Dear Joel--

I am very interested in the troubled flight your review of Snyder's "Danger
on Peaks" has taken -- although it seems to me you've had a soft landing at
Big Bridge.

My e-book, recently announced by Regina Pinto and now in her Library of
Marvels, is also a piece that probably cannot be printed in conventional
book style, because of the color I used throughout.  Would be too expensive.
As soon as I realized the print issue (didn't take that long to realize) I
decided to take advantage of methods available on the web with pdf files -- 
primarily linking.

Even InDesign, which I used to design the book, and which is used to prepare
material for print publishers, has features that permit utilization of
multimedia features.

Your experience with a print publisher who is just entering the online world
will, I think, become less frequent over time as print publishers realize
the large audiences available to them on the web and learn to do the
rudimentary coding that gets them started.  Iowa Review on the Web is a
perfect example of a literary journal -- Iowa Review -- not simply
"adapting" itself to the web, but actually finding the expertise to make use
of the web's possibilities for innovative publication.

I look forward to visiting your review in January.

Best wishes,
Martha Deed
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sue Thomas" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2006 12:38 PM
Subject: Re: [WDL] Wrote a digital critique



Joel
I sympathise. Earlier this afternoon I was listening to Open Book on BBC
Radio 4, where publishers, editors and booksellers were chewing over the
usual issue - how to sell more books etc etc etc. But I'm afraid I turned
the radio off in annoyance when I heard someone say, *yet again*, "after
all, books are the oldest form of media". This drives me crazy. Apart from
the fact that age does not automatically equate with value, books are such a
new technology they are no more than blip in the history of communications.
I love books too, I read them, I publish in print myself, etc etc, but if I
wanted to convey my thoughts and imaginings in a thoroughly tried and tested
'old' medium I'd probably invite you all to meet me around the campfire.
Sue

  _____

From: Joel Weishaus [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sun 27/08/2006 4:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [WDL] Wrote a digital critique



Wrote a digital critique on Gary Snyder's "Danger on Peaks," and sent it to
Rain Taxi, where I've published many times, for their on-line edition. As
it's separate from their print edition (however, the same editor), I thought

maybe they'd be open to making it responsive to purely digital protocols,
and prepared them by first sending the link to an older digital critique.

To "Danger on Peaks," the editor responded: "While I thought the writing was

intriguing and enjoy texts that interpolate outside sources, and while your
desire to use the capabilities of the digital medium is admirable, I don't
feel that the complications involved with the code (e.g. browser
compatibility, formatting challenges) fully justify the advantages to using
the advanced citation format. I also found the layout of the text alongside
the pictures somewhat confusing design-wise, and as such thought that it
detracted from the reading of your essay."

It's not a question of not being published---Big Bridge immediately took the

piece for their January issue---, but of publishing the work as envisioned.
The temptation to create a manuscript that could be published in a paper
journal was there, until I thought about how the younger generation is not
reading so many books, but prefer electronic means of communication. As with

every generation, they've moved on, while many editors who grew up with
print are remaining behind, especially the non-profit ones (literary
foundations, too), who don't have a "bottom line."

It is not enough to say, "I love books," as this is a given. Picasso said,
"Cézanne is the father of us all," even while advancing his work past that
of the master's. Thus, an artist grips his or her vision like a rope, having

chosen to climb the most challenging side of the mountain, as indeed there
is danger on peaks.

-Joel

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