If a diurnal 80% in front of a screen is making you go blind, then plead to your employer that this is a work-place hazard, and request that they send all work assignments by snail-mail.
I am happy, in that when I go home, I am electronically un-tethered (other than by land-line), nor can I be wirelessly "beamed in" (other than via walkie-talkie, or citizens band, should the need arise). I read books on paper... And while I do write through keypad and screen, it is strictly off-line! I do appreciate this as a luxury that not everyone can enjoy.
I wish I could, and am considering taking a sick-leave in order to reduce the problem somewhat. But the real problem is deeper: I don't know where the line between employer-related screen-staring and non-employer-related screen-staring is to be placed. Say I write a review for the TLS of a book related to my broad research profile. Then the billing department of that publication asks me to fill out a bunch of information through their online payment-processing portal, using all sorts of UK-specific acronyms that are unfamiliar to me, etc. Say this sends me into a catatonic fit. Is that my employer's problem? Or is it a problem I took on myself by opting to take on this extramural activity? Academics are expected to take on *some* extramurals, e.g., in publishing scholarly articles, but there is a huge gray area, in which I myself spend a lot of time, and I don't think anyone can furnish an objective answer to the question of where the responsibility lies when the demands these tasks place on us bring about real harms. I know I sound like I'm just griping, but I actually think these are serious problems for all of us, and I suspect many others have comparable experiences.
Admittedly, I knew it was a lot more complicated when I said 'your employer'. True, the line between work time/personal time has been blurred considerably, thanks in large part to the 'advancement' of digital tech, and where it has gone wireless especially. You have written critically about this blurring, particularly in the recent Harper essays... In fact, at the time, I was telling people that your Permanent Pandemic piece was a watershed moment; for a legacy publication to give a dissident voice against the "regime" as you there named it, this was pretty much unprecedented as of June 2022.
It will be said that this is just the march of 'progress' and there's little to be done about it; but I do detect growing resistance. I understand that Davos-man is unhappy that things haven't quite 'advanced' as quickly as had been hoped. People can choose for themselves what constitutes progress, and I do think that more and more are recognizing that what is presented as such, is not progress at all.
Will these sessions be recorded at all, or permit virtual participation? I'd pay for either. I'm in the US, and while I would adore a several-week jaunt in Paris, my schedule doesn't allow it unless you were to host another one of these later this year in June.
Edward Mycue pursued graduate studies at North Texas State and Boston University, then joined the Peace Corps., training at UC Berkeley, University College in Legon, Ghana, the US Department of Agriculture graduate school in Washington, D.C. and the International Peoples College Denmark. He has led writing groups in San Francisco since the 1970s.
His books include:
Damage in the Community, 1973 San Francisco, CA, Panjandrum Press
Root Route & Range Song Returns, 1979 Melbourne, Australia, Paper Castle Press
The Singing Man My Father Gave Me, 1980 London, England, Menard Press
Torn Star, 1985 Indianapolis, IN, Oberc Press Edward, 1986 Cambridge, MA, Primal Press
Mindwalking, 2008 Seattle, WA, Philos Press
Song of San Francisco, 2012 Peterborough, Cambs. England, Spectacular Diseases Press
I Am a Fact Not a Fiction, print edition 29 Oct 2023, Wordrunner Press
Antoinette Vella Payne, a San Francisco native, hosts 1428 Poets, a monthly open mic reading at 1428 Haight St in San Francisco, and is a regular participant at Sacred Grounds, the longest running weekly poetry venue in San Francisco.
She recently completed her first poetry collection, entitled That’s What Happens When you Live on Haight Street, and she is co editor of Richard Sanderell’s posthumous collection of poetry and prose, entitled Richard Sanderell, The Cursive Writer of San Francisco.
San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita Kim Shuck hosts our virtual poetry series the second and fourth Sunday of each month. No in-store audience, only on line. The Zoom link will be attached soon
Home ownership comes with a whole lot of new and interesting sites of shame and self-loathing. Every time I walk past my unused compost bin I know, on a deep and personal level, that I am failing to live up to that the Captain Planet PSAs I watched as a kid.
If a diurnal 80% in front of a screen is making you go blind, then plead to your employer that this is a work-place hazard, and request that they send all work assignments by snail-mail.
I am happy, in that when I go home, I am electronically un-tethered (other than by land-line), nor can I be wirelessly "beamed in" (other than via walkie-talkie, or citizens band, should the need arise). I read books on paper... And while I do write through keypad and screen, it is strictly off-line! I do appreciate this as a luxury that not everyone can enjoy.
I wish I could, and am considering taking a sick-leave in order to reduce the problem somewhat. But the real problem is deeper: I don't know where the line between employer-related screen-staring and non-employer-related screen-staring is to be placed. Say I write a review for the TLS of a book related to my broad research profile. Then the billing department of that publication asks me to fill out a bunch of information through their online payment-processing portal, using all sorts of UK-specific acronyms that are unfamiliar to me, etc. Say this sends me into a catatonic fit. Is that my employer's problem? Or is it a problem I took on myself by opting to take on this extramural activity? Academics are expected to take on *some* extramurals, e.g., in publishing scholarly articles, but there is a huge gray area, in which I myself spend a lot of time, and I don't think anyone can furnish an objective answer to the question of where the responsibility lies when the demands these tasks place on us bring about real harms. I know I sound like I'm just griping, but I actually think these are serious problems for all of us, and I suspect many others have comparable experiences.
