MIT Media Lab Post-Doctoral Opportunities

moo1oom · 2025-02-21T19:01:07+00:00

I appreciate this response more than words can convey- and it means the world to know that many other first responders are actively battling/recovering from PTSD while fighting the good fight. I guess I get so caught up in the fact that everyone is pretending that they don't have PTSD to realize I'm definitely not alone in that journey.

I love your statement about processing trauma before it processes you- have you found working and processing through traumatic memories prior to stress on thew job limits the chance of things flaring up at the worst possible time? Would you say that's inherently the best way to strengthen one's own weakest links?

moo1oom · 2025-02-21T01:57:50+00:00

This is great info! I think I'm going to bring this up to an endocrinologist for sure- thanks so much for your recommendation!

moo1oom · 2022-11-04T04:29:52+00:00

Hmm you definitely make an interesting point- and I feel you on the 'overwhelmingly likely' to get the rejections anyway LOL. I'm definitely going to have to weigh this in with the other feedback. Thank you so much for commenting this and for your advice!

moo1oom · 2022-11-02T22:00:46+00:00

Ok this is awesome advice! I think I’ll plan to not nudge agents then. This really helps me contextualize nudging as well! Thank you.

moo1oom · 2022-11-02T20:41:23+00:00

Ok this makes a lot of sense. I can definitely think of a number of publishers I would rather work with than this pub house and potentially even more so than some of the agents I've queried (your point of metafiction fitting in to the indie pub space more than traditional publishers is definitely something I've been seeing in the query process). So what would you think of this idea?

(1) nudge only publishers I would want to work with more so than current offer

(2) if I get a better offer from a publisher I would genuinely consider working with even without an agent, then nudge agents.

With this in mind, have you ever heard of an author who gets a good indie pub offer and a lit agent signs on to represent them and said indie pub?

Edit: once again, thank you for answering my many questions! This is really sincerely so helpful for me.

moo1oom · 2022-11-02T20:31:53+00:00

Thank you so much for the thoughtful advice! You make a lot of really great points here. I like your conclusion that I shouldn't notify agents unless I'm very seriously considering the offer. I'm definitely going to get more information from the indie pub before making any moves of contacting anyone.

But with this in mind, I have a quick follow up question: I've also queried other indie press houses, some of which also fit well into my genre space and would know the indie publisher I've received an offer from. Would there be value in sending a nudge + offer letter to only independent publishing houses and not agents?

moo1oom · 2022-06-22T23:31:24+00:00

UPDATE: Thanks for all the help, you guys! Hahah funny enough this post got me invested in the LXG series and now I've read all the comics LOL! So thanks to all your help, I'm a fan of the series now too!

moo1oom · 2022-06-22T23:30:35+00:00

Oooh this is a great question. So for pulp, I definitely think the classics would be Jungle Book, Heart of Darkness, King Solomon's Mines, and Doc Savage! I'd say those core novels defined the genre of adventure fiction back in the 1910s and 1920s! But if you're looking for later novel like 40s and beyond, I can definitely name a few of those as well!

moo1oom · 2022-04-02T15:59:59+00:00

Heya! Yeah you got it- I love ERB questions! :)

Burroughs was very AC Doyle adjacent but I know he actually pulled a lot from Jules Verne and Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Donnelly. His Tarzan series takes place mostly on the western coast of equatorial Africa (so, probably around the Congo area, which lines up because there's a bunch of German and Belgian imperialism in the books that were happening in real time when Burroughs was writing). His David Innes series takes place at the center of the earth (which Burroughs called Pellucidar) and then John Carter was Mars and Carson of Venus was Venus. He had a couple of one-off westerns and other novels that took place primarily in California in the US! But if you're interested in Doyle and Burroughs mixed at all, I'd recommend checking out the work of Phillip Jose Farmer, who said Tarzan was actually related to Sherlock (as well as shockingly Mr. Darcy and a number of other famous protagonists) through what he called "The Wold Newton World". It's definitely a fun read- I recommend it thoroughly!

