The View From Kalamazoo

Tribble responds – terribly troublesome Tribble drivel

Rather weak, frankly. The condensed version:

Although academic bloggers defended blogging by noting examples of blogs as Good Things (Ivan blows these off, in large part.),

Ivan still sees them as Bad Things. (he personifies search committees, therefore so must they)

The job market is tough, so mind your Ps and Qs. (note the shades of revisionist [self] history. different verse, same as the first…)

And he doesn’t ‘get’ it. (no kidding)

I’m not sure what to say, really – this is an example of ‘quit while you’re ahead’? (except that he wasn’t); ‘better to burn out than to fade away’? (fading would have held a bit more dignity, IMO); ‘stupid is as stupid does’? (ok, maybe that was harsh).

I’m not sure why he’s so proud of the clear message he’s sending: “my colleagues and I don’t understand this blogging thing and we feel threatened by applicants with any computer savvy whatsoever, but we can still say it’s all your fault for having one in the first place!” Smokescreen about content aside (no one has really disagreed with the advice ‘be careful what you say, where you say it, and to whom’) it’s a comment about electronic media and information and their relationship to academia (and to age v. change arguments, although is “tenured” an age, Ivan? What age is that, anyway?) Ivan doesn’t understand nor like this newfangled stuff these crazy kids are into these days. Ivan may be my age, and the crazy kids tenured Professors, themselves, but that doesn’t slow him down any.

Aaaand a few responses to the response with more to say than I. (my favorite bits included for your convenience):

• This and that from Cliopatria
• Thanks for Not being a Zombie “Tribble assumes that “many in the tenured generation” think just like him. “Many” is a useless word to job seekers. “Many in the tenured generation” haven’t kept up with the scholarship in their field, either. Should job seekers try to appear to be equally clueless about the latest developments? “Many in the tenured generation” don’t like people who drive imports. “Many in the tenured generation” have model train sets. Who cares?”
• Trench Fever “It would be an awful thing if Tribble’s article put off a generation of younger academics who might be tempted to dip their toes into the blogging waters. Come on in, guys and gals. Just keep your bathing costumes on.”
• Little Professor “But if you wouldn’t trust a blogger, does it make sense to trust a CoHE essayist? I fail to see how the combination of print and payment makes the latter any more (or less) attractive than the former.”
• Matthew G. Kirschenbaum has promised to re-visit. Stay tooned.

I’d love to know who Ivan really is. I want to Google him.