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

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.

Re: Pictures of Ruins

[d_mekel]

I like the description of the Mehricans. Also, the date on the first page is my birthday. Last night I had another birthday synchronicity where I notice an artist that died on my birthday. I should read this.

Re: Pictures of Ruins

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for that recommendation! I actually found a copy, probably print-on-demand, on Alibris, and ordered it now.

I also finally ordered copies of _Storm of Steel_ and _The Forest Passage_, because I'd been meaning to read them for a while, but also because these people ticked me off. I don't know what their ideal world would look like, and I suspect they don't either; but I don't think they'd be in a hurry to leave me alive to see it.