Article submitted...
So what can I say about this article given that the review process is supposed to be a blind one? i.e. my identity is supposed to be top secret? My reviewer might be out there reading this very post? (Pshaw...very low odds of that, I think)
Well, I can say it's based on the first chapter of my thesis, which was the strongest one in my opinion. I can say it's about Middle English lyrics and (social) networks of manuscripts, which is not a revolutionary concept now, but was at least relatively new when I was first proposing it, in 2008. I can say I used the (free) software Netdraw and it's really cool. But really what I'm doing in the article is provenance stuff (which led me to my interest in William Boswell). The point about using social networks language is to show people that what they've been doing all along is a kind of network analysis. No need to be hostile to "social networks" theory... it's already embedded in what we do. (Like cat hair on our pant legs.) One reviewer really disliked that line, so I had to take it out. But everyone at the conference liked it.
I could gripe about how slow the publication process works in academia but that's not an isolated problem; it's a problem everywhere. Publication takes time. Improvement, editing, finicky details, proofreading; it all takes time. Even at Snapd where I'm freelancing now, photos take three to four weeks to come out, and that's, like, aeons given the life cycle of social media (instagram, twitter, facebook) these days. When my husband and I photograph weddings, it takes a month or two to process all those photos -- to make them look the best they can be -- and the price of "best" is time. So everyone's already posted their hearts out about the magical wedding moments, when the couple finally gets their pictures.
Let's not even get started on how I never got around to doing my own wedding album! We got married four and a half years ago. My mother is still waiting.
Well now that I've officially sworn off academia, maybe I can finally get to the wedding album, hmm?!
Yes your mother is, indeed, still waiting, as in the lyrics of an olde songe "Why are we waiting ? This article is very interesting btw, thanks for sharing. And Mr. Boswell still lives on, at your house, so nice....
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