April 19, 2004

Wondering Aloud

As many of you know, I’ve been thinking about my professional and personal lives lately. Within the latter, I have been house shopping. I figure it’s stupid to continue to pay rent at a place that has been less and less accommodating and more and more expensive, so I think it might behoove me to by a house at this juncture. Equity good. Rent bad. I have a current favorite, but that probably means it won’t happen. I’ll post others I like soon. So, since I'm thinking about a house which would mean some more years in Macon, I’ve been thinking about my career, too.

I need to do what I can to make myself viable—no irreplaceable—to my division. This means that I have to rock. One of the things I’ve been thinking about doing is starting an online journal that targets students in two-year and small four-year colleges who are new to the study of literature. It would be a peer-reviewed journal that would solicit short readings (500 to 5000 words) on a short story, poem, novel, or play—perhaps film, visual art, music later—geared toward (1) introducing the text to new readers and (2) discussing some of the literary characteristics of that text, like themes, metaphors, symbols, characterizations, etc. Users would make an account on the site and submit their reading. It would then be evaluated by the editorial staff who would either reject it, ask for revisions, or publish it on the site. I could then supplement the site with a forum where students and faculty from around the world could continue to discuss the works, ask questions, and offer comments. I’m thinking about calling the journal Earthshine.

Yes, that would mean this site in its present form would be archived and closed. I‘m thinking that it would not be much of a loss, as (1) few people know about it or read it anyway (2) even fewer post anymore, including myself (I have a brother and sister-in-law having a child, and I know absolutely nothing about what’s going on–that's what I originally made this site for), and (3) the domain would serve me much better professionally at this point. Anyone have any comments? If not, the site will be down to just archives by the end of the summer.