So I call bullshit.

On your firing and on Cary's weeklong headlong already-gone-on-too-long dive into this abyss.

Please. It's just your navel; all this gazing over a few specks of lint.

It's time Cary cleaned out his desk, too.

Wow, no letters yet?

Cary, baby, I think the whole premise of "Artistic betrayal week" is a bad idea, but you keep on keepin' on. You're right, it's better to finish what you started.

(Maybe you could finish the week by explaining why this particular issue resonates so much with you right now?)

I can't agree that all artists are natural competitors. That's not clear in my field, for example, which is writing for video games. The work of writing thousands of pages of dialogue and quests for a video game simply can't be done by one writer. If two writers decide to go for each other's throats, everyone loses.

Which is not to say that we don't go for each other's throats. Usually this is the fault of the suits, who have a large appetite for ass-kissing and a very low ability to gauge good writing. When the worst writer on the team is the project lead's golden boy, it creates tension. But there's more to it than that; writers are not naturally people who work well with others. Speaking for myself, as a child, I was the kid the teachers all ganged up on because I wanted to sit by myself the far corner of the playground braiding clover instead of playing kickball. It's very difficult to explain to a certain kind of teacher that you aren't playing kickball not because you're unhappy or shy or don't like other children, but because you're doing something much more interesting than playing kickball - creating worlds.

Put two world creators in a room together and they will either kill each other or get married. Three or more is a guaranteed recipe for trouble.

Maybe they fired you for being unbelieveably pretentious.

Trust no one. Especially those who are closest to you. Think about it, who has the opportunity to screw you over, your friends or your enemies. Do you ever loan money to your enemies? Let them borrow your car? Go out with your girl when your sick at home? No. Always be prepared to have your "friends" fuck you over. People suck and that's all there is to it.

I once authored a legal treatise on employment contracts published by a major legal publisher.

Based on my knowledge, no one, absolutely no one gets fired on their first day for doing their job without a damn good reason. After the first week, yes. But after the first day, no.

Among the reasons, I have seen people get fired on the first day are (1) completely inapprorpriate behaviour (assualting a co-worker, coming in drunk, get caught doing drugs on the premises), or (2) for grossly misrepresenting your skill set or educational background.

But short of something earth shattering, no way.

SJ

Where is the solicitation for advice? I don't see a question from the letter writer--am I missing something?

Plus, we have no context for why the LW was fired from his assistantship. I do know this, though: a teaching assistantship is quite a different beast from actually teaching a class and preparing lesson plans. The responsibilities, especially for new master's students, typically include taking attendance, distributing handouts, recording grades (possibly some grading), and other administrative tasks that the professor doesn't have time to do. It does not typically consist of teaching a class, especially on the first day. I'm not sure why the LW would expect years of teaching, presumably in primary or secondary schools, to reflect whether the LW is capable of taking attendance and so forth. Did the LW show up late for class? We don't know at all what happened.

Also, when I was working on my master's degree, I didn't have enough room in an office for "boxes of books." In fact, I didn't have my own desk. I had the luxury of sharing a desk with 4 other people. Even if there had been room for me to keep books in the broom closet of an office that we shared, I would not have done it, simply because I would have been worried about my office mates carelessly leaving the door unlocked and then someone stealing my books.

Based on this letter, I don't have any idea how the LW was "betrayed." Fired does not equal betrayed. Cary, I don't mind your theme week, but could you at least respond to letters that express real problems with some sort of context? Most people have experienced a betrayal, especially anyone who bravely meanders through academia, and I wouldn't mind reading some insights on how to handle those betrayals. But the combination of a vague letter and an exasperated response doesn't really offer anything to me.

On a lighter note, has anyone mentioned the Matt Groening comic "School Is Hell?" If not, enjoy:

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/dmirman/gradschoolhell/schoolishell.html

Johann Sebastian Bach sent two of his three sons to study law at the University of Leipzig. There was never any doubt that they would go into the family business, and indeed all three became important composers. But surely their legal training helped them hold their own in contractual disputes, aided in conflict resolution, helped them comprehend the power structures they found themselves part of, etc.

A wise friend is fond of saying, "Know the Food Chain and Avoid Your Predators." Hunter S. Thompson was known for defining politics as "the art of controlling your environment." Artists will never be masters of the world, but they can take care of themselves better if they engage actively and shrewdly with the mundanity that tolerates their existence. To protect the zone of safety and comfort we all need to create, knowledge of what lurks beyond its borders is preferable to a short-sighted indifference. (Besides, there's a kind of art in negotiating the non-artistic world!) Of course, that restricts the opportunities for artistic martyrdom and betrayal, so I respectfully withdraw my observations until next week.