Readin', 'Ritin', and (Publishing) 'Rithmetic

When I began writing erotica and non-fiction articles on sexuality I took a pen name for privacy. But it might surprise those of you who do not write to know that one of the biggest reasons was to separate one writing career from another.

Anyone who writes, as a profession or a hobby, knows that over-all perception of erotica authors is poor and no where is this belief held more firmly than within the writing community. "They're not real writers," other they say (or type). It's not just that we dare to write about sex (or even profit from it) but if we write about it, it must be because we "can't really write" and this is our last resort.

Anyone who writes erotica (dirty stories, erotic literature, porn -- whatever you choose to call it) will tell you that writing smut takes extra skill. For not only must you obey all the rules of writing but you must make it arousing too. Just trying to find synonyms for "cock" (without sounding cliched) and "orgasm" (virtually non-existent) is a challenge. But 'the real writers' will giggle and sneer. I've seen the cruelty in writer's groups and online forums firsthand.

Even mainstream editors and publications may reject your work on these very notions, or just from the fear of any association. Even for non-fiction works this happens. Mention you write 'about sex' in any fashion (or have them discover you do so) and you're blackballed. So in order to preserve my professional mainstream writing reputation, I created a pen name upon joining the ranks of smut writers.

You'd think that a group which has experienced such persecution and unfair devaluation would be wiser. But they are not.

VIRGINIA WOOLF Three Guineas, 1938 Photographs, of course, are not arguments addressed to the reason; they are simply statements of fact addressed to the eye. But in that very simplicity there may be some help.

You need to keep scrolling, reading; because if you don’t, your lack of attention is as bad as the lack of context. And then “Well done Tumblr. You posted a picture without context and made two of the nicest people look like complete monsters.” becomes “Well done lazy reader. You now think two of the nicest people look like complete monsters.”

Researchers began decoding the glyphic language of the ancient Maya long ago, but the Internet is helping them finish the job and write the history of the enigmatic Mesoamerican civilization.

For centuries, scholars understood little about Maya script beyond its elegant astronomical calculations and calendar. The Maya dominated much of Central America and southern Mexico for 1,000 years before their civilization collapsed about 600 years before the Spaniards reached the New World.

The Maya script began to give up its secrets in the 1950s and ’60s, and progress accelerated in the 1970s. But much remains to be puzzled out from the immense body of carvings and inscriptions that has languished for centuries in jungle ruins and museum closets.

Enter University of Texas archaeologist David Stuart, one of the world’s leading experts on Maya script.

“I had all these boxes of notes and papers in my office, and I was never going to publish every little observation,” he said. “But I thought that if I had a blog, I could talk about new things and bring out some old stuff from my dusty files.”

So five years ago, Stuart started up Maya Decipherment, a blog for scholars and amateurs to post new inscriptions, refine translations and debate the subtleties of Maya language, all in an effort to fill out the history of the civilization.

The work will take years, but with the help of the Internet, the pace is quicker than it has ever been