“The format and design make it an appealing coffee table pleasure for guests to flip through and comment on.”
Somebody with a Ph.D. and several scholarly publications wrote that. I have to mini-rant here, because somebody in that situation should not be telling anyone else how to write.
Here is the first (of many) problems of my field. The need to anoint the chosen few above everybody else. I have never seen such a great divide in the chosen few over the many in any other field than naval history. Don’t know what I mean? Anybody that is either….
A. Young
B. Relatively Unpublished
C. Low level employee working hard
D. Mid level employee at the glass ceiling
E. Aspiring writer/academic with crushed dreams
….knows exactly what I am talking about.
Buddah had Four Noble Truths on the Path to Enlightenment. Here are my Four Noble Truths about Naval History:
1. Publication is Next to Godliness (?)
Just because you have a book/something published doesn’t give you the right to treat somebody like shit and look down on them. Cool story, bro. I don’t care who you are, I still think you are a piece of shit. The worst part is, you probably know it, too. Let us please not assume that anybody younger than you doesn’t know anything. We may surprise you.
2. Your degree or status does not make you a good writer.
See the above quote at the top of the page. At some level, there is only so much you can do.
I have seen middle schoolers with better writing skills than some of these PhDs. I’m not doing that to stab at anybody who has one, but it is a true fact. Either you have it or you don’t. I’m not pointing that out to anybody in particular, I’m just saying that writing is an art – you have to treat it as such. This means you must constantly shape and evolve your craft to become better. Otherwise, you end up with a great reputation of somebody editing your work behind the scenes. Don’t worry about taking all the credit. That’s a given.
EDIT: 10:39am
I have to add more. I feel compelled because of something else related to this idea that I neglected to mention. Ok. Here it is.
I am really bugged by the elitism of a Ph.D. What in particular? That a Ph.D. in history, specifically on a subject like naval history, makes you a “professional.” I just read a book review that made me want to puke. The review, done by somebody with a doctorate, analyzed a book about the Pacific War. The book was written by somebody without a Ph.D. Uh oh. You bet your ass the first words written on the review were “Though an amatuer historian…” Wait, what? An Amateur? The book came out on an academic press. What gives you the right to call it amateur. I actually compared the reviews of each of the authors on Amazon. Guess who had a better rating by TWO STARS? That’s right. Where does this elitism come from? What gives you the right to say these things, when there is no leg to stand on. This is, of course, not always the case. It seems more common than ever now. So, to all the anointed – in the immortal words of Les Grosman:
3. You Admittedly Paid Your Dues. Now What?
You have worked very hard to get where you are. That’s great – but why settle for mediocracy now? Have we gotten to that point. Do ladders only go up half way? It’s like you are sitting in a warm bath and you can’t get out of it because you like looking at the bubbles from your farts. This mentality also keeps the job situation stagnant and lacking in innovation.
4. The Restaurant Mentality
The one rule in working in the food industry is to not piss of anybody that is handling your food. Same goes for all of your article submissions, etc. that you want to see pasted across the internet. I don’t think anything else needs to be said here about that.
These problems are unfortunately endemic – but there is a cure. It’s respect. A little of it will go a long way in this field.
Delusional Thoughts From Fantasy Island 