The Long View

I hate having to wake up in the dark, a recovered memory perhaps of the summer between high school and college when I had to wake up at 4:00 am to work in a sand pit loading sand dug from the alluvial plain of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, into dump trucks that hauled ass down the road to build Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia.

But my body’s still on Eastern Standard Time telling me it’s 7:00 am, but the clock here in the hotel room says it’s 6:00. In the bleak midwinter, and it’s dark. Snow on snow, snow on snow forecast for later today.

So my mind slides along the interstices between sleeping and waking, when it occurs to me that last night’s conversations and ruminations about innovative media as supplements to or in some cases replacements for traditional media in the dissemination of scholarly knowledge comes up against this paradox: The most efficient means of dissemination are not necessarily the best means of dissemination. Thousands of scholars this week have risked comfort and convenience (and in some instances, safety), to travel hundreds or thousands of miles, to stay in unfamiliar beds (well, some people here are used to that doncha know) and eat overpriced meals to meet face to face. The annual MLA is full of chance encounters, discovered books, serendipitous meetings of friends or friends of friends or friends of friends of friends. (I had several of those last night, simply attending one CELJ session and the CELJ business meeting afterward.)

It’s called making the scene. Klub Kids know it; they don’t sit at home drinking while simultaneously texting, friending, or on-line chatting. They go out and make the scene.

Humans are tribal people, scholars not excluded. MLA is the gathering of the tribes. Like most tribal gatherings, there are ritual exchanges of boasts (”It’s been a busy year; I’ve just come out with two chapters in books, and I’ve got a couple of articles due out imminently.”) and ritual exchanges of gifts (”I want you to talk to Prof. ________ who I think can help you; I’ll email him to introduce you to him.” or “That was a super paper you presented; I’d like you to put it into article form and send it to our journal for consideration.”).

Dissemination of scholarly knowledge is like its biological analogue. Sloppy, excessive, prodigal, inefficient.