(Download) "More Fantasy Crap, Or, Why We Fight (Fellowship Proposal Submission to the National Endowment for the Humanities)" by Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: More Fantasy Crap, Or, Why We Fight (Fellowship Proposal Submission to the National Endowment for the Humanities)
- Author : Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
- Release Date : January 22, 2009
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 72 KB
Description
ONE OF MY RITUALS, EVERY TIME I BEGIN A MAJOR PROJECT, IS TO SUBMIT A proposal for a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It's a harmless pastime, rather like the one Mark Twain described in arid Nevada: "One of the pleasantest and most invigorating exercises one can contrive is to run and jump across the Humbolt River till he is overheated, and then drink it dry" (159). My periodic jumps across the Fellowship Application are useful for several reasons. They force me to muster my scattered thoughts and articulate vaguely formed concepts. They make me commit myself: yes, I am really going to undertake this impossible task. I have to assemble stacks of book and papers into a working bibliography. I have to round up referees, which is a good way to keep in contact with friends and colleagues. When, inevitably, the proposal is rejected, I get a boost of indignant energy. How could they have turned that one down? What was the review committee thinking? I'll show them! This energizing has already resulted in a couple of books and several substantial articles. It is also useful to have one of the reviewers express doubts about the workability of the endeavor. It reassures me that I'm really onto something new. If everyone saw my project as a reasonable and manageable task, I'd probably give it up as derivative, old hat. So, although I can't say thank you to the Endowment for funding my work, I can give them a tip of the hat for giving me incentive to keep going.