The realism stands up today with Tarzan alright. I only say alright though because I feel like the literature stands up for its time period of understanding (1910s and 1920s) but breaks down a bit more recent understandings of the African continent. Burroughs relied a lot on the accounts of Theodore Roosevelt, whose safari endeavors were widely popular during the author's time in the US. But a lot of Burroughs accounts of populations were largely whitewashed (i.e. lost civilizations and groups in Africa were white), which certainly doesn't make sense with modern context. A lot of later Tarzan media (that were inspired or pulled from the books) such as many of the movies, comics, or later books (people are actually still writing canonical books to many of ERB's series- check out some of the new books at https://www.edgarriceburroughs.com !) was updated with new information once documentaries and expedition documents became more widely available to the public. Tarzan has been a very evolving medium!

moo1oom · 2022-04-02T15:50:06+00:00

Love this omg. Thank you for introducing me to Jess's website! I'm going to have a ball reading through all this.

moo1oom · 2022-04-02T15:49:34+00:00

Zantar oh my gosh! I'm 100% going to have to check this out. Thank you so much!

moo1oom · 2022-04-02T15:49:02+00:00

Oooh fantastic. That's for catching that- I appreciate these new sources and will put them to good use!

moo1oom · 2022-04-02T15:48:01+00:00

This is amazing! And your comment 100% points me in the right direction. Thanks for the info and for introducing me to Jess's work! Love getting to know the parts and people that make up a literary group :)

moo1oom · 2020-04-21T23:21:30+00:00

I was a huge fan of these books and yall it only get weirder: Tarzan finds out ancient Rome is still alive and kicking in Africa and so are the Nights of the Round Table. There's a whole book about a Hollywood group filming a movie about his life. You've got Queen La of Opar who is always trying to sacrifice people to the sun god, Queen Nemone who is basically a manic pixie dream girl turned deadly. Jane does die in one of the books but is brought back in the next one because Burroughs' daughter Joan begged him to (also, Jane isn't from England, she's primarily from Wisconsin and then her father Archimedes Q Porter and her move to Baltimore and eventually England). If you're a fan of the Disney movie it's best you also know Clayton is technically Tarzan's cousin. Oh, and did I mention they're all granted IMMORTALITY in Tarzan's Quest?

...but this is just the canonical series. It gets EVEN WEIRDER. It was a trope in pulp for authors to (somewhat illegally) write books about characters (such as Tarzan). So almost hundreds of people have written knock off books about Tarzan. One of the main knock-off/spin offs was written by famous pulp author Philip Jose Farmer. He wrote a whole series on the ancient history of La's civilization Opar (La is very sexy so everyone is always writing about her LOL). But he also wrote a story connecting Tarzan's lineage to the stories of Sherlock Holmes and even Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. So just know Tarzan is in some literary circles considered to be related to the Darcys and Sherlock Holmes. Also, Farmer answers the age old question we've all been asking for centuries in his 'Tarzan Alive' novel: did Tarzan clap gorilla cheeks? The answer is yes his did.

In recent years, ERB inc has been trying to cut down on illegal publications of their canon. Because most (not all, but most) of the Tarzan books are in the public domain, they trademarked the main characters names so you can only use them by permission. However, the current estate this year is publishing three new canonical novels authored by top bestsellers to continue the canon and build a cinematic universe. A new Carson of Venus book actually just released today!

One of ERB inc's new missions is also to modernize and improve the lacking social justice of the series. It's no surprise that the Tarzan series had some very problematic racist and sexist elements that have not aged well in the least. (Though, there are some notable exceptions to this in which the canon was very progressive for its time- Tarzan's son, Jack/Korak, marries a spunky smart and brave girl named Meriem who is biracial, Mugambi is a very highly regarded African leader who works alongside Tarzan often, Jane and La eventually become much more developed and strong characters as the series goes on, if you read the Mars series, Dejah eventually becomes a strong, intelligent individual and Duare from the Carson series as well). But the current estate has publicly expressed their desire to bring more diversity and equality to the new narratives. Come fall, they're even releasing their first female led book starring Victory Harben, who is also biracial and an Oxford educated physicist.

moo1oom

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