Prototype X - 1.1

[A_Non_Ymous]

We are approaching the closing of the window for PX 1.1. If you have work that is slated for appearance in this issue (at least potentially), it would be a good idea to finish it up within the next few weeks.

This issue has less variety, but it's still eclectic. I have also asked a few people for essays for the issue. (Carter K? Any progress with the thinking cap?) Please let us know when you think your essays will be ready.

----

If you missed this issue, don't worry. The next train will leave the station about 3 months after this one. We're still working out some of the details, but the B&W may be available via POD at a fairly reasonable cost.

People working on various story challenges are probably slated for PX-1.2, just so you won't be alarmed.

And by the way, we always have the need for good essays.

LSN

[xidrep]

PS: Those awaiting their promised copies of PX1 (LSN included, I believe :roll: ) rest assured they will be printed and despatched soon. There was actually a slight delay with obtaining cartridges for the potato-printer.

[A_Non_Ymous]

If it would make your life easier, Perdix, you might consider sending my copy to Howard at swordandsorcery.org. He seems genuinely interested, and we might get a review out of it. Who knows?

I've made do without a copy all this time, and I can make do without some more, in the name of the greater good.

LSN

[Anonymous]

Well, how about this:

A discussion of the three "pictures of whales" chapters from Moby-Dick. In these chapters Melville discusses a number of paintings, images, and so on . . . eventually building up a philosophy of representation. His discussion comments on the geneology of images and the attendent evolutions in the art of representation. Meliville draws together Art, science, philospohy.

The article I propose would be illustrated with the paintings and so on that constitute the subjects of Melville discussion. Where we would get these? Well, I could scan them from the book "Melville's Picture Gallery*--or what ever the title is--and maybe find them on the Web....

I am not sure if you are going for illustrations in the next issue?

Anyway, the "essay" will have several sections--an intro, short blubs for each section, brief exerpts from Melville, and my captions for the images. You see, thie piece is a museum exhibit I have written up. Why not prepare it as an illustrated article?

Might take a while with all those images. And it might be better for the color issue next year.

Thoughts?

Otherwise? Essays? Hmm. I am up to my ears in projects just now--novels, plays, Milton and Locke--I've been moving everything over from Mac to PC as well--and school is back in full swing.

If you want a play--highbrow Aristophanic comedy--60+ pages--you got it, but I belive I already have a story in the up-coming issue.

Essay essay essay....

In the Encyclopedia of Literature and politics I just published articles on Dystopian Literature, Karel Capek, and Menippean Satire. I believe it might be possibel to re-print these, but P-X should have something new.

The essay on Blake and Moorcok I published last March in Extrapolation? If Mike is going to continue to publish Second Ether stories in P-X, perhaps this should be in P-X as well.

Essay essay essay....

AH HA!

I got in a bit of a tiff with a certain British rock star and a certain British song writer/industry honcho--over a closet drama I posted at the rock star's Website. Um, how about these two pieces--the wee play Dialogue of the Dammned and an essay describing the incident: "A Young Person's Guide to Making Friends on the Internet"?

Both are nearly in the can and I can have them done this weekend--assuming I can find the disk. Hmm. Better check.

I would like to revisit the Dialogue and tweek it a hair to make it a bit more entertaining, and in the essay I'll simply say the "'Dialogue' here in P-X is based on the 'Dialogue' I posted at the rock star's Web site." Or, we could go with the identical dialogue.

I could have it in less than a week (this weekend? ho ho, maybe, no commiment just yet) again, assuming I can find all this stuff; and I don't know why not, I just like being tentative.

But I hope this wouldn't displace my other piece, as my fiction is what I want to advance.

[A_Non_Ymous]

CK,

You have been with us since the beginning, and you know the rules. Whatever you want to submit, get it together and send it to DRP & me. There will be some illos, but they'll be B&W.

We've already got a story from you on tap ("Wind..."), but if you have "something different" you'd like to toss us, let's see it. Aren't you "Mr. Something Different" anyway? :lol:

I understand about being busy. With translations, editing, and (gasp) mathematical research, I haven't written anything of my own in about 6 weeks.

LSN

[Anonymous]

I can't find my rock star file (maybe it's back east). Menatime, I am sending P. the snail addresses for Charles Jencks (the architecture critic) and Brian W. Aldiss). Perhaps they might have an essay for P-X.

Maybe P. could drop by Jencks' place in person, as he's in London too.

I'll see what I can do in-between crises. Confounded thing about my particular thinking cap--it wants to transcend the prosaic. It wants mythopoetic revelation! (i.e. I havea hard tome drawing a distinction between thinking and having a nervous breakdown)

Let the story ride in the meantime. ;-)

[Anonymous]

P.

If an essay is needed . . . why not . . . go for it!

Contact Fripp!

[Anonymous]

LSN:

e-mail me. I need to talk and I misplaced your e-address.

[email protected]

[A_Non_Ymous]

Prototype X 1.1 - Not just a book, not just a magazine, but a step by the "axis of evil" (Perdix, Dee, and me) towards world domination.

