is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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On Submission.
Once, after I sent a polite rejection letter to a poet, he wrote back and critiqued my rejection for its excess of civility. He interpreted said civility to be a form of failure on my part, a lie of sorts, a lack of truth. My first impulse was to write back and say, "Dear Sir, Your work Sucks. My best, JS." But instead I wrote this (found a copy stashed in my rejection letter file): "It is true that civility is sometimes empty behavior that keeps us from stating or even facing important truths. Sometimes that empty behavior should be challenged. But if we jump precipitously to the conclusion that that is all civil behavior could be, that it is nothing but empty, then we will prove ourselves inhuman. It is through this condition�of being a hostage of sorts to these conditions in which we have to live together, and therefore have to develop conventions for getting along�that there can be compassion or kindness in this world, even the very little that there is. Or, as E. Levinas, has said, this weakness is needed for the little cruelty our hands do repudiate. Accordingly, I do not apologize for having been kind to you. I do not want to print your work. In fact I suspect that you have never even looked at a copy of the magazine to which you submitted it."
That poor angry guy, going to all the trouble of rejecting my rejection, writing out his complaint, putting it in an envelope, paying for postage, sending it back to me. We all understand it on some level. Any writer knows it is hard to be rejected constantly. But it seems to me there is so much misplaced anger in this world.
If I got that letter from angry-guy today, I think I would decide not to respond at all. That would probably be the best course of action. I am sometimes torn between two maxims that are important to me: 1) don't treat people like they are invisible or without effect. 2) don�t get pulled into anyone's revenge cycle, AKA don't re-act, ACT. You can see how those two maxims offer me conflicting advice in this instance.
1:23 p.m. - June 10, 2005
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