I don't know how I feel about this rejection. It says: "Thanks for sending your story to failbetter.com. We're sorry to report that it's not right for the site. We wish you the best of luck placing it elsewhere." Then there's the quotation by Samuel Beckett from whence the name of the journal came: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." (Could be the motto for this blog.) On one hand, I feel like I am just following directions. On the other, I feel like a double loser. Hmm? Perverse.
6 comments:
It's a horrible name for a journal, though -- it shines too strong a light on the success/failure aspect of writing. Which might be impoortant for writers, but readers don't give a crap about it. And a journal should be for readers, imho.
I got a Failbetter reection today too. It took them ages to get back to me...Meh.
Meh, indeed. I wonder if everyone got rejected today? IV: Perfect number of adjectives; couldn't be any better, even if you tried.
Know what's really stinky about it? They are simply "reporting" that your story is not "right for the site," as if they were bureaucrats in a gray building processing piles of mss as efficiently as possible.
This bullshit, heartless business of literary journals, and the whole literary scene with the crap mediocrity it thrives on is revolting, along with those stupid workshops, colonies and retreats. Frank fucking Kafka never went on a bullshit writing retreat. And no literary journal today can claim that is has any cultural significance. It's all bologna.
sp: Love your imagery. Kafka would be proud. You just gave me an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel that I intend to just plain fail, but finish, never mind that irrelevent adverb "better."
Thanks.
Maybe you failed too well. Did you read anything on that site?
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