We haven't yet settled the details of ownership, but I think Dee wants part of Paris and most of Cannes. And there's some sort of codicil in the agreement that says "Dorset delenda est," or something of that sort.

Just out of curiosity and some informal statistics gathering, how many people are interested in ordering this B&W issue / book? We may make it available via POD, which would help with the cost of production and distribution.

Perdix is going to run off pilot copies in the notorious Mustard Lid Press Shedworks of East Molesey, but based on the demand after that, we'll see how we should proceed.

LSN

[nalpak retrac]

but based on the demand after that, we'll see how we should proceed.

LSN

1 One of our shops in New York (across from the Empire State bldg) will require some "comics" to carry the mag. Are we good for a few comics?

2 Along these lines, we have put together a retail network. Are we going to have copies to cover this? I believe we need at least 10 copies to begin in New York and Portland--and then there are retail contacts we've made elsewhere--WA, TX, CA, Ontario....

3 Has any effort been made to seek a publisher that could bring the magazine out as a book--either hard or soft cover--on a semi-annual or quarterly basis? Has anyone contacted parties on the list of cutting-edge up-market art/architecture book publishers I listed? Has anybody contacted an agent for a chat about this?

4 has anyone lookd at what Rem Koolhaus, Charles Jencks, and so on have done in this line?

5 Has anyone had a look at the magazine Juxtapose? LSN, they are in your town. Have you stopped in to say "hello" and shown them P-X? Shcmooze, baby! Schmooze!

6 P-X shgould put together an editorial advisory board--and put their names inside the front cover. Such a board can help with promotion in all sorts of ways: publishing connections, grants, authors, placing P-X in the hands of review journals.... Not to mention cocktail parties! I suggest we approach Mike, Brian W. Aldiss, Charles Jencks, Mack Hassler (professor of English at Kent State and the former editor of Extrapolation), Art Berman (emeritus professor of English & author of *Preface to Modernism* and *Structuralism and Post-Structuralism*), Micahel Beard (professor of comparitive literature, editor of Edebiyat, and author of several books on Sadeq Hedayat (persian author of The Blind Owl)), William Poole (Lecturer in English at New College, Oxford) and me (AKA the Celestial Wizard, the Etherial Manticore, Profesor Poppet, and so on). LSN? Dee? Anybody else?

I will contact the above IF Perdix will list them properly and fire them an occasional e-mail regarding P-X plans/needs, and so on.

7 In the inside cover list, in aditon to the Sheditor, the names of P-X associate editors.

8 On the Web site list the complete table of contents for each issue. This is standard and, moreover, smart practice.

Right. Chop-chop. :clap: Talk amongst your selves....

[xidrep]

1. Yes, a couple
2. No. Until we have more MONEY we can only operate on a limited basis. Current methods of production mean that per-copy price is rather prohibitive for the retailer to pay 'up-front': I think, whilst a few retail outlets is OK, we will have to work on the low-number output for a while yet. I do not have capital to kick-off enough copies to fulfil potential orders: I'm hoping the 'trickle' of 'underground' reputation will give us a groundswell that may help to attract a source of funds (!) but I would rather we do this 'on our own merits' rather than through suggestion '6'.
3. No, no and no. For the above reason.
4. No.
5. No.
6. No, we shouldn't. I don't think we really need to do this, for the simple reason that I think most contributors would rather keep this project independent of the direct influence of luminaries or 'sponsors' - it smacks too much of 'fandom' to me...
7. Yes.
8. Yes we can do that.

[nalpak retrac]

Good answers. Helpful. Good plan. Merci.

[A_Non_Ymous]

Some of Carter's suggestions seem to me very sound. We've got to find a way to get production and distribution costs down to something manageable. We've kicked around the idea of POD, but we aren't committed to it at this point. The Shedworks are excellent for turning out a reasonable # of pilot copies; that helps with "debugging" the issue, among other things. But to go to the next level, we need to find a way to turn out issues on a bigger scale.

I have mixed feelings about an editorial board at this phase of the operations, but I'll go along with whatever the rest of the "staff" thinks appropriate. It would seem to me (and remember that my expertise is in mathematics, not magazines and literature as social happening ) that it would be helpful if we could build our credibility by turning out a few magazines with a certain level of quality. (This is why in high tech startups, one always strives to build prototypes as a proof of concept.) The first issue of PX looked good. The 2nd might well be better, B&W production values and all. Nothing like a good track record to establish credibility, and I believe we are on our way.

LSN

[nalpak retrac]

It's not fandom so much as making connections with people who can help establish a reputation with critics, publishers and grant-awarding bodies. And a little academic clout wouldn't hurt toward this end either.

And indeed, any friction here is rather traction, if you take my meaning.

Save for Mike, board members sign aboard at their own risk. They can advise, but that doesn't mean that anybody has to follow their advice. If their advice advances the magazine, then good. If not, then who cares what they say? If they are embarassed by the magazine, then they can bow out if they wish and their names will be removed. No worries.

[xidrep]

Yes, I see your point, CK. I'm not averse to the principle, per se, and I can see the advantages - buuuuuut....hmmm, there's just something amorphous and preternaturally aversive in me that reacts to the idea...

Calibrate me, folks!