Grist (sic) for the Mill

[ecosophia]

Rejection slips are among the enduring features of any writer's life. In fact, I fielded one yesterday. It was from Grist, a glossy pseudoenvironmental rag that caters to the overprivileged, and it was in response to the story I submitted to their "cli-fi" contest back in March. 

Mind you, this came as less than no surprise. I discussed the contest, among other signposts in the strange landscape of thought we've entered in the last few years, in a post over on my blog.  My comments on it were, ahem, far from sympathetic, and the story I submitted to the contest -- "A Modest Contribution" -- was of a piece with that:  I set out to follow the rules of their contest to the letter, while flatly contradicting the spirit thereof. I was a little sorry to get a bland generic rejection slip instead of a scream of outrage, but then one can't be too picky in this business. 

Over on the blog, however, I heard from another reader who'd submitted something in the same spirit and also got a rejection slip.  It occurs to me to wonder aloud just how many readers were as unimpressed by Grist's display of overinflated entitlement as I was, and reacted to it in the same way, by writing a story. If there are enough of us, you know, it might be possible to produce a short book -- or even a not so short book! -- and get it into publication. (And I might be convinced to invite new stories along the same lines, for that matter; you can read Grist's bellowing orgy of virtue signaling disguised as a call for submissions here if you happen to need inspiration.) 

What say you, fellow writers?  Do we have enough stories, in the jargon of a vanished age, to pub an ish? 

Comments

[open_space]

I read the guidelines and as just wondering what exactly did they mean by "Hope". Does it mean to be able to wallow in an energetic bonanza forever and ever? I really don't like when people don't want to look at things by involving touchy feelings. It makes the alternative look "mean" which just sound like manipulation to me!

Would your short story submissions have to be about the climate itself or about for example, how the conditions of the change in climate would impact fields like naturopathy and alternative healthcare?

[michaeliangray]

It is funny that when it comes to hope, it is only their 1-dimensional vision of hope.

From an environmentalist perspective, the idea of the long descent is a very hopeful outcome. Ecotechnic societies as JMG has laid out sounds like something I can really get on board with. Yes it would still be filled with the usual fluctuations of societies and daily politics but that is to be expected. I don’t think grist would give two hoots to this vision.

[ecosophia]

I'm pretty sure that by "hope" they meant the same thing Barack Obama did -- "Make me feel good."

As for the short story, they didn't specify. What I'm looking for are stories that parody, subvert, or recontextualize the sort of thing that Grist was looking for.

YESSSSSS

[(Anonymous)]

WOW WOW WOW! you all he's teaching us how to flip pain of rejection into immediate defiance! take him up on this challenge/opportunity youse guys or you'll be hella sorry when you have your death movie and you missed this opportunity to go drag racing with Papa G through the ruins!

whole new worlds START when you have this kinda reaction as a habit instead of sulking despair or even mild irritation.

xxxxxx

--erika lopez

Re: YESSSSSS

[ecosophia]

Yep. It's always worked for me. In this case, of course, I went in to it not merely expecting but hoping for that rejection slip -- if they'd accepted my story I'd have been completely flummoxed -- and planning on this next move. Fun will be had!

[jruss]

My head hurts from reading that.

Also hopepunk? Do they mean Cyberprep/Post-Cyberpunk?

Gosh dang it all to heck, JMG I’m a card carrying member of what you call the Cult of Progress and I’m ready to write up something just because they got me ticked off.

What are the guidelines for your submissions?

[ecosophia]

Stories between 3000 and 5000 words that parody, subvert, or recontextualize what Grist was asking for. My story suggests a rather very nice world on the far side of climate change, which checks their boxes -- it's just how we got there that was designed not to be to their taste!

In less high-falutin' language: you've read their drivel. Mess with it.

[(Anonymous)]

To clarify - do you mean stories that satirise the Grist contest or stories that redefine their terms to be more in keeping with the future that's actually coming our way?

