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

[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.

[jruss]

I have something I’ve been working on.

Humanity among the stars a sort of Star Trek type of future if Rodenberry had been more overtly capitalist.

A world where a mixture of American and Japanese culture is dominant. Would that be something for this?

[ecosophia]

Does it have anything to do with the Grist submission requirements or the attitudes behind them?

[jruss]

I think it covers the anti-Capitalist slant behind it and the race attitudes what with the evil white people still playing a major cultural role.

Especially given Grist wanting “Solarpunk” which is anti-West, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Usual stuff the woke claim to hate.

Edited for clarity

[ecosophia]

Hmm. I'll take a look at it once submissions open, if it fits the other requirements, but if it doesn't engage the Grist submissions guidelines and mindset any more specifically than that, I'm unlikely to select it. Partly that's because humanity-among-the-stars has been done to death at this point -- I can't think of a cliché that's been more heavily milked than that one, and it deserves decent burial.