Stratofanatic's Emporium

It's true . . . this year, I participated in my first Tolkien Reading Day, which occurs every March 25th (the day Frodo threw the Ring into the Crack of Doom). Normally, even though I'm a member of the Tolkien Society, I don't do fannish things. Not that I object to them for any reason -- I've just never really done them.  This year's participation, though, came about because someone I went to high school with, whom I'd only spoken with maybe twice in the last two decades, sent me a fb message asking if I'd like to do join in their yearly Tolkien meet-up to celebrate. Given the coronavirus, it was on Zoom, of course. I was a bit skeptical, but hey, I participated,, and it was surprisingly fun. There were four of us, including myself, and we chit-chatted about Tolkien and the T. Society's suggested theme, which this year was "nature and industrialization." It was kinda nice talking about literary things with people who weren't academics, a...

Well, the U of A has just officially moved in-person classes online due to Coronavirus, as many other campuses have already done. Won't affect me ( I teach online already), but it'll be a jarring transition -- however prudent -- to all my fellow colleagues and students. UA is also saying, "International travel and out-of-state travel will be strongly restricted." My upcoming conference next week, ICFA 4, hasn't (and won't) be cancelled. I'm still planning on going. The money is a sunk cost, there's been no reported instances of coronavirus in the Orlando region, and I really am excited about going. Nonetheless, I'm feeling increasing guilty about the decision. So far, about a quarter of the participants have already self-cancelled, and that'll probably increase significantly with the European travel ban announced yesterday.

The hard thing about slowness in academic publishing is that I've had 7-8 articles "in process" for at least two years, more in some cases, which can be spiritually trying. The plus side? Sometimes, you get a bonanza of riches, or t wo publications in one day! For the first article, it's entitled " The Image of Law in Stephen R. Donaldson's 'Reave the Just': Agency, Blame, and Sexual Assault ," and it comes from the journal Law & Literature. I wrote about the publication misadventures of this piece a few weeks ago . Basically, it's about the strengths and weakness of the liberal position on rape law. From what I gather, it'll appear in the print version shortly -- Taylor & Francis (the publisher) seems geared to the sciences model of publication, in which immediate publication is important for impact factor.  The second article comes courtesy of The Journal of Tolkien Research . This one has the snazzy title of " On...

So my good friend (and fellow editor at Fafnir) Laura E. Goodin agreed to look over an article I was currently laying out for publication in JTR, and she took exception to the following sentence: "Since Strauss is best known for his thesis on esoteric writing, it cannot avoid mention." This was her marginalia response: "[ the phrase] 'cannot avoid' assumes agency on the part of the thesis, which is a neat trick." That comment led to the following email exchange, formatted for clarity. DENNIS: Wait, I'm going through your comments, and ARE YOU SAYING THAT MY THESIS CAN'T ASSUME AGENCY? I think you just made my poor widdle thesis start to tear up a little. LAURA: Tell your thesis to grow a pair of ovaries and toughen up. LAURA: Really, you coddle them, Dennis. You do. LAURA: Also, I just spotted a typo in one of my comments ("implicity"). Oh, the mortification; oh, the irony. DENNIS: I'm just saying, someday maybe you'll turn around...

Or, to use the more common abbreviation, the ORCID. The journal Law & Literature recently asked me for mine following the acceptance of my Donaldson article, but I didn't have one. But then I also received a stern e-mail from the University of Arizona saying, basically, "All U of A scholars must get an ORCID, or else!" I never thought this applied to me. After all, ORCIDs aren't that common in the humanities, plus research isn't part of my job description as a lecturer. Still, given the Law & Literature publication, I went out and became the proud new owner of an ORCID ( 0000-0002-3620-3972) . As a Tolkienist, though, I'm pretty sure that "ORCID" is an abbreviation of "Orc Identification Number." I honestly have no idea what else it could mean. A type of flower? God knows.

So, just got the outside reader's report back from a journal in which I really want to publish. Their verdict? The first three sections -- brilliant!  The final section -- well, let's just say it ranged from "meh" to outright dislike. So they strongly recommended I cut it. Thing is, I'm really attached to that final section, and I think it truly adds something substantive to my main argument. So now I"m pondering what to do.  Options:  Say "Hell no!" and take my article elsewhere. This, of course, isn't   that viable an option. The article has been in circulation for almost four years due to various mishaps (none of them mine), and it's time to get things over with. Plus, I really do like the journal, Tolkien Studies, that's interested in it. After all, where else should a Tolkienist publish? And also! You can't discount the opinion of all four of their scholarly readers, including the editors, who were resolutely ...