As you know, I am no fan of Glimmer Train, since once one of the sisters (I forget which one) was so rude to me regarding a normal matter (I believe it was a reversal rejection) that she had to write me an apology email and blame it on not having had her coffee, or something. But, anyway, here's Worst Writer's commentary on the weird Glimmy Rejection system: "I’ve been rejected once again. Well. Not totally rejected. The submission I recently made has been categorized as “complete” – see pic. “Complete” means, of course, rejection. At the least “complete” means they won’t publish my work. Here’s a visual to help you along."
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
This Train Ride is Over
As you know, I am no fan of Glimmer Train, since once one of the sisters (I forget which one) was so rude to me regarding a normal matter (I believe it was a reversal rejection) that she had to write me an apology email and blame it on not having had her coffee, or something. But, anyway, here's Worst Writer's commentary on the weird Glimmy Rejection system: "I’ve been rejected once again. Well. Not totally rejected. The submission I recently made has been categorized as “complete” – see pic. “Complete” means, of course, rejection. At the least “complete” means they won’t publish my work. Here’s a visual to help you along."
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11 comments:
Also, the stories aren't so great.
The stories are hit and miss. There are always 2 or 3 that make me think, "huh? how the hell did that make the cut?" I won't mention the title and author of a story whose awfulness is memorable (lest its author be a gentle commenter here), but I use it as an example in my class of various things not to do.
As with all lit mags and lit journals, it is a matter of taste.
I have never cracked GT, so chalk my comments up to jealousy if you want.
Oh, yeah, I have one or two rejections from "Glimmer Train". Maybe I'll pull them out of my pile for a Random Rejection someday.
Okay, we will.
Maybe both are true. I find Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake" full of "she was tall, blond and wore black high top boots" and " he was short with dark hair" and "the room was blank blank and blank" In other words, boring description inartfully presented, hiding behind the minutia of very specific details and pop culture references. Additionally, she head hops. The wife gives birth, goes to sleep and suddenly we are in the husband's head. She should stick to short fiction. Fine.
But I am also jealous as hell of her.
i attended a lahiri reading, have read some of her shorts, parts of her novels and i always find to be proficient, yet boring writer. though, like the anon above, i would like to have her readership. oh, and she seems like a very nice person.
I'd rather be bored by someone who writes like Lahiri than "thrilled" by some of the flashier writers, whose sentences may crackle and pop but don't ultimately deliver a big bang. I get tired of show-offy "look what I can do" sentences written by glib, pseudo-intellectual poseurs.
kind of ironic that you label them poseurs; but anyway i wasn't commenting on the structure of lahiri's sentences. her sentences are solid (great even) but her characters, her sleep inducing tone, her penchant for mundane situations (i.e, wife invites college boy into home because they are from the same part of india, falls in love with boy but never acts on impulse, boy goes away, wife's marriage becomes stronger) where nothing happens,well, those are not so great.
for comparisons sake, kevin wilson's sentences are very reserved and under control, but his stories have an immediancy about them. his story, "blowing up on the spot" kind of blows lahiri's more emotionless stories out of the water.
Lahiri's short fiction, I think, is fairly pitch perfect. My problem was with the novel, which is not suited to her bland tone and overreliance on intensely detailed description for verisimiltude. Her writing style creats a stoic distance between her and her characters and has a morose tone. It works in a short piece, but becomes tedious in a longer work. You can execute flawless sentences and still be dull.
And I can say that and still be jealous of her. My point was that the person who criticized Glimmer Train may in fact be jealous of the writers who get pubbed there, but still have the honest and possibly valid point that some of the stories are not exactly fabulous.
Do we all know who Kevin Wilson is? Never heard of the dude.
Kevin Wilson is another of these writers who, because they can't embody an emotion honestly, have to go super high concept to make the grade--think smoke screen and mirrors. It's only experimental in the sense that he is trying to hide what he can't do, which is simply let his characters breathe and let us see them act like real people, not pieces in a game. I'd put him in a category with a lot of people One Story publish. They only look good because so many other 'literary' writers embody emotions badly. It's sad what sells these days is fake theatrics. The one, major exception is Wells Tower, who hits it right out of the park. Without cheating, I might add.
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