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

[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.

[michaeliangray]

I had completely forgotten to put you onto that, I'm glad you found it.

I would be a little put aback with the whole "core" thing, however what those folks are doing is really neat. I am seeing more - a small subset so far - of younger folks starting to gravitate back to older, simpler, actually sustainable lifestyles. It may just aesthetic for some folks, but others get the deeper point of it.

[mo_drui_mac_de]

The irony of course being that '-punk' these days is more and more assuredly a label that reveals its bearer as being bought and sold subservient to The Man, with just enough faux-edgelord paraphernalia to keep themselves persuaded they're actually rebelling against something (mainly by posting boring internet screeds, wearing insanely overpriced brand name clothing, and listening to dull, generic music).

At least with '-core' there's a connotation of being over-the-top enthusiastic and involved in whatever it is that's having a suffix slapped onto it. I can totally picture 'super-enthusiastic old-fashioned handicrafts made with a fervent, almost feverish passion.' Picture 'cottagepunk', on the other hand, and the rather tacky, unpleasant images that arise most assuredly were shipped straight to your door by an Amazon drone, and are mostly plastic...

[ivn66]

as far as I can tell, what you say about “punk” was that way considerably earlier than when its errant labeling began. Have you ever read the story behind the formation of The Sex Pistols, for instance? The whole thing strikes me as a good contemporary example of what JMG’s often written about harmlessly ineffective avenues of dissent helping to preserve the status quo.

[(Anonymous)]

Cottagecore is just Grandmapunk with the serial numbers filed off.

Cottagecore and more

[randomactsofkarmasc]

My daughter said my decorating would be considered 'dragoncore'. I thought she was joking, but I searched online and found descriptions of many 'cores'... might be fodder! Alas, no 'climatecore'. But perhaps a character with a 'cloudcore' aesthetic? :-)

https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Core_Suffix