h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm not sure about other religions, but the power that was wielded by the Anglican clergy (to some extent still is in the case of church schools) up to perhaps half a century ago was quite similar. In my youth, the Landlord (we'd never have dreamed of calling him Squire by then, even if he tried to adopt the role - we loved it when a labourer was elected to chair the Parish Meeting instead of his son-in-law), the Vicar, the Doctor and the Vet were the only people we met in the village who had the massive intellectual prestige of having gone to University (the lawyer, engineers, school mistress etc. had all done their training at night school or by articles). Your piece made me think - whether it gets accepted or not, thanks for it.

nicely summed up jimmy.
take care
boots

Having tortured myself about the extremely personal format of this article I have just now submitted a possible alternative entry* - rather more objective, though still very personal - dealing with the same subject. I look forward to comments in due course, when ye old editorial team have a moment or two.
Yours,
Mike O'Shea
* Authority in The catholic Church, Uses and Abuses

Just to clarify Bels' comment a bit. The remove button is only shown to the researcher who wrote an entry. It's not meant to be construed as a comment on the entry itself.

Good point.

And by the way, even 'Delete this Entry' on the edit screen doesn't delete the entry. It just hides it from view. You can always get it back later. An entry here is an entry in aeternum secundum Melchisedek. Well perhaps not Melchisedek , but it's that sort of idea.

By the way, Mike, are you interested in monasticism? I wrote an entry on the Carthusians at A759774

Bels

Thanks for the information Bels.

Yes, I was so interested (in the 60's) that I joined the Order of Friars Preachers, Dominicans - in Woodchester, Gloucestershire, at the time.
Wonderful way of life, mostly in silence. Very hard, very disciplined, very joyful - hilarious at times.
I left at the end of the novitiate year, reluctantly, when I realised that I did not have a real vocation, a 'call from God'. I was merely ambitious - to be the greatest saint, the greatest preacher in the world! - having discovered Catholicism and tried to do something about it via Speakers Corner,Hyde Park, as a member of the Catholic Evidence Guild.
I was quite an effective speaker - really enjoyed thinking and talking about the great mysteries of Christ's life, death and resurrection and all that this implies, but my theological / teaching ambitions proved not to be good enough reasons to live as a member of the Order of Friars Preachers. I had to leave in order to learn to be more human. Still working at it!
I read the entry on the Carthusians. Interesting, informative, brings back memories of the Magnum Silencium bell at 10 p.m. and the brotherly greeting "Benedicamus Dominum - or is it Dominus? My Latin is defective and antique", calling us to prayer and work at 6.15 a.m.
A great way of life, but only for those who are ready for it, called to it, in some mysterious way.
I wrote a film script about this 12-month experience, about a dozen years ago. Parts of it make me laugh even now. Would be worth producing I believe. Monastic life is joyous. The austere exterior hides much merriment.

Hi Jimster - again -

I had a further look at your comments on my piece, namely

"I'd be a little worried accepting this into the Guide as it is. Firstly, the title is not representative of the subject matter (or the subject matter strays too far from the title, I can't decide which)."

and

"I also used the word 'undisciplined' simply because I'm really not sure where the entry is going for a lot of the time. It starts off as an anecdotal story of a family splintered by the church, but slowly turns into a criticism of the Catholic church from a very personal, opinionated perspective."

I now realise that it is the title as entered in H2G2 that causes the confusion. My fault.
"Authority in the Catholic Church" leads one to expect a clinical examination of this subject.

My original title, in full, was:

"How my Great-Grandmother Went to Heaven and My Grandmother Went to Bradford - leaving me with QUESTIONS ABOUT AUTHORITY AND CATHOLIC PRIESTS"

This perhaps explains your impression that 'the title is not representative of the subject matter' etc.
It's about authority AND the attitudes and behaviour of Catholic priests, not just about Church Authority.

In which case, I think that's why it comes across as muddled, as it's trying to be about three things at once, and not really covering any of the topics to any great degree. Sometimes, it's worth paring down material so that you can focus on a specific topic rather than attempt to hit lots of topics in one go.

In that respect, it's not the title that's the problem, it's principally the way the entry is written. A fine piece of writing, I'm sure, but not really Edited Guide material as it is, as it's not really about any one specific thing. We do have personal perspectives in the Edited Guide, but they are always about a definable subject - how to deal with cancer, the loss of an infant, discovering a long lost relative. These entries contain lots of factual research and, in truth, are very rare. As a rule though, we almost always reject entries that don't fit our <./>writing-guidelines</.> (which, it has to be said, are very broad, even taking into account their restrictions).

I'm not writing all this as an outright dismissal of your work, but just to point out that in all fairness, as this entry currently stands, we wouldn't accept it as part of the Edited Guide. There are elements of it that could be worked on and that would make suitable Edited Guide reading, but so far it seems you've not really taken into account our Writing Guidelines, which are there to help submissions have an easier time in Peer Review while also ensuring that submissions are as close to our (very general) mission statement as possible.

Additionally, might I suggest you take a look at some of our other Edited Entries, such as A715312 (Celulitis), A629237 (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), A533828 (Catholicism) or A707906 (A History of Ireland), which show different ways to get over a message.

Jimster

Since a revised version of this entry has been posted elsewhere in Peer Review, perhaps we should be thinking about moving this thread? See A945713, http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F48874?thread=241892 for the revised version. :) Mikey

Second a move back to entry.

Cheers!