[ecosophia]

I mean stories that respond to the Grist contest, whether by satirizing it, by undercutting its logic, by messing with their heads, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

I wrote one but didn't submit it. It's short and its a poke at woke politics as much as it is environmental utopianism.

AV

[ecosophia]

That sounds potentially worth including in the collection!

Now is the time to daydream...

[brenainn]

"What kind of a world do you, a future ancestor, want to build? This is your opportunity to build it — on paper."

Hahahahaha. For some reason, that part made me laugh really hard. I guess I missed my golden opportunity to create a make believe world that behaves exactly as I think it should, then pompously act as though I'm offering a tenable path forward. I wonder if the winner of the top prize will spend that three grand toward starting his/her new, better world or if they'll just blow it on useless, material crap? The latest iPhone, perhaps?

I did not write a story in response to "Grist's" contest here but I did just finish the draft for a short story that I hope to submit to "New Maps." It is almost a parody, of sorts, and is focused on a society undergoing deindustrialization but that has formed a religion based on UFOs and the hope of ETI showing up to give them a new techno-utopia. If, however, you end up taking submissions for a book, I'd be happy to submit it for review.

Re: Now is the time to daydream...

[ecosophia]

I'll be looking specifically for stories that are in some sense a response to the Grist call for stories. If your story does that, I'll be interested.

[(Anonymous)]

I bet they don’t have too many readers whose native language is Spanish. Native Spanish speakers hate that stupid made-up word “Latinx.” Prompts eye-rolling and comments about gabachos locos.

—Lady Cutekitten

[ecosophia]

Of course not. That's purely a habit of the privileged inhabitants of Gringostan.

Pictures of Ruins

[(Anonymous)]

The picture for your post seems to be one of those that British and French artists did a lot of back in the day, showing thriving buildings of their time as ruins of the future. Do you know why they did that? There was an entire genre once.

Re: Pictures of Ruins

[ecosophia]

It's from The Last American by John Ames Mitchell, an 1889 novel about a Persian expedition that discovers the ruins of the United States in 2951. You can download it from archive.org here.

[(Anonymous)]

Hopepunk? Really?

[ecosophia]

I think sometimes of what the punk rockers I knew in college in the early 1980s would have said about that...

[(Anonymous)]

I did not submit something to Grist, unfortunately, but I would be interested in submitting a new story, were you to open something up.

Also, I have no particular interest in reading the stories that did get accepted, but I poked around the website a little bit and came across an interview that, I suspect, summarizes the whole endeavor pretty well.

The title is:

"In this writer’s vision of our climate future, trans girls are the only survivors"

The summary is:

"The only survivors are trans girls who are taking estrogen, which, it turns out, allows them to breathe underwater. They emerge from the destruction as human-coral hybrids . . ."

The author's answer to an interview question about what a "sustainable and just" world would look like:

"Because of COVID-related manufacturing and supply chain problems, there has been a hormone drought . . . I don’t want this drought, I want the abundance, I want the access, I want everything for us. I want the water to be literally hormone-ized. I want it to be as abundant as oxygen."

[ecosophia]

Ahem. Yeah, that about sums it up...

Not my cup o' tea

[drhooves]

So I wandered over to the Grist web site after your post in March, and after perusing through the parameters for submission felt somewhat, err, on the outside looking in. Checking into the background of the a number of the judges didn't help. Definitely got the vibe that these are not the sort of people I could warm up to, and couldn't quite place the feeling why - but yeah, "entitled" was part of it. The incessant need for labeling people was another part of it.

I did hack together an outline, got sidetracked, and then felt less than motivated to finish it. I could try to focus and see if I could churn something out, though some more details on the specifics you're looking for would be good. Like open_space, I was struggling with "hope" as well.

Would "A Modest Contribution" be in the book, or posted soon for inspiration?

Re: Not my cup o' tea

[ecosophia]

I'm looking for stories of 3000 to 5000 words that take issue with the crap that the Grist contest was shoveling. "A Modest Contribution" will be in the book.

