Some tales have to start at the end and work
back to the beginning to make sense, and this
is one of those.
The end of the tale is, of course, that after
yet another emergency meeting of the (ever-shrinking)
Shore Journal Editorial Board, we have resolved to
return to the "common-denominator" format that we
once promoted (being all things to all browsers), or
to at least provide alternative viewing formats for
our pages, and damn the overtime.
The middle of the tale has to do with a message we
recieved some months ago from Dr. Joel Roache,
who complained that after we began to use tables in
our documents, his IBM PS1 computer would cross its
little eyes, gasp, and fall to the floor. After
several of these incidents, he wisely declined any
further attempts at reading our little magazine.
When that happened, back then, we were quite wrong
in our reaction, which was to suggest rather blithely
that he "pump up his browser." Very funny.
The truth is, not everyone lives to compute, believe
it or not. Some people eat and sleep, and have lives,
and canoe and fish and swim, and sing and dance, and
do a variety of other things. Not everyone is ready
to go out and pop a pentium into the car. The computer
they have is the computer they have, and that is that.
It comes down to what we are trying to do here.
It's our intention to publish something for people
to read, and as many people as possible. To knowingly
allow a circumstance to persist that causes some readers
to be unable to read the Journal is just plain stupid,
and we apologize.
This is going to get worse before it gets better.
Looking around the web, Netscape 2.0 enhanced and
Java sites become more common, and their exclusivity
is somewhat annoying if the content is supposed to
be a publication of some sort.
If you publish, you want people to read. Making
everything in some magical frames format may be cool,
but if it costs you readers, you are cutting off your
nose to spite your face.
Which takes us to the beginning of the tale, or the
end, if you have been following along. This has to
do with Dr. Joel Roache, and why his readership
is so important to us. Irony abounds.
Back when we were young, and so much smarter than we
are today, we attended university, as good young people
are supposed to do. Dr. Roache was a very young member
of the English Department Faculty then, and we studied
Contemporary Literature with him.
When we signed up for the course, we thought we would
have a thorough study of James Joyce, William Faulkner,
and all those nice white folks. Dr. Roache had something
else in mind.
Instead, we read contemporary African and African-American
writers, and at the beginning, we didn't like that very
much at all. "These guys aren't important writers," we
told Dr. Roache. We still remember his laughter.
Turns out, they really were important, and through their
words we all learned something about the being black in
a white world. We learned how desperation can lead to
senseless violence, we learned there are lots of ways
to commit suicide, when there is nothing to live for.
That's why this is the beginning of this tale. We learned
from Dr. Roache that what makes a writer important is
something that happens through reading. Being able to
read the writer... that is something that should not be
taken lightly.
April 21, 1996 Charles Paparella The Shore Journal
The statute of limitations on your grade ran out a long time ago...