A few weeks ago I sent the ‘author’s cut’ version of Criticism of Heaven off to the publishers – CCLM Publishing, in the Sino-Christian Studies Monograph Series. This is the full, original version, with the 100,000 words I originally had to cut restored to the text. Whole slabs of chapters are now restored, the original, longish conclusion is back, the book has been carefully edited and various earlier slips corrected, etc. Anyway, I had a question from the typesetter: he wonders whether the title, Criticism of Heaven: The Author’s Cut, is a good idea. Or rather, he is not sure about ‘The Author’s Cut’ bit. I must admit I like it, but (most) suggestions appreciated.
14 July, 2011
A Question: The Author’s Cut?
Posted by stalinsmoustache under Criticism of Heaven | Tags: author's cut, shameless self-promotion |[15] Comments
15 July, 2011 at 5:44 am
Does it have alternative ending(s)? Special outside-the-narrative bonus features?
More seriously, how about “Unabridged” if your press is twitchy about “The Author’s Cut”?
15 July, 2011 at 9:21 pm
I could simply insist. Unabridged is not bad though, a bit novelistic perhaps.But it is a bloody long work now – at almost 300,000 words.
15 July, 2011 at 8:29 am
In the post hack-gate climate in the UK, the author’s cut sounds as though it might be corrupt …
15 July, 2011 at 9:19 pm
It could also indicate something a little unkind … What about ‘Criticism of Heaven Uncut’?
16 July, 2011 at 3:30 am
I like it. Keep it.
16 July, 2011 at 3:15 pm
I say go with The Author’s Cut as well.
16 July, 2011 at 4:36 pm
That “author’s cut” is good. Yet “Criticism of Heaven: The Unexpurgated Edition” might possibly be more salacious. It has that sort of D.H. Lawrence ring to it.
But if you get them to add “Banned in Poland” in red lettering across the top, with a yellow hammer and sickle substituting for the “o” in Poland, that would be a doozy.
16 July, 2011 at 5:36 pm
The catch that I would lose the Ridley Scott allusion and all that goes with it – cyborgs, post-apocalyptic cities, a youthful Harrison Ford as the blade runner, and even the great if somewhat over-drugged Philip K. Dick.
16 July, 2011 at 5:37 pm
‘Banned in Poland’ is good, very good, plus a ‘quotation’ from Rupert Murdoch to the effect that this sort of scurrilous rubbish brought him down in the first place.
18 July, 2011 at 1:06 am
I’m waiting for reading the unabridged version. I take you did not integrate the Bloopers as they do nowadays with DVDs. However, often strange thoughts can be most stimulating. Joost
18 July, 2011 at 8:13 am
I have done my best to eliminate bloopers, such as the idea of ‘anti-medecine’ in which one shares one’s diseases with others in hospitals while banishing doctors (from an early Eagleton).
18 July, 2011 at 6:01 am
None of these ideas are “Sino-Christian” enough. Criticism of Heaven: LMAO. Then Criticism of Heaven: ROFLMAO for Joost’s blooper idea.
18 July, 2011 at 8:13 am
along with the somewhat colonial associations with ‘sino’ …
20 July, 2011 at 3:59 pm
When’s the author’s cut due to be published?
22 July, 2011 at 9:04 pm
They are talking about November, in time for AAR/SBL.