Admittedly, I knew it was a lot more complicated when I said 'your employer'. True, the line between work time/personal time has been blurred considerably, thanks in large part to the 'advancement' of digital tech, and where it has gone wireless especially. You have written critically about this blurring, particularly in the recent Harper essays... In fact, at the time, I was telling people that your Permanent Pandemic piece was a watershed moment; for a legacy publication to give a dissident voice against the "regime" as you there named it, this was pretty much unprecedented as of June 2022.
It will be said that this is just the march of 'progress' and there's little to be done about it; but I do detect growing resistance. I understand that Davos-man is unhappy that things haven't quite 'advanced' as quickly as had been hoped. People can choose for themselves what constitutes progress, and I do think that more and more are recognizing that what is presented as such, is not progress at all.
Hear hear, brother!
“Love Note to a Playwright” (McGinley)
Perhaps the literary man
I most admire among my betters
Is Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
Who, viewing life as more than letters,
Persisted, like a stubborn Gael,
In not acknowledging his mail.
They say he hardly ever penned
A proper "Yrs. received & noted,"
But spent what time he had to spend
Shaping the law that England voted,
Or calling, on his comic flute,
The tune for Captain Absolute.
Though chief of the prodigious wits
That Georgian taverns set to bubblin',
He did not answer Please Remits
Or scoldings from his aunts in Dublin
Or birthday messages or half
The notes that begged an autograph.
I hear it sent his household wild—
Became a sort of parlor fable—
The way that correspondence piled,
Mountainous, on his writing table,
While he ignored the double ring
And wouldn't answer anything;
Not scrawls from friends or screeds from foes
Or scribble from the quibble-lover
Or chits beginning "I enclose
Manuscript under separate cover,"
Or cards from people off on journeys,
Or formal statements from attorneys.
The post came in. He let it lie.
(All this biographers agree on.)
Especially he did not reply
To things that had R.S.V.P. on.
Sometimes for months he dropped no lines
To dear ones, or sent Valentines;
But, polishing a second act
Or coaxing kings to license Freedom,
Let his epistles wait. In fact,
They say he didn't even read'm.
The which, some mornings, seems to me
A glorious blow for Liberty.
Brave Celt! Although one must deplore
His manners, and with reason ample,
How bright from duty's other shore,
This moment, seems his bold example!
And would I owned in equal balance
His courage (and, of course, his talents),
Who, using up his mail to start
An autumn fire or chink a crevice,
Cried, "Letters longer are than art,
But vita is extremely brevis!"
Then, choosing what was worth the candle,
Sat down and wrote The School for Scandal.
Comp, please? (Mawkish, material, and literary reasons abbreviated.)
Done!
Will these sessions be recorded at all, or permit virtual participation? I'd pay for either. I'm in the US, and while I would adore a several-week jaunt in Paris, my schedule doesn't allow it unless you were to host another one of these later this year in June.
No, alas, it's in-person only! If it's a success we may do it again, perhaps when you are in Paris.
Thanks for the comp for me if possible Edward Mycue San Francisco CA mycueed@yahoo.com
Done, my friend, thanks for reading!
Comp if possible please.Monday, January 8th – 7pm
Kim Shuck hosts “Virtual!Poets”
this time out featuring
Edward Mycue & Antoinette Villa Payne
followed by an open mic
Edward Mycue pursued graduate studies at North Texas State and Boston University, then joined the Peace Corps., training at UC Berkeley, University College in Legon, Ghana, the US Department of Agriculture graduate school in Washington, D.C. and the International Peoples College Denmark. He has led writing groups in San Francisco since the 1970s.
His books include:
Damage in the Community, 1973 San Francisco, CA, Panjandrum Press
Root Route & Range Song Returns, 1979 Melbourne, Australia, Paper Castle Press
The Singing Man My Father Gave Me, 1980 London, England, Menard Press
Torn Star, 1985 Indianapolis, IN, Oberc Press Edward, 1986 Cambridge, MA, Primal Press
Mindwalking, 2008 Seattle, WA, Philos Press
Song of San Francisco, 2012 Peterborough, Cambs. England, Spectacular Diseases Press
I Am a Fact Not a Fiction, print edition 29 Oct 2023, Wordrunner Press
Antoinette Vella Payne, a San Francisco native, hosts 1428 Poets, a monthly open mic reading at 1428 Haight St in San Francisco, and is a regular participant at Sacred Grounds, the longest running weekly poetry venue in San Francisco.
She recently completed her first poetry collection, entitled That’s What Happens When you Live on Haight Street, and she is co editor of Richard Sanderell’s posthumous collection of poetry and prose, entitled Richard Sanderell, The Cursive Writer of San Francisco.
San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita Kim Shuck hosts our virtual poetry series the second and fourth Sunday of each month. No in-store audience, only on line. The Zoom link will be attached soon
34%? A true study of significant figures ought to have a few more significant figures, say 34.567%. But congratulations on making the short list!
Home ownership comes with a whole lot of new and interesting sites of shame and self-loathing. Every time I walk past my unused compost bin I know, on a deep and personal level, that I am failing to live up to that the Captain Planet PSAs I watched as a kid.
The site of the unfinished project is a sore spot even for me, a chronic renter. But I have never accumulated as many as a homeowner can.
(that was meant to be a gift!)
Comp, please? (*insert also a story of woeful finances here*) 🙏
Oh wait, actually not done. Send me a message with your contact info so I can comp you. “Nat” isn't enough for me to find you in my subscriber list.
Sent! My email ends in the word "letters".
Brother, we're almost there, but I'm afraid I can't find your message. Can you send it to jehsmith@gmail.com?
Aye aye, cap! Sorry to be trouble!
Done!
Please comp this inchworm, inching toward death but only several yards behind you!
Done!