[KS] Thesis Offer Results

[David A. Mason]

Korean:   4331. 6. 7
Buddhist: 2542. 6. 7 
Western:  1998. 7.29
IMF era:     1. 9.29

Dear Korean-Studiers,  
It was just over one year ago that I announced that my M.A. Thesis 
had been accepted by the Yonsei U Graduate School of International 
Studies [GSIS].  As you may remember, it was "A Study of Korea's 
Mountain Spirit [San-Shin], and it's Relationship with Korean Buddhism", 
attempting to cover the whole broad tradition of mountain-worship here.  

I posted:  "I have a few extra copies of my thesis.  If any of you 
share a strong interest in this subject, I'll send you one at no charge."
Making this sort of offer is rarely done on this list (or on other such
lists?); in fact I've never seen it done before or since.  I still think
that it was a good idea, and as this only-10-year-old internet / virtual
community thing matures, it may become more common....?  (of course, if
I was hip enough to have a web page, I could have put it up there).

Anyway, I thought that you might be interested to know the *results* 
of my offer.   Quite successful, I thought, in achieving its initial 
goal of "spreading the word". 37 professional or amateur Korea-scholars
e-mailed me a request, and were sent a copy (i had to print more up).
Of those, 15 were Professors (or at least PhD-holders); around half of
them said they would place it in a University library or Korean-studies 
collection.   The USA, Canada, Europe, Korea, Japan and Aus/NZ were all
represented in a fair balance.

There was of course some danger of being plagiarized because of this
act, I know (especially since plagiarism is something of a norm in 
Korean Universities);  but so far I've seen no evidence of that having
happened {too low-quality to plagiarize?}.  If any of you see signs of
such an attempt, be sure to let me know...

All that I asked in return was some "feedback" on it.  Frankly, I knew
that it was not nearly as good as it could have been (time was short,
and my thesis-committee not too demanding).  But my research on San-shin
is continuing (towards a grand book), and I was hoping for upgrade-ideas 
and fresh info / interpretations.  In this secondary goal, my offer was
NOT so successful... of those 37 recipients, only 4 ever offered me any
feedback at all.  Those 4 said very valuable things that were helpful to
my ongoing project, indeed; but it was disappointing that more folks 
didn't respond.  Too obscure a subject?   My ideas too absurd to bother
commenting on?  I'll never know...  ;-(    
(BTW, if any of you on this list have been sitting on some comments but 
never sent them due to business, you may take this as a blunt hint :-)
Deadline is mid-September).

All copies are GONE, save for my own last one, so please do NOT request
more if you missed out a year ago.  You'll just have to wait for the
book version...   ;-)

Which mention gives me the chance to slip in this little announcement:
I have just recently signed a formal contract with Hollym Publishers
of Seoul, for a coffee-table-size tome with 100 color photos, hopefully 
out by this Christmas!  It is intended to be my magnum opus on Korea's
San-shin, the final expression of my 14 years of focus on it. It will
include a detailed analysis of my photo-collection 300 San-shin taeng-
hwa [religious portraits, or icons].   Intended for BOTH the academic
and popular/tourist markets --- a fine line to try to walk, I know...

Again, I'd like to thank those on this list who offered me assitance.

David Mason
Virtue-Leading Village
Triple-Crags Mountain
Springtime-Stream City
Origin-of-the-Rivers Province
Korea


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