SLPAD - modest to a fault

[Joseph Tracy]

This may be crass but maybe he was pressured to publish for the money and this is how he justified it. Not that good pay for honest work is not totally fine. It is, but he was obviously putting out some serious caveats. 

I personally would rather take up the oft dismissed but IMO still quite powerful COL 49. This is where most P readers start but we might have something new to add if we were to get into it and treat each other respectfully. That said, lead on Michael, I hope it will be ok if I join in with all my thoroughly discussed flaws. I still think of text as neutral ground and hope it can be treated as such.

> On Feb 16, 2023, at 3:24 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Note on pagination - I’m not going to worry much about it
> 
> 
> Shorter quote:
> “there are some mighty tiresome passages here, juvenile and delinquent too.
> At the same time, my best hope is that, pretentious, goofy and
> ill-considered as they get now and then, these stories will still be of use
> with all their flaws intact, as illustrative of typical problems in
> entry-level fiction, and cautionary about some practices which younger
> writers might prefer to avoid.”
> 
> 
> Basically, is this praising with loud damn or what?
> 
> Also - positioning this as a “what not to do” guide to younger writers -
> what kind of tactic is this for an introduction?
> 
> 
> It’s like, ok - we’re leaving the flaws intact
> 
> - so there are presumably some parts that aren’t flaws
> 
> - but his “best hope” is that the stories <taken as a whole> will be of use
> as “illustrative of…problems…and cautionary about…practices which younger
> writers might prefer to avoid.”
> 
> 
> Is he being funny - because that’s one way to read it. If these stories are
> points on a curve that traces through _V._, _CoL49_, and _GR_ then…
> how come “avoid?”
> So like I’m sitting here going “yeah right, he’s got his tongue in his
> cheek”
> 
> Or y’know, maybe those 11 years between GR and SL were fraught with dubiety
> & that’s what he really thinks - or did when he wrote it.
> --
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