mia: Book Clubs
My friend and I wanted to start a book club for our culture club and then I realized that I don't really know what book clubs are. I've never been apart of one. Do you just... Pick a book? And read? And then meet and talk about it?
I know there are subscription based monthly book programs, so not really a book club, but kind of. I'm sure that that helps the publishing industry to some extent, however, you could just ... Buy the book. At a bookstore?
I'm rambling.
Anyway, join Barkada.
I know there are subscription based monthly book programs, so not really a book club, but kind of. I'm sure that that helps the publishing industry to some extent, however, you could just ... Buy the book. At a bookstore?
I'm rambling.
Anyway, join Barkada.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
what i really think
I've read the entirety of The Aeneid by Virgil for the monstrosity of a class that is Global Literature to 1500 and feel as though I deserve some kind of prize or medal...I'll wait...
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