[deng]

I'm sorry but everything I come up with you will just delete anyway!:)

[ecosophia]

If it's off topic, sure!

Grist indeed

[(Anonymous)]

I ponder these things as I edit a novel with a bit of Bruno in it. The protagonist is subtly critical of the current clime, and I note a pressure on my consciousness to make it more subtle than I otherwise might.

My last non-fiction book received some strange comments about its use of Harlem, which was in no way a comment on anything. That's just where the events took place.

As a nonstrologist with nondual and überatheistic leanings, it seems to me one has to simply step back and watch all of this unfold (assuming one has the free will to do so). Laws of evolution are almost certainly at work and no one ever said they had to work in the favor of humanity, much less authors of "authentic" literature.

Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, albeit dated and not prescient enough, is still worth revisiting for some perspective.

And if one finds oneself writing tomes against this tide, good luck to them. Amazon robots are already ready, willing and able to pull every single last tome from your back catalog should one word "trigger" an algo. At least 4x a year I have to explain to them that the mnemonic examples and homophonic transliterations in my books are mispelled on purpose.

Meanwhile, I'm sure a "tag" is used to exclude bots from analyzing the typos in ye olde Stephen King, of which there are plenty... it's just us "self" published folk they want to enslave to their tyrannical fantasy of no-typo-texts.

LOL... "self" published. Even when I used to make 'zines using Xerox, I was aware of my collaboration with their great and might collaboration. No "one" publishes alone.

Re: Grist indeed

[ecosophia]

That's one of the reasons I avoid self-publishing and go with small to midsized publishers. Nobody pulls their fiction.

Yes!!!

[(Anonymous)]

1) I would love to see (and buy) such a book of short stories! In the unlikely but not impossible event that inspiration strikes - have you a set of guidelines/requirements for submitting stories?

2) IMHO - the bland generic rejection slip from 'Grist' is a sign of just how elitist they think they are, if they can't be bothered to respond in a more creative letter. (i.e., "...while the story you submitted was sufficiently well written, it failed to show proper respect the special ones, those visionaries who deserve the wonderful future that is surely in store for them. Etc.")

Carnelian Furry Blobfish

Re: Yes!!!

[ecosophia]

I'm looking for stories of 3000 to 5000 words that mess with the Grist requirements in interesting ways. Humor is welcome but not required. As for my story, no, it didn't just fail to show respect for the special ones. It was far more pointed than that!

[ivn66]

I note with amusement the seemingly increasing tendency to slap “-punk” on the end of more and more varieties of anything at all.

[ecosophia]

It's like slapping "-core" on the end of things. The other day I encountered "cottagecore," which is a fancy way of saying people doing old-fashioned handicrafts.

Count me in!

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I seem to be in distinguished company! :)

I received the much anticipated rejection letter on Sept 14. Perhaps this calls for a 'rejection party'!

I would be delighted to include my short story in an appropriately themed anthology; I had enough fun writing the thing (it practically wrote itself).

Look forward to possible updates/further communications on the subject...


Ron M

Re: Count me in!

[ecosophia]

Excellent! Let's see how many other stories we can get, but I think I'd like to go ahead with this.

FWIW

[(Anonymous)]

I wasn't about to contribute to Grist, and I don't even know what intersectionality is, but if there was a call for stories set in the next 180 years with guidelines I could understand I'd contribute.

Re: FWIW

[ecosophia]

Sure. My submission guidelines are these:

1. Stories should be between 3000 and 5000 words.

2. Stories should make merry mock of the Grist guidelines, directly or indirectly, or otherwise mess with the woke mindset to the toes of which Grist's editors give daily tongue baths.

Count Me In

[sothismedias]

Definitely count me! I had a lot of fun writing that story, so I look forward to submitting it when the time is right. Speaking of intersectionality, I had always wanted to write a scene in a deindustrial story that was set in a big city and where something happens at an intersection. I took it, and intersectionaltiy, very literally, to my mind at least. I was kind of sad that nobody yelled at me for writing about people getting pulled around in rickshaws by strong and industrious street kids, (or anything else I put in there for that matter). But enough spoilers, I'll await further details of submitting the story.

