A pity if, in our journey into greater knowledge, we're pulled over for
being "esoteric". "Esoteric" may be a valued license of ivory tower
denizens, but for publishers, it doesn't bring one to the bank.
Esoteric works are for an esoteric audience, we're told. Publishers want
to sell to a "mass" audience. If you want a wider audience for your jokes,
we're told to choose topics that a larger variety of people can relate to
and speak the language they commonly understand. Adams of "Dilbert" seems
to have gotten just the right formula.
One reason for being of people in the academe is to explore the limits of
knowledge. Corollary to this is to let the "masses" hopefully share their
explorations, so that the "whole" (humankind, the community of men) may
reach another level of understanding of their "world".
But if we fail to impart our "new-found" knowledge in a manner accessible
to the "masses", in a language that will facilitate their understanding of
our meaning or meanings, then our efforts of pushing the limits of
knowledge and helping raise the "whole"s level of consciousness will
always be in vain.
Graduate schools are full of cobwebbed dissertations and researches that
are insightful works of scholarship. But most of them never see the light
of day in their original form because publishers precisely saw them as
"esoteric". A number, however, do eventually see the light of day but in
another form: in language the "masses" could easily ingest, thanks to
writers who understood the "original" language and translated such works
for consumption of a "mass" audience.
Some do/did not need "translators". Carl Sagan. Isaac Asimov. Margaret
Mead. E. de Bono. Stephen Hawking.
Some publishers propose collaborations and get a "translator" to work with
the "original" thinker. Especially if they recognise the "mass" appeal of
the work, if only it were written in the language of the "masses".
A good friend was already into his 2nd year of university teaching when he
realized that the language of the ivory tower does have a way of isolating
one from friends who are not academics. In a pub after a few drinks, he
wondered aloud why his friends didn't laugh at his jokes as spontaneously
as they laughed at their own. He immediately got his spontaneous guffaws
and backslaps.
My two cents worth.
Hope we'd have access to your work soon.
Chuck Gesmundo
Aldersen Institute
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>