Exit Bednarek
Monday afternoon, I removed Jennifer Bednarek as lead researcher for Lincoln’s Tomb, my book-in-progress. She will not be replaced. Research on the book will continue in her absence.
Steady readers will recall that my former ISP was having some trouble keeping the service up and running on the weekends (if you must, relive the horror by reading this and this) before finally refusing to take my calls and I dumped them. Jennifer and I previously agreed to meet and discuss the book via instant messenger, so when Internet service finally went down for good, things understandably ground to a halt.
Attempts to arrange a phone conversation, via text messages, proved unproductive when 1) She said her girlfriend’s father was in town from Detroit, and 2) No offense to me, but she understood this was to be an Internet-only affair, and she’s “not good at calling people.” I’d thought an exception would be made given the fact Internet was out at Camp TGO, but instead of fighting her on the point I simply said, Okay, stop researching until I can get Internet back, though I feared it wouldn’t be soon.
There were two reasons for telling her to stop. The first was that I wanted to make sure both of our research started at the same point and worked forward. The second reason was that I wanted her to keep a detailed bibliography of her references and note in her research what work was referenced where, essential notations for what would ultimately be the book’s official bibliography and list of resources. She didn’t know these at the time, so I thought it best to tell her.
On Monday, 20 March, I wrote Jennifer from my Yahoo! mail account, accessed via the local public library, and said again I feared I might not be back online for “several weeks,” which I half jokingly chalked up to “financial difficulties and international intrigue.” I added the following paragraphs, which are presented unedited.
I said “stop researching; don’t write or print anything” because we needed to speak about the tone and position of the research itself. Though “Lincoln’s Tomb” will begin on Lincoln’s last day, I’m not exactly sure where in his last day, so it’s best to begin as he wakes and continue forward through the DC funeral, the funeral train, the various moves, the attempted kidnapping, et cetera.
All Lincoln research should conclude before we get into Booth, Rathbone and Harris, et cetera. As of this moment, my plan is to write about Lincoln and research the others on a limited basis as you’re researching the others, which I hope will move the processes along a bit, but things could change, which is why I asked to speak to you when I knew I wasn’t going to be online for a while.
You will need to keep a detailed bibliography, and I will need to know what sources are referenced as I look at your research. This is not merely cosmetic. At some point those sources will need to be referenced in the Notes section of the book; you know, the modern equivalent of showing your work. Part of what’s taking me so long in my research is all this detailing, backtracking and concurrent research, but intellectually it will be worth it when the book becomes factually beyond reproach.
If it will be easier, PLEASE feel free to photocopy large passages of certain books and highlight relevant passages, just be careful to note the book, author, page numbers and so forth. I have been doing that at my office copier, but if you have to do this, please take care to note how much you spent and I will happily reimburse you. My next paydays are 31 March, 14 April and 28 April, so please make sure to send whatever reimburseable items to me sometime before those dates and I’ll get them in the mail on a payday Friday.
I’m sure I’m missing something, which is why we should speak every other week or so until I get Internet back at the house. But whatever. I cannot guarantee I will be checking this e-mail on a regular basis, but feel free to fire off whatever questions, concerns, et cetera you may have. Will get to them as soon as logic allows.
Jennifer offered no reply to this email, but I cannot remember whether I expected one. Let’s just say I didn’t in the name of fairness.
A nice development regarding Internet came the next day, Tuesday the 21st, and I sent Jennifer a text message: “Could be back online as soon as thursday [sic]. Full explanation of outage then.” No response.
Internet was back on at Camp TGO on that Thursday, 23 March; I sent the aforementioned explanation email (a much longer version of this was posted in two versions on this blog, linked above) and yet heard nothing.
On Monday, 27 March, I sent Jennifer another email, the subject line read “Ready whenever you are.” It read: “Excepting either a nap or some sort of Internet disruption, I'm ready to chat online about the book ... but not tonight (Monday). Any other night this week, though, or the weekend. Just let me know.” No response.
On Saturday, 01 April I sent the following text message: “Have been waiting to hear from you for a bit now – you all right or just ducking me? Did you get my new email addy? Drop me a note …” Again, no response.
It could have been on Monday, 03 April (though I cannot recall the exact date) that Jennifer sent me an instant message, saying she’d been out of public circulation, so to speak, because she suddenly broke through her writer’s block and was writing, but she would call soon. No need for that, I replied, now that I’m online again we can IM, as per the previous agreement. No response – I believe this lack of response came because she was having some problems with her WiFi connection, which as you can imagine happens frequently in New Orleans.
The next day, Tuesday the 4th, I sent Jennifer the following email, presented here in its unedited form: “Hey, doll. I'll need to hear from you by Friday re: whether you'll be continuing research work on the Lincoln book in the face of your new writing spree. If I don't hear from you by then, I'll assume you've moved on to that writing and I'll continue with the work myself. If, on the other hand, you're going to continue with my book, we'll need to IM soon. Thanks - be good.” Nothing. Even given the chance to back out, no response came at all.
On Friday, 07 April I sent yet another email at about 8.45am Eastern time: “Still need to know … whether you're still working on this book. If not, if you're going to write instead, please let me know.” Thinking that maybe she was suffering a prolonged Internet disruption, I also sent yet another text message, at 5:33pm Eastern time: “Just following up on the emails i [sic] sent you; to make sure you got them.”
The weekend passed without a peep. Today, Monday the 10th, it finally became clear she was no longer “in the fold,” but for some reason didn’t have the strength or dignity to tell me directly. Finally irritated beyond the simple ability to express it, I sent Jennifer this email, which has been edited slightly in the second and third paragraphs:
Jennifer;
Last Tuesday I wrote and asked whether you were still working on the Lincoln book given your recent writing spree, and if not to please let me know by last Friday. Since then I have emailed once more and sent a text message (this was in case the Internet happened to be out there) with no response. Here on Monday afternoon, I have correctly interpreted your silence and am getting rid of you. Whatever research you've completed and written to this point will not be accepted.
I thought I handled you correctly on this project: I kept a distance but required some communication and accountability, and I worked hard to keep things moving in a certain way. And before my old ISP screwed me on service, it seemed to work out well - once that happened, you became functionally useless; unresponsive and indifferent. That indifference … could not be tolerated.
…. You're very, very good Jennifer, just not good enough to fuck people, and you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking otherwise.
No trace of you remains here, and I want it kept that way. Don't let me see your words, hear your voice or read your name ever again.
Brian
And that is the end of her. Truth be told, I’m taking this like I would take a bad break-up. I believe so much in Jennifer and her intellectual talents, and was prepared to take her with me throughout all of Lincoln’s Tomb’s various promotional travails. But I simply cannot stand back and tolerate the sort of apathy that would have gotten her fired from a McDonald’s long before now.
Steady readers will recall that my former ISP was having some trouble keeping the service up and running on the weekends (if you must, relive the horror by reading this and this) before finally refusing to take my calls and I dumped them. Jennifer and I previously agreed to meet and discuss the book via instant messenger, so when Internet service finally went down for good, things understandably ground to a halt.
Attempts to arrange a phone conversation, via text messages, proved unproductive when 1) She said her girlfriend’s father was in town from Detroit, and 2) No offense to me, but she understood this was to be an Internet-only affair, and she’s “not good at calling people.” I’d thought an exception would be made given the fact Internet was out at Camp TGO, but instead of fighting her on the point I simply said, Okay, stop researching until I can get Internet back, though I feared it wouldn’t be soon.
There were two reasons for telling her to stop. The first was that I wanted to make sure both of our research started at the same point and worked forward. The second reason was that I wanted her to keep a detailed bibliography of her references and note in her research what work was referenced where, essential notations for what would ultimately be the book’s official bibliography and list of resources. She didn’t know these at the time, so I thought it best to tell her.
On Monday, 20 March, I wrote Jennifer from my Yahoo! mail account, accessed via the local public library, and said again I feared I might not be back online for “several weeks,” which I half jokingly chalked up to “financial difficulties and international intrigue.” I added the following paragraphs, which are presented unedited.
I said “stop researching; don’t write or print anything” because we needed to speak about the tone and position of the research itself. Though “Lincoln’s Tomb” will begin on Lincoln’s last day, I’m not exactly sure where in his last day, so it’s best to begin as he wakes and continue forward through the DC funeral, the funeral train, the various moves, the attempted kidnapping, et cetera.
All Lincoln research should conclude before we get into Booth, Rathbone and Harris, et cetera. As of this moment, my plan is to write about Lincoln and research the others on a limited basis as you’re researching the others, which I hope will move the processes along a bit, but things could change, which is why I asked to speak to you when I knew I wasn’t going to be online for a while.
You will need to keep a detailed bibliography, and I will need to know what sources are referenced as I look at your research. This is not merely cosmetic. At some point those sources will need to be referenced in the Notes section of the book; you know, the modern equivalent of showing your work. Part of what’s taking me so long in my research is all this detailing, backtracking and concurrent research, but intellectually it will be worth it when the book becomes factually beyond reproach.
