the lamp - Arts, opinions no math.

The Lamp – Miscellaneous Imagination

by Catherine MacLennan

"We cannot be human alone. We can only be human together." --Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Seattle address May 2002

“Why not do a blog, instead of a magazine format,” someone asked me, adding, “It would be easier.” Yes, it would be easier (“Blogs: The Easy Way Out”), but would it be better? Would it be easier and…smaller? Is easier the way to go, or perhaps doing what is worthwhile? Isn’t television unwatchable because networks are doing what is easier – from the Springer-Oprah shows to “reality TV,” to “news” that consists of “if it bleeds, it leads” stories, celebrity trials and the regurgiation of government press releases.

The internet has proven to be the superior source for finding news and information – there one can have access to the international press, investigative journalism and different viewpoints traditionally shut out of the corporate and dumbed-down media. Then there are the political blogs – some are good, as they highlight important stories that should get attention. But… there is a single-minded quality to the political blogs – the message, really, is all the same, with a thousand links to back it up – and to the side of the blog, dozens more links of like-minded bloggers with hundreds or thousands of more links that support that same message. Even when I agree with much of what is linked, I feel like I have to read a bit, and then get out fast. Worse, of course, are just the semi-insane or completely insane ones – it is quite clear what their pet hates are – every link displays it, and of course, links on the side, or both sides with other bloggers and sites that promote the same hate. In theory, one could have access to the whole wide world on the internet, but with the political blogs the world is narrowed as they go deeper and deeper into their hates, and when this mentality forms a voting block they drag everyone down with them. Much has been said of the current polarization in the US; the last few elections in Canada have seen solid regional voting-block divisions – and with each election the country holds its breath as it hangs together by a thread.

There are people who can see beyond themselves, or their gang, group, sect or psychosis – the truly international people who are interested in the arts. There is certainly more breathing space and thinking space on arts blogs. The Complete Review/The Literary Saloon has an excellent range of linked books and reviews. When so many publications concentrate on heavily promoted bestsellers, or UK and US novels, The Complete Reviewis notable in their knowledge and interest in authors and books from around the world. For the “eclectically-minded music fan,” there is Hemispherical, which discusses and links everything from Ethiopian pop, to the Turang group Tinwariwen, to Malian funk, to Brazil’s Monica Salmaso, and beyond with an informed and enthusiastic commentary. There is always something interesting at wood s lot - paintings, poetry, philosophy and more, on an endlessly readable site. The links are so interesting and humane you wonder who is behind it. In fact, all the above-mentioned blogs are anonymous or nearly-anonymous. While the “stars” of reality TV and the authors of the "I’m-in-my-pjs-eating-pizza” blogs don’t realize how boring they are with their banal detailed self-absorption, the identity of the anonymous arts bloggers is a tantalizing mystery due to the fact that they express an interest and knowledge of the world outside themselves. Playing on this curiosity, the author/editor of the wood s lot site formerly illustrated the “who?” page with Magritte’s Portrait of Edward James 1937. The new illustration at the “who?” page features a blurry photo, presumably of “Mark Woods.”

Magazines, too, have narrowed their scope. While the Canadian magazine Maclean’s once had a (distinctly Canadian) personality and a looser and wider scope, in the 1970s it turned into a generic Time-Newsweek clone, dishing up the same stories as the television news. Women’s magazines once included general and arts related articles, though that is now rarer to find in this type of magazine. Mademoiselle once published fiction by authors such as Truman Capote and Sylvia Plath. Mademoiselle is no more. Would a new women’s/fashion magazine today print quality fiction…or more celebrity interviews and photos? McCall’s, another “women’s magazine” included, along with its “Gardening” and “Needlework” features, a Fiction section, “Book Bonuses” and, yes, Poetry. Then the 125-year old McCall’s became “Rosie” (named after a TV host, who became its “editorial director”). Though it continued to share some categories with the old McCalls – “Beauty”, “Food”/Cooking” - Poetry and Fiction were gone. This new incarnation also added sections, including one called “Stars”, that featured the sub-section “Celebrity.” Other general interest magazines have faded away, while “celebrity”-themed magazines appear on the rise. The Atlantic and Harper’s have healthy arts coverage, and wide-ranging feature articles, however, political stories/US foreign policy stories dominate every issue. The New Yorker remains about the sole genuinely general interest magazine left. (On the radio, another source of expectional intelligent variety is the Leonard Lopate Show).

It is strange that so few wide-ranging magazines (in print or online) exist. Did everyone fall down a rabbit-hole called niche marketing? Or a hell-hole called “Celebrity culture”?

Another form of self-imposed limitation can be found in “academic” writing in the last couple of decades. A large proportion of it is written in ugly, joyless jargon in the mistaken belief that writing in this fashion will make it relevant. It, of course, makes it irrelevant and unreadable. Despite the criticisms, this type of writing goes on – careers have been built on it, textbooks and journals keep rolling out full of it, and yet another generation has to plow through it. So many have tried to take the possibilities, beauty and excitement out of writing about the arts or life. Too often, arts magazines have become bureaucratic magazines - narrow, predictable, tedious and ugly.

The Lamp seeks to combine the spirit of the wide-ranging arts/life magazine (“A magazine appeals to the miscellaneous imagination. No matter how specialized, the best magazines suggest the fullness and variety of life.”)¹ with the technology available today - featuring a wide range of content as well as contributors from different cities and countries. (Surprisingly, the concept has not occurred to many. People’s interactions with technology are most often in a passive consumer role. Put the DVD in the DVD player. Or, if writing a blog, are unable to go beyond themselves). If you can communicate far and wide through technology, why not do it?

1 Fraser Sutherland, The monthly epic: a history of Canadian magazines (Toronto :
Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1989), p.1.

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