Apr. 2nd, 2020

rynling: (Gator Strut)
My first monograph was officially released yesterday, on April 1, 2020.

This doesn't mean much, unfortunately. Amazon currently has the book listed as "out of stock," and at the moment you can only get the digital version from the publisher's website.

Last weekend I was supposed to have been giving a high-profile panel, promoting my book, and talking to presses about my second book project at the big conference for my field. I was also scheduled to give a handful of talks at universities up and down the East Coast during April. I've been working for the past four years to make this happen, and now it's all just... gone.

This sounds like an inane thing to say during a global pandemic, but I can't help but be upset.

I keep thinking about Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, which is about why certain groups of people seem to be magically successful while other equally worthy people can never seem to catch their big break. Gladwell's conclusion is basically this: Sometimes, you're just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes, entire generations are at the wrong place at the wrong time. And there's nothing that you or any one individual can do about it.

I'm feeling frustrated and useless right now, and I'm also haunted by a strong sense of being "the wrong type of doctor." I wish there were something I could do. Not about my stupid book about comics, but about the general state of the world. Given that my personal experience with the American university system has been so broken, I'm starting to think seriously about alternative routes to achieving broader and more accessible public education.

If nothing else, I guess I have time.

Profile

rynling: (Default)
Rynling R&D

September 2025

S M T W T F S
 12 34 5 6
7 8 9101112 13
1415 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23242526 27
282930    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Sep. 28th, 2025 02:39 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios