#experienceset

I didn’t mean to like this post. It was a mistake. Here’s why. You say intellectuals mostly don’t qualify because their struggle is against the church, the man’s world or such. You say it’s not interesting to draw. You just disneyfied your project.

Oh no, I hope it didn't come off as that! I certainly have nothing against intellectual woman-vs-institution entries: Hypatia, Ida B Wells, and Naziq al-Abid all fit that bill, and I've got several more I've done for the book. It's not that they don't qualify. What I'm saying is they are more difficult to do, because they require a lot more research -- and in some cases, that research doesn't have a guaranteed payoff.

Take, for example, "Amazing" Grace Hopper, one of the first computer programmers. She died in 1992, so I likely won't do a full-on entry on her anyway (as a general rule, I don't do people who've been alive in recent memory, although I do highlight them as Modern Worthies).

Grace was an amazing human being with a truly staggering list of accomplishments. But looking through the Wikipedia overview of her life (as I often do when deciding whether to plunge deeper into research), the only speedbump that jumps out is that people didn't believe her that computers could run compiled code. 

An entry on her would have to dig deep and figure out who, exactly, said that. Why did they say it? What was the context and the world in which this happened? Was this an ad-hominem thing? Was she dismissed because she was a woman? Was it an honest mistake? Were there other obstacles that weren't mentioned in articles about her?

All of these are unknowns to me at this point. I'd have to *hope* a biography on her would cover those questions in a reliable fashion. If not, I'd have to find a lot more info in a lot more places to answer said questions. And the entry could shift a lot at that point. Maybe it turns out to be systematic of a larger conflict I can write about - not what I expected, but cool! Maybe it's chalked up to "navy culture," which I don't know much about and certainly wouldn't want to make sweeping statements on. Maybe there ends up being no conflict at all. I don't know.

Would it be a bad entry if I couldn't find any conflict to write about? Not necessarily, but a biography without conflict runs the risk of coming across as a resume. It's far from impossible to craft a compelling article from that, but it is usually difficult, and takes more time. Making these entries compelling is hugely important to me - half the reason I'm using a pop culture aesthetic and write like I'm telling a story at a house party is to make history more fun and accessible. 

So when I say that intellectual-versus-institution entries are tricky, that's what I mean. They take more time, craft, and thought than other entries. I do one of these entries every 2-3 days (including weekends), just to keep up with both book and web. I'm far from an expert draftsman (I redraw a lot), so it takes me between 10-20 hours to draw one of these images, before factoring in research time. I love brainy ladies (just had a half hour conversation with a friend about Ada Lovelace earlier today), but I have to be realistic about my workload: taking on difficult entries can really throw a spanner into the plans.

I hope that didn't come across as defensive or bullheaded. I'm really just trying to explain where my head's at. The direction of this project has changed a fair bit from its inception, and it'll only get more honed and refined as time goes on. Where my head is at will change too. I appreciate y'all keeping with me, writing in when you have something to say, and keeping me on my toes. Now that RP has a website separate from this Tumblr, I can have more of a dialog going, and I look forward to that.

Okay, it's midnight, back to work.