If it will be easier, PLEASE feel free to photocopy large passages of certain books and highlight relevant passages, just be careful to note the book, author, page numbers and so forth. I have been doing that at my office copier, but if you have to do this, please take care to note how much you spent and I will happily reimburse you. My next paydays are 31 March, 14 April and 28 April, so please make sure to send whatever reimburseable items to me sometime before those dates and I’ll get them in the mail on a payday Friday.
I’m sure I’m missing something, which is why we should speak every other week or so until I get Internet back at the house. But whatever. I cannot guarantee I will be checking this e-mail on a regular basis, but feel free to fire off whatever questions, concerns, et cetera you may have. Will get to them as soon as logic allows.
Jennifer offered no reply to this email, but I cannot remember whether I expected one. Let’s just say I didn’t in the name of fairness.
A nice development regarding Internet came the next day, Tuesday the 21st, and I sent Jennifer a text message: “Could be back online as soon as thursday [sic]. Full explanation of outage then.” No response.
Internet was back on at Camp TGO on that Thursday, 23 March; I sent the aforementioned explanation email (a much longer version of this was posted in two versions on this blog, linked above) and yet heard nothing.
On Monday, 27 March, I sent Jennifer another email, the subject line read “Ready whenever you are.” It read: “Excepting either a nap or some sort of Internet disruption, I'm ready to chat online about the book ... but not tonight (Monday). Any other night this week, though, or the weekend. Just let me know.” No response.
On Saturday, 01 April I sent the following text message: “Have been waiting to hear from you for a bit now – you all right or just ducking me? Did you get my new email addy? Drop me a note …” Again, no response.
It could have been on Monday, 03 April (though I cannot recall the exact date) that Jennifer sent me an instant message, saying she’d been out of public circulation, so to speak, because she suddenly broke through her writer’s block and was writing, but she would call soon. No need for that, I replied, now that I’m online again we can IM, as per the previous agreement. No response – I believe this lack of response came because she was having some problems with her WiFi connection, which as you can imagine happens frequently in New Orleans.
The next day, Tuesday the 4th, I sent Jennifer the following email, presented here in its unedited form: “Hey, doll. I'll need to hear from you by Friday re: whether you'll be continuing research work on the Lincoln book in the face of your new writing spree. If I don't hear from you by then, I'll assume you've moved on to that writing and I'll continue with the work myself. If, on the other hand, you're going to continue with my book, we'll need to IM soon. Thanks - be good.” Nothing. Even given the chance to back out, no response came at all.
On Friday, 07 April I sent yet another email at about 8.45am Eastern time: “Still need to know … whether you're still working on this book. If not, if you're going to write instead, please let me know.” Thinking that maybe she was suffering a prolonged Internet disruption, I also sent yet another text message, at 5:33pm Eastern time: “Just following up on the emails i [sic] sent you; to make sure you got them.”
The weekend passed without a peep. Today, Monday the 10th, it finally became clear she was no longer “in the fold,” but for some reason didn’t have the strength or dignity to tell me directly. Finally irritated beyond the simple ability to express it, I sent Jennifer this email, which has been edited slightly in the second and third paragraphs:
Jennifer;
Last Tuesday I wrote and asked whether you were still working on the Lincoln book given your recent writing spree, and if not to please let me know by last Friday. Since then I have emailed once more and sent a text message (this was in case the Internet happened to be out there) with no response. Here on Monday afternoon, I have correctly interpreted your silence and am getting rid of you. Whatever research you've completed and written to this point will not be accepted.
I thought I handled you correctly on this project: I kept a distance but required some communication and accountability, and I worked hard to keep things moving in a certain way. And before my old ISP screwed me on service, it seemed to work out well - once that happened, you became functionally useless; unresponsive and indifferent. That indifference … could not be tolerated.
…. You're very, very good Jennifer, just not good enough to fuck people, and you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking otherwise.
No trace of you remains here, and I want it kept that way. Don't let me see your words, hear your voice or read your name ever again.
Brian
And that is the end of her. Truth be told, I’m taking this like I would take a bad break-up. I believe so much in Jennifer and her intellectual talents, and was prepared to take her with me throughout all of Lincoln’s Tomb’s various promotional travails. But I simply cannot stand back and tolerate the sort of apathy that would have gotten her fired from a McDonald’s long before now.
posted by Brian S. Wise | 7:30 PM
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