On Politics, Culture, and Other Essays:

We operate under two assumptions:

1. Western society is broken, and all aspects, including art, of Western society reflect this fact. We hope to be able to help repair this brokenness by loudly and frankly discussing the nature of the breakage.

2. ALL humans are the captains of their fate and masters of their soul (to borrow a wording from Invictus by William Ernest Henley). To interfere with another's right to their fate and soul is the quintessence of criminal behavior.

We are not interested in debating or discussing these assumptions. We realize they are not infallible, but we don't have the time. We are interested in debating and discussing, in great detail, how best to apply these assumptions to the real world.

Let's tackle the second one, as it's simpler. We believe in individual freedom, and that we should all be working to help other individuals be free, and we must not threaten the individual freedom of others. Obviously, there are practical difficulties with that. If you'd like to explain how anarchy is the only way to effect this goal, great. If you believe that the only way to assure individual freedom is with strict laws that keep people in check with the threat of jail or even death, tell us about it. If you think you have a way to assure individual freedom in which nobody gets hurt, even better. Give us the goods.

Both our assumptions are deliberately broad, but some corollaries should be obvious. If we are all the masters of our fate, none of us should be slaves. After that, there's a lot to debate. Do reparations for the descendents of slaves bring closure to the travesty, or bind modern blacks to the old system? Are traditional gender roles a form of slavery? What role does education and miseducation play in all of this?

Regarding the idea that Western society is inherently broken. We do not mean to advocate the overthrow of any government. We welcome everyone to criticize any government they like, or even suggest another system of government. But we consider armed revolution a band-aid on a bullet hole. The entire way humans relate to each other is deeply flawed, and Western society has been reinforcing and encouraging many of these flaws for millennia. Certainly, not everything that's grown out of the West is bad, but we feel that the 20^th Century proved that the evils of Western civilization are now choking out its virtues. We believe that radical re-examination, followed by radical action, is necessary, and we mean something far more radical than a protest march, an invasion, or a revolution. We believe that we need to change the way we think. The change can't begin at a voting booth. It begins in human minds and hearts.

We are not strictly interested in the theoretical. The fact is, we do live in Western society, and while we are discussing radicalism, we must also be debating the proper use of band-aids. We would love to hear from anyone who'd like to propose a way to end all war, forever. In the meantime, however, we're open to the idea that any given war is a necessary evil, and interested in debating these points. Feel free to tell us about how these lofty principles can be applied to the daily grind. Or, if you prefer, skip those lofty principles entirely. They are our assumptions, and we want writers and readers who appreciate them, but they are not the entire scope of our interests. We are also interested in your fear of airplanes and advice on anal sex. We are interested in the 21^st Century human experience, both individual and shared, and how it will apply to our readers. Surprise us, in the unlikely event that you can.

We are not interested in emotional appeals; appeals to patriotism, racial pride, or fear. We consider these things the barbarous manipulations of powerful sociopaths. Please engage us on an intellectual level. However, it should be pointed out that both humor and satire are intellectual pursuits, and we assure you that even the most extreme satire is welcome here. Don't feel obligated to say what you mean or mean what you say. We are interested in scholarly works, and by that we mean you should know what the hell you're talking about. We are not interested in dry, academic-style writing. There is absolutely no reason that your article on politics and culture should not be entertaining. There are thousands of books of political opinion, most of them written by people far smarter than you. Do you think you could make yours stand out a little? Or even a lot? However self-infatuated and overprincipled we are, we're still doing this largely for fun. Please help us have fun.

On Poetry:

Please send up to six poems at a time. We will publish no more than three at a time, except by special arrangement. Any normal length is acceptable, but if you're sending a single book-length poem, or something otherwise weird, just drop us a line first and let us know.

We assume a base level of writing skill. We do not assume you know how to spell, but we assume you know how to work a spellchecker. If you do not, be braced for a nasty note and a really firm pinch. We assume a basic familiarity with the rules of English grammar, but are very open to grammatical experimentation. We are not, however, interested in poets who are simply ignorant of how to use an exclamation point. On the other hand, the idea that all ellipses must have exactly three periods is a fascist rumor put out by Strom Thurmond's evil stepmother.

Given that base level of writing skill, we are interested in the socially relevant and the radically experimental. We are only interested in those poetic works that comment on society in some way. However, we believe that art which greatly pushes the boundaries of form or content inherently comments on society (since we believe, however naively, that art and society are linked).

We have read an enormous amount of poetry in a wide variety of genres. What do you have, either in form or content, that we've never seen? Send that.

On Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction:

As with poetry, we expect a base level of understanding of English spelling and grammar. Once that is achieved, we judge fiction and creative non-fiction by how much it makes us think. We define "fiction" as that which occurs when an author writes material that expresses the opinions of people who do not exist. If an author writes non-factual stories that express his or her own opinions, we call that "inaccurate journal-writing." Either is an acceptable submission.

We do not expect to agree with the opinions expressed through your stories. They can even violate our two assumptions, above. We expect opinions that stimulate us. We consider the revelation of a character's opinions the most important part of character development. "Plot" interests us only insofar as a character's actions reveal his or her opinions. (We consider the narrator a character.)

Please send no more than three stories, or no more than 8,000 words, at a time. If you would like to send a single story longer than 8,000 words, please query us first.

On Music:

We are interested in showcasing and promoting the works of musicians who are working to change the definition of music and musical genres. All artists crave recognition, but if you're hoping to become a Top 40 band, you're not our thing. If you think you're a rebel because you're churning out music that strictly conforms to a rebellious genre, you're even less our thing. We're looking for people who genuinely push the boundaries. We're looking for people who use advanced counterpoint techniques in industrial music and wah-wah pedals in their interpretations of Peter & the Wolf. We're looking for people who either subvert our expectations from a specific type of music, or better yet, subvert our expectations about what music is entirely. Genres are the artificial constructs of critics desperate to leave their mark on the uncontrollable force of music. That said, your copy of FruityLoops does not make you a composer.

Genre-busting isn't the only way to change the face of music, and should your music have lyrics, we'll be taking them seriously. You might want to read our comments on poetry, although we're less dogmatic about lyrics. We particularly like to see the blending of the political and the personal. We find that song lyrics aren't generally the best place to introduce truly new concepts, though we'd be delighted if you'd prove us wrong. Music itself is the perfect place, and truly new concepts are what we're looking for.

On Visual Art:

We are interested in displaying visual art that pushes convention and alters how we perceive any given form. We are interested in new techniques and new messages of any stripe. We will consider art that makes us feel good, but we will not consider art that makes us feel comfortable. We want our perceptions, priorities, and aesthetics questioned.

This doesn't mean we are fascinated by the lurid. We've seen lots of lurid. Drawings of Japanese vampires do not alter our perceptions a whit. We are fascinated, not by art that proposes to give answers, but by art that insists on asking questions.

We believe that good art has inherent social relevance, and that in the best art, the social relevance is immediately identifiable. That said, we are not interested in pictures of roughed-up hookers or starving children in Africa. A photo that merely conveys that life is shitty is not making social commentary. We know life is shitty. Is there some aspect of life's shittiness that you've thought of that we haven’t? Probably not, but is there at least some way to convey life's shittiness that no one else has attempted before? Show us that.

On Movies:

We would love to publish short films and animations in Flash, Shockwave, QuickTime, or just about any format that doesn't come from Real Media.

We find that the vast majority of movies available on the 'net are created by people who find the word "boobies" inherently funny. While we are glad that young suburban males are exercising their rights to freedom of expression, we seek to raise the bar. Our comments on visual art and storytelling should give you a pretty good idea of what we look for in a movie, and our comments on music should let you know what we seek in a music video. If you manage to make a movie that does not involve visual art, storytelling, or music, we very much want to see it. No promises on actually publishing it, however.

We love humor. We find Andy Kaufman to be the funniest and most relevant comic for our era. We find experiments funny, the funny experimental, and find both to inherently include social commentary. We'd love to hear from those who agree.

On Reviews:

We are interested in reviews for all sorts of art projects; film, theatre, music, books, galleries, whatever. However, this is not a site for reviews, and we do not have time to compete with all the existing excellent sites that review artistic projects. Thus, we are only looking for reviews that sharply distinguish themselves from the body of reviews available on other sites.

We are most interested in reviews that explain the relevance of an artistic work. We aren't horribly interested in whether or not you like a particular piece of art, or whether or not you think we'd like it, although you should feel free to share this information. We are more interested in how a given piece of art has impacted (or will impact, or could impact if anyone cared about the piece of shit) culture, pop culture, or you personally. Did The Passion of the Christ make you want to kill Jews? Is Sharon Osborne a money-grubbing tyrant of an attention whore or did she breathe new life into a broken man, turning a psycho into a responsible father? What the hell made someone pick up a copy of The Hours and think, "this would make a good movie?" We liked the book, but we SO don't get that.