To be a writer, part II

In "To Be a Writer: Part One," this blog examined the impact of mechanical technologies on the vocation of writing.

During the early 1990s, the second generation of cell phones, those which could be used outside of a restricted range, were created, improved upon, and distributed. Although digital cameras and Internet access were not yet widely available on those devices, the ability for individuals to form coalitions, even of the purely social variety, had become greater than ever. Certain technologically outdated moguls opted for early retirement.

Wealthy western nations were embracing not "two chickens in every pot," or "two cars in every garage," but "two televisions in every home." Rap was becoming a progressively more popular form of music. Society cruised on audio-based literacy, with undergraduates balking at the requisite hours of writing classes (it was not until the present decade that college students and others began to holler for opportunities to improve their expository writing skills), posted in just about every postsecondary institution's curricula. The new hot stuff, the issue of the scion of the silicon chip, was not yet profoundly felt.

When that influence began to filter down from the research labs to other social echelons, members of my generation jazzed ourselves up to embrace the particulars of that technology's bells and whistles. Most of us resented the change. 

I don't own a television and I certainly have no desire for one to be incorporated into my refrigerator. I refuse to use a video camera and I have no desire to be able to film, clandestinely, from a handheld computational device. As for mechanized automobile key pads, microwaves that send signals which interrupt international phone calls, or (the impositions created by) electronic gate keys, count me among the dissonant (See: "Cell Phones, Electronic Gate Keys, and Automatic Automobile Key Pads," March, 2008, and "Domestic Technology Woes," January, 2007).

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Science Writing

By creating a graphic description of the travails, through which I've moved, in my seemingly never-ending search for Israeli employment, I have also, unwittingly, created a rhetorical montage of interpersonal experiences. Whereas this great nation has evolved from "pastoral" to "high tech" in several exciting social-economic revolutions, Yours Truly seems to have remained stuck in the hunting and gathering, i.e. in the presocietal stage, of acquiring cash. Thus far, either health troubles or linguistic stumbling (i.e. I'm still catching up on Hebrew), have gotten in my way. In addition, I have been tripped up by some peculiarities of constitution of actual and potential employers, as alluded to in earlier essays.

Consequently, to date, I've taught English as a Foreign Language to university students, in a city far away, mixed it up with Anglo kollel wives, in an American-based college's creative writing program, published articles here and there in trade and in academic periodicals, rejected a book contract for creative nonfiction, am hoping to soon be negotiating a book contract for a novel, rejected the offer of one company to write online for them, was rejected, as a writer, by another company, to write online for them, exposed the questionable ethics of a legal documentation organization, and applied to be part of a collective that writes children's books. Since aliyah, my professional employment experiences have been many and varied. Thus far, among the most interesting of those experiences has been my writing about and teaching of science.