Thank you for bringing the Grist contest to our attention and for encouraging people to send in tales. I'm excited about the response here.

On punk, in the words of Crass:

"Yes that's right, punk is dead
It's just another cheap product for the consumers' head
Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors
Schoolboy sedition backed by big-time promoters
CBS promote the Clash
Ain't for revolution, it's just for cash
Punk became a fashion just like hippy used to be
Ain't got a thing to do with you or me
...
Do I need a business man to promote my angle?
Can I resist the carrots that fame and fortune dangle?
I see the velvet zippies in their bondage gear
The social elite with safety pins in their ear
I watch and understand that it don't mean a thing
The scorpions might attack, but the systems stole the sting
Punk is dead" -Crass, Punk Is Dead (written in 1978!)

Re: Count Me In

[deborah_bender]

Speaking of taking things literally, I took
"What kind of a world do you, a future ancestor, want to build? This is your opportunity to build it — on paper."
literally, and a story idea popped into my mind, but it would be as depressing to write as it would be to read, so I'm not going to. Anyone who gets the hint is welcome to it.

[(Anonymous)]

I think that -- assuming an anthology of anti-Grist stories gets published -- at least one courtesy copy should be sent to the editors of Grist out of gratitude for inspiring the antithesis of what they were requesting! Cue to heads exploding...


Ron M

[ecosophia]

Oh, trust me, I have that well in mind -- and I'd like to see to it that copies get to some people on the other side of the spectrum who might like to talk about it...

A clean, green, and just future?

[neptunesdolphins]

From the site:
should show our path to a clean, green, and just future. (Of course, we don’t expect your story to be totally rosy or pollyannaish. 180 years of equitable climate progress will involve hard work and struggle, and we invite you to show that, too.)

Imagine 2200 draws inspiration from Afrofuturism, as well as Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, disabled, feminist, and queer futures. The contest is also grounded in hopepunk and solarpunk — literary genres that uplift equitable climate solutions and continued service to one’s community, even in the face of despair.

We’ll be reading for the following core elements:
Hope
Intersectionality
Resilience
A society that is radically different from the one we live in today, and how we got there
A focus on climate, with creative and clearly articulated solutions that put people and planet first
....
Um, what did they just write? It makes no sense. I was actually thinking the Roman Republic or the Middle Ages for clean and green but just? What is meant by "just?" What exactly were these people at Grist hope to accomplish with these stories besides a lot of dead trees? Or dead dinosaurs or whatever?

As a disabled person, the future I envision is going not to be green or neat or clean. Perhaps civilized but that is about it.

Is the Grist really about 'being neat, clean, and civilized?' Is that to separate them from the great unwashed masses milling about?

Re: A clean, green, and just future?

[ecosophia]

Of course it doesn't make any sense. They can't just come right out and say "We want you to write stories that will make the overprivileged feel good about their planet-wrecking lifestyles," so that message has to be coded in doubletalk.

Count Me In

[(Anonymous)]

I had an idea for this story contest that I never put into words because I knew it would get rejected. But I would be very interested in writing for this anthology.

Re: Count Me In

[ecosophia]

I'm delighted to hear it. I'll be posting something in a day or two with details about submitting the stories, and I'll look forward to seeing yours.

[(Anonymous)]

After having read the Grist stories, I'm not sure I can submit anything: they did far too good a job of parodying themselves!

[ecosophia]

I know, it's a heck of a tough job, but I'm confident that you can do it!

[treeoftheweek.wordpress.com]

Sign me up as another interested author. I've a preexisting idea that does, technically, meet their criteria, but which they would certainly not be interested in publishing! This will hopefully give me the impetus to write it up.

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear it! Get writing -- I'll be making an announcement in the next day or two.