Area 151

Well, with almost all of May evaporated, I have come to a screeching halt on that “26 in ‘06″ reading goal.  But the fine folks at Oscura Press are here to help.  Inspired, no doubt, by my review of Siddartha, they sent me this helpful missive:

If you like books by Herman Hesse, then you might like “Necktie for a Two-Headed Tadpole” by Jason Murk

Working for corporate America is a miserable experience.
Can you escape with your soul intact?

Is it possible to live a creatively realized life in corporate America? A remarkable new book by a survivor of the constant corporate layoffs during the dotcom-era, Necktie for a Two-Headed Tadpole by Jason Murk explores the question with wit, insight and dazzling literary effect.

Presented in the style of an illustrated modern-day alchemy book, Murk’s first book examines the creative process in the context of modern corporate living. Creativity, the book makes plain, is a complex alchemy of ideas and impulses rooted in the individual’s unique spirit and experience, a reality fundamentally in conflict with the purposes and operational demands of corporate life. If you’re creative but still working for corporate America, then you need to read this book!

Necktie for a Two-Headed Tadpole (ISBN: 1-4116-7681-5, $9.95) will help anyone with an artistic inclination who struggles to escape from corporate America. This book makes it clear that living and dying at your job every day in corporate America is a problem. Corporate work is miserable; to call yourself a “creative” or brand yourself as part of any “creative class” is to give yourself an artistic-sounding label which only distracts you from your misery. The only way to live a creatively realized life in corporate America, in fact, is to get out of corporate America. [...]

You’re receiving this book release because you expressed an interest in books published by OSCURA PRESS.

Alas, the fine folks at Oscura have misdiagnosed my reading problem in about a dozen different ways.

1) I’m not stalled for lack of interesting reading choices, I’m stalled for lack of time to read the interesting choices I’ve actually chosen.

2) I don’t work for corporate America.  I don’t blog about work much (see urban dictionary entry: Jessaisms dooced), but I will say that I work for the non-profit sector, which isn’t the “corporate America” being lambasted in this volume.  I’m not sure if this is a detail that the sleazy Oscura marketing bot shoulda noticed–if talked about non-profit work sparingly.  Regardless, the book seems of limited relevance to me

3) If your entire marketing claim is an “if…then” clause based on liking Herman Hesse, then perhaps the sleazy Oscura marketing bot shoulda noticed that my review of Siddartha was lukewarm at best.

4) No, assholes, I most emphatically did NOT express interest in your sleazy company and your parasitic marketing practices.  I was okay with getting the ad until I hit that clause.  Yeah, spam is spam, but this was quasi-relevant spam, where at least I could see the connection between what I’ve written online and the ad that was sent to me—I can’t say that the penis-enlargement offers are nearly as relevant for my feminine form.  However, as soon as I saw this blatantly false “you’re only getting this email because you asked for it” sentence, my blood boiled.  Tell me, Oscura, precisely how did I “ask for it”?

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