No workplace for me! For now

[deckardcanine]

Heard back from Black Gate. They say my story was "fast paced and exciting" but "not as original we as [sic] might like, and the prose is a bit stiff in places." They hope I'll try again soon.

That's really the best response I could expect, for a story that wasn't written or even tweaked with publication in mind.

A company has rejected my application to become a proofreader/editor. There's been a miscommunication, possibly my own, for they thought I specifically wanted a summer job, which they wouldn't offer for such duties. They also say I lack experience with copy editing and I might try learning it at grad school. I've requested an unpaid set of trial tasks to prove myself. Sure hope it works; the job I'll probably have otherwise sounds strenuous.

When I seriously want to put off work, I tend to try something new, perhaps as a subconscious justification ("At least I'm growing..."). In the last few weeks, I've pored over the archives of potentially enjoyable webcomics for the first time in quite a while. I looked at four, finished three, and will continue to read two. But fear not that this will occupy my time even more than it already does: I've learned to drop at least one comic from my lineup, usually a daily, every time I get into another. You may think I'm nuts to drop "Dilbert" from about 25 candidates, but that's me. If any obsession of mine is worsening, it's the trend toward anthro comics in particular. (I wouldn't have chosen my LJ name if I weren't into animals.)

Maybe next year I'll give up comics for Lent. That'd strain me worse than forgoing games and sweets.

Comments

[richardf8]

Dilbert jumped the shark years ago. I certainly don't think you're nuts to give it up.

[zombiechick.livejournal.com]

jumped the shark
Nice euphemism. *lol* I agree with you too. Dilbert lost "it" a while back. Office humor of that sort just seems stale somehow.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

I've seen two Washington Post surveys, one snail-mail-based in 1998 and one email-based in 2002, and both put "Dilbert" at #4 among the paper's 40-odd comics. Maybe it has more lasting value to people who actually work in cubicles every day, maybe people just voted for it out of habit or nostalgia, or maybe they really have low standards for Post comics. (Some of my personal favorites made the bottom half.) Then again, on the second survey, "Mary Worth" placed #6, so maybe it was rigged.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Your use of "jump the shark" didn't look right to me, so I Googled it. The meaning according to www.wordspy.com/words/jumptheshark.asp: "In a television show, to include an over-the-top scene or plot twist that is indicative either of an irreversible decline in the show's quality or of a desperate bid to stem the show's declining ratings."

The site does not account for the fact that we now use it for any medium's entertainment series, not just TV. Still, to say that "Dilbert" jumped the shark implies that a particular event told us it was finished. Was there one? If not, the cartoon went stale without announcement.

I had heard before that jumping the shark signalled that the series was doomed to end soon. But if surveys are any indication, "Dilbert" has a while yet. Going by Word Spy's definition, "The Simpsons" jumped the shark long ago.

[richardf8]

The event wasn't so much in the strip as it was in Scott Adams' life. It happened, IIRC, in 1996, when he left Pac-Bell to work on the strip full time. At that moment, it stopped being a cathartic instrument for him and became a merchandising empire. Without personal experience to draw upon, he relies on anecdotes from readers; the jokes repeat and interesting stories that marked early Dilbert (like Dilbert's inventions at home and their unforeseen consequences) have been largely left behind in favor of workplace bitching. If I remembered the Dilbert canon well enough I could probably point to a specific storyline, but it is not, alas, that memorable.

As for the survey you cited, well, if the field of options was the Washington Post's comics page, it is easy to see how Dilbert can come in fourth. There are lots of very, very mediocre comics out there that are worse than Dilbert: Hagar, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Garfield, Cathy, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, and the list goes on. Only a rare few are better: The Boondocks, Get Fuzzy, Doonesbury if Trudeau's having a good day. The fact that Dilbert comes in fourth is not praise for Dilbert so much as it is an indictment of controversy averse newspapers.

Jumping the shark usually does signal approaching doom for a TV series. But newspaper comics tend to trudge on in a bizarre kind of un-life long after the strip's premise has been milked for all that is worth. Some, like Fred Bassett -- which jumped the shark the first time its creator soiled a piece of bristol -- persist even after the death of their creators. Only Bill Watterson, who drew Calvin and Hobbes, had the good sense to go out on top.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

I still read 15 comics online that appear in the paper edition of the WP. Even with all those other duds, I think many need more love.