Email to Marianne

So great that things are moving forward ████ ██████! That is a relief.

Let me know any notes or additions. Is there something crucial we should address?

(Her note about style is a good one. I will come to you with a proposal for the next round of edits, unless you have a preference already?)

Warmly,

Lauren

Dear Marianne,

Thank you so much for your patience as Josh and I have been moving through your text over the past weeks. We have talked at great length about how incredibly impressed we are with it – your level of knowledge about the subject matter, willingness to explore it from unexpected angles, and commitment to doing so with rigor is received with so much gratitude. Thank you for bringing all of this to the catalogue!

As you have seen, Josh has made some preliminary notes in the google doc and I hope it will be helpful if I respond directly to your bullet points:

• I'm having some trouble with the structure... particularly in terms of how cultural policy developments are introduced. There are many threads in the text and, while I tried to connect them throughout, it doesn't quite work yet.

Honestly, the text flows very well for me. Your set up with N.E.Thing Co. is not only a good hook, but also a really critical foil to Josh’s piece that had not occurred to me and is inspired. It also works to introduce a huge amount of context. Shifting immediately into ‘The Employee’ is very smart, and then we are allowed to read the following sections with those two lenses.

• I ran out of mental juice and still need to finalize my analysis of ARCs in two areas: 1) the question of romanticization of ARC artistic autonomy in relation to the value of autonomy of creative labour (culture/commerce dichotomy); 2) the question of the ARC labour model may be recuperated under neoliberal capitalism

I’m really looking forward to reading these!

• The conclusion is missing --- still hoping to discuss the CCA digital funding announcement

And this!

• Notes and references need to be formatted --- I wasn't sure which style you're using in the book.

I will get back to you very soon on this. Once we have decided on the style. For now, please carry on using your preferred style.

• I didn't really describe The Employee as I thought it would be redundant given the rest of the book.

Yes, that is perfectly fine. There will be a large amount of information about the piece throughout the book. Your analysis should take precedence.

 

I hope that these more general notes can help us move the text forward with ease and collaboration. Once the draft is complete, I would proposed going through it more thoroughly with you. I’m anxious to begin our editorial relationship carefully, given we have not met each other, and I am coming into this publication at a middle stage in its development. Please let me know how you prefer to work – I am open to continuing over email, phone calls or video chat. As you prefer!

 

Thank you again Marianne, for this rich text.

 

Sincerely,

Lauren

Hi Lauren,

Thanks for writing about this. 

First of all, yes, it is a huge relief to be back in communication ████ ██████. I look forward to tying up those loose ends with ███ ██████████ █████████ ████ █ ████ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████████.

Regarding Marianne’s text, I was working my way through a copy document that I made of the text in preparation for having further notes and direction for her structure-wise. I just added these into the text. I think in combination with your comments it should be adequate feedback for now, unless my comments give you further insight from your side… I agree that I just want to see the rest of the paper!

As far as further comments, I made most of them in the paper, but I would like to see a clearer articulation of the way that neoliberalism, in its withdrawal of social structures and reorientation on the individual as the unit of (self) governance, isolates the individual worker and coerces them to internalize the success or failure of their creative endeavour. For me, the isolation of the self as the unit of neoliberal creative governance can be made more explicit and might act as a leitmotif through the text…

I have to say again though that it is such a wonderfully strong paper that I add my comments only to offer support and to give Marianne further energy and perspective to keep writing.

In any case, I look forward to meeting next week!

x

 

If you are comfortable with it - I will add your last comment to mine (indicated as your words of course) and send it off to Marianne right away. 

Best,

Lauren

Sounds good!

Thanks Lauren 🧡

L