IVP - Strangely Dim

What You Talking About, Zimmer-Man?

by David A. Zimmerman

I’ve entered a new season of life with the publication of my book Comic Book Character: I’m now talking a lot. Not that I wasn’t already talking a lot; now, however, people seem to invite it. At least that’s how I justify myself at the end of each day of talking.

Not long ago I talked for two and a half hours to a captive audience of middle schoolers who were only mildly interested in comic books and even less interested in punctuation but who nevertheless very graciously indulged my long-windedness. (Case in point: that last sentence was forty words long.) In preparation for the event the kids wrote down questions for me to answer, which I systematically ignored during my presentation. I hereby repent of my neglect and answer the questions that weren’t addressed over the course of our vociferous day together.

1. Who Help You Do Your Work.
A copyeditor and a proofreader gave careful attention to, for example, how I conjugated my verbs and punctuated my sentences. I also benefited from a developmental editor who guided my efforts at making a collection of thoughts into a book, and two anonymous readers who pointed out the areas of my writing that needed special attention. Beyond that I was helped by designers who designed the book, marketers who marketed the book, booksellers who sold the book, shippers who shipped the book and any number of other professionals who practiced their professions on the book. Many hands make light work.

2. How Do You Make a Book?
First, you write it. Then, you print it. Then, you wrap a cover around it. Then, you sell it. There are some other steps in the middle there, but you get the gist of it.

3. How Did You Become So Popular? Do You Have Powers? What Kind of Powers Do You Have?
Well, gosh. Popular is such a subjective term, but I’d have to say it has something to do with my boyish charm. I have a powerful odor from time to time, and I seem to be able to talk a person to death, but I don’t know that these things would qualify as “powers.” I wish I could fly, if that counts for anything.

4. Are You Hairy?
Sadly, yes.

I think that’s enough questions for now. I’d forgotten what an, um, adventure middle school can be.

None of Your Beeswax

by David A. Zimmerman

My latest post will never be posted. For the first time an entry for Strangely Dim has been rejected.

How is that possible? you might ask. Isn't a blog supposed to be the unfiltered expressions of an individual's experience of life? Aren't blogs the last stronghold of free speech in an otherwise hopelessly spun, politically correct and scrupulously market-tested world? Isn't a blog particularly designed to rage against the machine of homogenization that threatens to turn a diverse culture into so much vanilla pudding?

As I've been reminded a few times, Strangely Dim isn't technically a blog. I'm not huddled in my sound-proofed basement like Christian Slater in Pump Up the Volume, sending out messages of revolution to similarly huddled masses yearning to breathe free. I have a sugar-daddy, so to speak: InterVarsity Press oversees Strangely Dim and thus has some input into what I post on its website.

Just to reassure my more revolutionary readers, the entry you won't be reading isn't being censored because it's too controversial or because it challenges an IVP orthodoxy or anything like that. It's been rejected because it wasn't very good.

I liked it, of course, but then, I'm biased--which is one of the best reasons for submitting yourself to an editorial process in the first place. I'm really too close to my own writing to see it as anything less than brilliant.

Of course, allowing readers to comment back on what I've written serves a similar function; if the Strangely Dim emperor has no clothes, all it takes is one snicker from one reader, and I learn my lesson. No offense, dear reader, but I'd rather have that conversation in private, before I prance around showing the world my business.

This wound up being a particularly humbling weekend. After my Strangely Dim entry was shot down I went home and prepared my monologue for our church's presentation of the Living Last Supper. I play Matthew, and I crafted what I thought was a particularly artful and insightful peek inside the mind of one of Jesus' disciples on the night he was betrayed. Our director, very delicately and very privately, deconstructed my whole monologue, pointing out the dubious theology and the anachronistic language that littered my masterpiece. I went home humbler but better prepared.

There are worse things to be than humble and well-prepared, I suppose. So don't ask me to post or e-mail the lost entry to Strangely Dim; we're all better off forgetting I ever mentioned it.

***

My apologies to Rick from Cayce, whose last name is not Cayce, for misrepresenting him in my description of his blog. I got the name wrong, but the rest of it is true: he writes wonderfully and is worth visiting online.

Links I Like To Link To

I have a few favorite places to go online. Some of them have come to me through readers of Strangely Dim; others have just googled their way into my life. Some are blogs managed by interesting folks whose inner workings are worth looking into; others are group efforts or anonymous offerings for fun or profit. Some are all of the above.

Feel free to recommend additions to this list. It's long overdue.

www.sacredgateway.org
Ten minutes a day is no skin off your nose, trust me. This collaboration by a youth minister in Kansas and a group of Jesuits in Ireland allows me to settle, reflect and open myself to God. Not bad for ten minutes.

www.thehungersite.com
Give food to the hungry without ever leaving your computer or paying one red cent. Just about the best thing a consumer economy has ever done.

www.bustedhalo.com
One of my favorite websites ever. Operated by the Paulists, this site features young writers and activists and artists working out their faith in real time. Featuring the Trivia Inferno.

http://deadlysins.com
A tongue-in-cheek but very informative survey of the seven deadly sins of classical Christian tradition.

www.practicingourfaith.org
The online version of one of the most valuable books on spiritual practices I've ever read.

www.ChristianComicBooks.net
A clearing house for the latest offerings from the Christian comics community.

www.homestarrunner.com
What sock puppets look like online. Ridiculous.

www.mcgees.org/notb.html
Mad at your boss? Your professor just rejected your test because you used a number 3 pencil? Get revenge without hurting yourself or anyone else. "The Number of the Beast" finds the most efficient pathway to proof that the Antichrist is whomever you designate it to be. For example, my book Comic Book Character may well be the Antichrist: "Add the tile values of the letters from the board game Scrabble(R), add them together, multiply by 18, and you get 666."

Lin's Bin online archives
My favorite program on my favorite radio station. Morning DJ Lin Brehmer answers listener questions with wit and insight. I take credit for the archives being online; I begged and begged for a copy of his response to my own question, and a few weeks later the archives appeared--minus my question. Rats.

http://ramblingadventures.blogspot.com
Rick (from Cayce) is a thoughtful guy, and his thoughts are winsomely written on this blog.

www.despair.com
For the Gen-Xer in all of us. Featuring the Pessimist's Mug "The glass is half-empty. Deal with it." These folks slay me.

www.ivpress.com/zimmer-man
Shameless self-promotion, or brilliant marketing strategy? Hmmm . . .

More to come.

David A. Zimmerman