Get Published Weekly Roundup: October 23, 2017

Last week we linked to an essay written by Chris Jackson, in which he talked about the importance of diversity in the publishing industry. The diversity he refers to is entirely socioeconomic and ethnic: he doesn’t mention gender at all. Maybe that’s because the industry is already overwhelmingly female (estimates put it at almost 80%): to get more diverse, there would need to be an increase in the number of men. 

But as a piece in Publisher’s Weekly points out, in spite of women’s dominant numbers, the power in publishing is largely concentrated with men. The fallout over the allegations against Harvey Weinstein has included soul-searching (or at least the appearance of said searching) in industries outside Hollywood, and publishing is no different. The article reports that sexual harassment is widespread in the industry, and that women consistently find that management and HR departments are indifferent to it. Just because 4 out of 5 faces on every agency and publishing house website belong to women doesn’t mean those faces are running the show. Or that they’re being treated fairly. Check it out here.

On a lighter note: how about that Winnie-the-Pooh? I loved Pooh growing up (well, Tigger, mostly. T-i-double guh-er!), but as the words mawkish and twee entered my vocabulary, my affections faded. A new biopic about Pooh’s creator, A.A. Milne, is out this week, and it apparently explores the family dysfunction and burden of fame that led to a never-resolved falling out between parents and son, the IRL model for Pooh’s Christopher Robin. Goodbye Christopher Robin has been receiving mostly meh reviews, so I feel no need to see it, which pleases me. On top of disliking things egregiously sentimental, I also dislike Milne for his treatment of one of my literary heroes, P.G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse had been captured when the Germans overran France in WWII, and had (foolishly, one must admit) agreed to a series of broadcasts on German radio, which he titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training. Mostly comprised of humorous reflections on life as a prisoner, the broadcasts contained no pro-German or Nazi material, or any anti-Allied material, either. Nevertheless, this seeming collaboration with those orchestrating the Blitz enraged the British populace. Wodehouse’s old friend Alan Milne was one of a chorus of voices who condemned him publicly, which ultimately led to Wodehouse’s exile in the United States. But Wodehouse took his revenge, subtler and sweeter, if less tangibly damaging, when he wrote of Rodney Spelvin (a character in his series of golf-centered stories) turning to syrupy children’s fare when inspired by his son: “Timothy Bobbin goes Happily hoppity hoppity hop.” (There is considerably more material, and funnier, which I encourage you to read yourself in “Rodney Has a Relapse.” Here at GSF we have an intense aversion to infringing on copyright, so I will not quote more.) And while Disney has certainly made far more money off of Pooh than Wodehouse ever made in his ridiculously prolific career, it his P.G.’s work that has continued to enjoy the approval of his peers – other writers. For more on the scorn of writers for other writers, check out this piece over at LitHub. It includes Dorothy Parker’s famous takedown of Milne in The New Yorker.