RE: Changing the game

[Guedon_Jean-Claude <jean.claude.guedon@umontreal.ca>]

My answer, while ironic, did not mean to denigrate, simply to 
hierarchize...

Incidentally, I found it very amusing that Sandy had (belatedly) 
to copy  edit his own paper... Editors can be unfortunate 
meddlers at times, as  when an editor changed my "annus 
mirabilis" into "anus mirabilis"...

Luckily, the Latin expression did not apply to my own 
biography...

Jean-Claude Guedon

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Alex Holzman
Sent: Wed 10/21/2009 5:44 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Changing the game
  If Mickey Mantle and an umpire were on a raft and one had to 
die, I'm pretty sure 99% of baseball fans would save Mantle.  And 
yet without the umpire there's no game; sometimes you don't 
realize the value of people until they aren't there.  Editors, 
like umpires, are most unnoticed when they do their job well. 
Which, I suppose, is why some folks have no appreciation for what 
good editing adds to scholarship.

Let me attempt a very brief explanation.  You might be the 
world's most ingenious scientist, designing incredibly 
imaginative and productive experiments.  You also might not be 
able to write your way out of a paper bag.  The two talents don't 
necessarily go hand in hand (not many editors are brilliant 
researchers either).  But if you can't communicate your ideas, 
how much impact can they have?  Think of it this way.  I can 
observe from an infant's behavior what she wants or what's wrong, 
but it's a heck of a lot easier a couple of years later when she 
can use words effectively to tell me.  And my subsequent actions 
can be a lot more precise.

It would be nice if we could not denigrate people's livelihoods 
and contributions while discussing the interesting issues on this 
listserv.  Fact is, we all need each other.

Alex Holzman
Director
Temple University Press