catching up
By shag carpet bomb • Apr 24th, 2008 • Category: Racialization, Third World Feminism, Whiteness, Womn of Color Feminismi still haven’t had much time but i did stumble over some of the recent events re brownfemipower, amanda marcotte, appropriation, and racist imagery.
i suppose, having been accused of appropriating for writing the old bitch lab/queer dewd blog, i should be sympathetic. obviously i’m not but i did have to laugh when, recounting events to R, not always known for grasping the ins and outs of feminist politics, i had barely got two words out about the imagery inside marcotte’s book and he said, “Can we spell, “Someone Doesn’t Get it Yet?”
You have to stop and wonder, if a guy who for years (and still does) politically identifies as rightwing libertarian, can immediately see what’s wrong, then what happened to Seal Press and Marcotte? I defended Seal way back when, because I’d always relied on them for some of the better representation of WOC issues, especially global issues, third world feminism, and so forth. Well, I’m sorry I defended their sorry asses and, frankly, that they’re sinking financially doesn’t bother me a bit. Shit, if I had the cash, I’d throw it at some folks and demand that someone start “Kitchen Table Press 2.0″ to make their exit from the world of publishing that much quicker.
as i told chuckie and ilestre in comments, i’m busy busy busy with the job, house hunting, packing, moving, cleaning. we’ve been going through a sale at my workplace — the company’s on the auction block (in a good way) — but they are in maintenance mode and there’s a hiring freeze. which means we’re making do with less. meanwhile, i’m testing the job market waters figuring that i will keep my options open. with all the managerial training, putting in extra time to help develop the IT mgmt track, and the certification training, shag is a pooped puppy most of the time. haven’t been going to the gym b/c most nights are filled with something to do or just respite from the sometimes stressful day. mostly, it’s been stressful in a good way. the training has actually been fun and very interesting.
and implementing the training is what has been most rewarding about my job. but i gotta tell ya: dealing with you high expectation youngins on the job — you all seem to expect that your job is fun! exciting! entertaining! i am trying to make sure things stay exciting, but there’s only one of me and i got my other mundane work to do, yanno?
anyways, i’m sure that is about as clear as mud but i have to go do some laundry. i bought a spill proof coffee mug and have, thus far, managed to spill on a blouse three times now. if i had the receipt, that sucker would be at the exchange counter. alas. i’m stuck with the useless fucking thing.
later
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SEIU, Amanda Marcotte, Seal Press. Seems like the season for self-discrediting, doesn’t it?
Assuming that Seal Press is right, that WOC books don’t sell, we have a nice example of how maximizing turnover of capital generates racist outcomes. Leaving aside the subjective aspect of white indifference, of course.
And why we need self-sustaining organizations big enough to do things like publish books without the dictates of the market.
they said that anthologies don’t sell. but if she wanted to stick with the anthology, then if she got a big name feminist to forword it, then it would do better. the suggestions were pollit and steinem. and it’s the suggestion that rankled since they could have suggested any number of WOC luminaries instead.
as for not selling, well, that applies to the author and contributors. the thing about anthologies is that they generally don’t pay the contributors — the authors of the collected articles.
and what is that exactly? kind of shitty, yes? yes. there’s no way around that: editing a collection of contributions for which authors of said contributions are not paid is amazingly exploitive but how many people think about that? few. because usually the deal is that the contributor is willing to donate their work (”gift it”) with the hopes of becoming a more well-known author and getting her own book deal, or adding to her list of publications (for academia — tho said addition in academia is worth zippo. like andrea smith listing her edited anthologies as a publication is laughed at by u mich because, well, that’s the way they do things in unis where anthologies aren’t rated to high on the scale of worthy publications)
but otherwise, yeah, the general principle of which you speak generates racist outcomes.
but what if anthologies don’t sell under communism? as a society, won’t we have a stake in producing things that will be desired by members of society. would it be a waste of goods and labor to spend time producing books a society doesn’t want? it’s always one of those questions I’ve liked to ponder in the past.
the one i had to deal with this week is educating someone on what a company is buying when it gives you a paycheck. the original answer was: i get my paycheck in exchange for my time.
wrongo!
you get your paycheck because a company is *renting your behavior*.
big fucking difference and, as Richard Edwards shows in a book, name of which I’ve forgotten and its now packed away, it’s that difference, between renting your time and renting your behavior, that is at the heart of labor struggles. and as i read management ideology books, it is precisely at this juncutre where exploitation and oppression together work at its more insidiously, creepy best. because, in order to rent the right kind of behavior, you have to have what management ideologists like to call “buy in.”
anyway
but what if anthologies don’t sell under communism? as a society, won’t we have a stake in producing things that will be desired by members of society. would it be a waste of goods and labor to spend time producing books a society doesn’t want?
Indeed, there has to be some sort of mechanism, and it could even be market-like (lest we forget planning is above all about big choices of the allocation of resources : more roads ? more boats ? more consumer goods ? as for the specific kind of book that is produced, that depends of course on demand - for that matter “market-like” doesn’t mean necessarily there has to be an exchange of money, I presume libraries stock books taking into account how often certain subjects and authors are borrowed, etc.)
In research libraries, the rule is 20% of the books account for 80% of the circulation, and vice versa. A lot of their acquisitions are really just prestige hoarding.
Well yes, but then again, I’m not sure the figures would be that different in any given commercial bookshop ! yes, I’ve worked in one: a few bestsellers account for a lot, a range of good sellers accounts for a bit, and the rest is just stuff that’s got in just to see if it would work.
Also : apart from prestige, there’s also a good argument for having stuff that won’t be used often, but will be pretty crucial when in need (language dictionaries come to mind).