The Employee by joshua schwebel
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Re: Timeline

Michelle Lacombe <█████████████████> To: Josh Schwebel <privatejosh@gmail.com> Cc: Lauren Wetmore <████████████████████████████████ >

Hey Josh and Lauren, 
A quick note to let you know that I have been slowly plowing through the text, which has been cut down a lot, and more or less divided into sections, which I am now combing through. As I cut parts that double and overlap, I realize that spoken work is MUCH more vague than written text, so I also have to go through a lot to add precision that lets the endless streams of "it" refer to something concrete. Slow work, but less painful than the first process... although the "objective" of the text still feels a bit vague to me. En tout cas.

The first 6 pages are in what I would consider a first draft form, so I still have about 50% of the text to work through. Based on my work on the 1st "half", I should easily be able to get down to 10 pages, then to be be seen if/how we cut more.

Here is what I have so far, but note that I will work on this more this afternoon/evening so it's just for reference for now (and to show you I am working, ha!)
Ill probably keep working on my computer file, then upload again when more complete.

At this point, what would be most useful for me is to see if you want to include the "governance" section, which feels a bit removed from the objectives of the text, but still relevant.
Maybe by the end of the month it is reasonable for a final first draft? Hopefully there will be little back and forth once we hit the editing part of the work.
Michelle



Josh Schwebel <privatejosh@gmail.com> To: Michelle Lacombe <█████████████████> Cc: Lauren Wetmore <████████████████████████████████ >

Hi Michelle,
Holy moly, you have done a great job and SO MUCH work.
I love all the colours and sizes you have used!
Without having spoken with Lauren yet, I would just like to offer my encouragement to you to keep going, since what you have done so far is really excellent and articulates much of what we covered in the conversation.
In my opinion the “The Governance” section is really strong and still feels quite relevant. I think that the publication as a whole contains a lot of theorizing about the neoliberal effects on culture. That theorizing can only achieve a certain level of specificity, and gives more information about tendencies than concrete examples. What I find so important about this section, and about your text overall, is how it articulates the specifics of these changes — how these policies take effect from the perspective of the cultural worker trying to keep bringing their values into the work, and how these policies, articulated through funding incentives, actively distort cultural orgs. Does that make sense?
Again, just my thoughts.
Happy to talk again about the text, or just more generally about life stuff.
Hope you are having a good spring!
(P.S. I am taking the theory exam for driving ed. and thinking of you!)
x 


Lauren Wetmore <████████████████████████████████ > To: Josh Schwebel <privatejosh@gmail.com>

Hi Josh,
I wanted to send the email below to Michelle about her most recent edit, but wanted to run it by you first. 
What do you think? Is it helpful or will it be de-railing?
X from Nanaimo,
Lauren



Hi Michelle,

Thank you for this update and sharing your thoughts on how the text is progressing. I agree completely with Josh that you have made enormous strides in paring down a lot without losing the relevance and nuance of the text.

One of the strength of the text that you might want to consider allowing to give it more structure is the way that you present a timeline – from your beginning in ARC culture, your observations of the structural shifts over time, and your analysis of where it sits today.

I think that this structure will lend itself really well to easily incorporating what I feel it is missing, which is an immediate connection to The Employee. Of course, the main importance of the text is your analysis of the field based in your experiences, but I think that it would be a generosity to the reader to site this in your reading or reaction to Josh’s work, at the beginning of the text. 

Perhaps this is the objective of the text that you feel is still vague: to identify why your experience aligns with The Employee, why you want to talk about a lifetime of related experiences in this particular book, why you find value in Josh’s work as a whole. Maybe writing on these questions as a sort of “header” and “footer” to all the incredibly rich meat of the interview text, can allow for a useful shape.

I hope this is helpful and send you all my ongoing encouragement.

Warmly,
Lauren




Josh Schwebel <privatejosh@gmail.com>

Lauren I think this is a great suggestion!
Please do go ahead with sending.
Thanks for your insights.
x

Lauren Wetmore <████████████████████████████████ >

Excellent! Sending now.
x


Lauren Wetmore <████████████████████████████████ > To: Josh Schwebel <privatejosh@gmail.com> Cc: Michelle Lacombe <█████████████████>

Hi Michelle,

Thank you for this update and sharing your thoughts on how the text is progressing. I agree completely with Josh that you have made enormous strides in paring down a lot without losing the relevance and nuance of the text.

One of the strength of the text that you might want to consider allowing to give it more structure is the way that you present a timeline – from your beginning in ARC culture, your observations of the structural shifts over time, and your analysis of where it sits today.

I think that this structure will lend itself really well to easily incorporating what I feel it is missing, which is an immediate connection to The Employee. Of course, the main importance of the text is your analysis of the field based in your experiences, but I think that it would be a generosity to the reader to site this in your reading or reaction to Josh’s work, at the beginning of the text. 

Perhaps this is the objective of the text that you feel is still vague: to identify why your experience aligns with The Employee, why you want to talk about a lifetime of related experiences in this particular book, why you find value in Josh’s work as a whole. Maybe writing on these questions as a sort of “header” and “footer” to all the incredibly rich meat of the interview text, can allow for a useful shape.

I hope this is helpful and send you all my ongoing encouragement.

Warmly,
Lauren



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