OUR ETHOS
We've seen so many magazines become plagued by the
opinion-piece tradition of news-media. We've read so many
articles indulging discourse on popular garbage, apocalyptic
possibilities, and controversy for the sake of controversy.
Not only does it make our brains seize to witness the preaching
of binary opinions, the prevalence of popular buzz words, and
the inevitable political analysis of everyday life, but these
topics are predictable, overdone, uncreative, and
algorithmic.
We’re not just talking about topics that disagree with our
beliefs. We believe that mainstream culture and the subculture
that subverts it are equally conformist. Whether your thing is
Catholicism or Socialism, these isms are packages of rules that
play good-cop-bad-cop to limit us psychologically and creatively.
For our magazine, we want you to think outside the rules of
the tribe. Don’t even address the tribe, please. The theme for
our second issue is "MIXED GENRE". There are multiple
approaches you can take with your submission…
Option A:
You can have opinions, but if you would like to create
a change in the reader, your point of view should not be
identifiable and obvious.
People rarely change their beliefs when they’re told to –
this only preaches to the choir and hardens polarization.
Find a way to "trojan horse" your idea into the reader if you
want to be effective.
Be subtle by employing a creative method,
like having characters speak for you, writing a fairytale,
baiting your target ideology but laying traps in the writing,
exemplifying/embodying the “right/new” without reference to
the “wrong/old”, sharing a meaningful experience without
sharing the meaning (because our experiences are the vessel
for self-learning, not the resultant beliefs).
These are just a few ideas.
Coming up with an innovative, strategic format to contain
your intended change is the creative exercise we’re proposing.
Keep your views well disguised.
It will be helpful to toss aside the spelled-out clarity
required for academic essays. The reader should not be aware
of the transformation happening to them.
SHOW, DON’T TELL.
Option B:
You might also choose not to express any opinions.
We welcome this! Please contribute any apolitical humor,
silliness, random stories, something new you learned,
descriptions of people or places, fieldwork journalism,
interesting aesthetics, fantasy worlds, love letters,
dream journals, interviews, etc.
We recognize that many aspects of everyday life don’t need
to be experienced from a cultural & political lens.
Let’s take a break from the analysis of everything and
have some fun.
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radical joy, contradicting yourself, reporting on information, creative formats, primary research, positivity & funniness, the mundane, absurdity and surrealism, posthumanism, symbolic messaging, embodied beliefs
Don'ts:
popular negativity, political discourse, preaching, serious essaying/critiques, ideological binaries, moral judgement, cultural references (no current events, celebrities/"big names"), obvious messaging, overdone topics, AI