Call for Submissions - Lantern v2i4: Death
Register/Submit Deadline: Friday, Nov 22, 20137:59 AMEDT
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As the leaves turn and begin their descent to the earth, Lantern turns its focus to the Winter Issue, the final installation of Volume II, in which we have been incredibly fortunate to have engaged so many versatile authors, artists, and musicians on the themes of Ritual, Threshold, and Evolution. We think it both a natural growth of this exploration and a fitting conclusion to the year’s work to extend our investigation this Winter to the theme of Death. As we do with so many concepts, we often view death as one half of an oppositional duality with life. And in that conception, death becomes the terminal endpoint of life, a darkness at the end of the light of life. There is, however, so much more to be explored in the concept, so much beauty and strength and renewal in the sadness and loss we seem to emphasize.
Philosophically, death is the underlying question by which we investigate, identify, interpret, and affix meaning to the span and breadth of our living experience. Its ubiquity, when considered closely, is astonishing, despite our tendency to usher it away to the far corners of unfamiliar and unattended places. Within us, local death occurs at every level of our being—every cell in our body dies and is replaced every decade, just as the ship of Theseus, which, after helping to found Athens, was kept in working condition as her flagship. Over time each board and nail was replaced, which begged the question: What constitutes ship as an object through time? Is it the physical material or the idea? We continue, in kind, to ask whether there is a distinction between body and soul and to consider where death places us in the schema of infinity.
As a culture, we live in the era of endless industrialization, consumption, and destruction known as modernity—that is, one of perpetual crisis. Perhaps we are even experiencing modernity’s waning moments, which might naturally be seen as the death of the human condition—at least in the manner that we have known it to be. In place of a cultural and familial animal comes a technological and political being, isolated and disconnected, evermore devoid of the warmth and light of life. John Ruskin, when speaking of the London Smoke in the late 19th century, perhaps said it best: “The skies darken because the times darken.” The skies grow darker still.
Lantern embraces this creative force and strives to dwell there as we explore the darkness beyond the lantern’s glow. For now, we hope the Call inspires you as it has us, and we look forward to your submissions: poetry, short fiction, essays, architecture, images, music; we want it all. We are interested in thought and expression and connection, and we don’t much care what forms those things come in. We will value your work for its strength of character and for its contribution to the Issue’s exploration of the theme. Please view Death as you wish—creatively or destructively, literally or figuratively—and feel free to wander through its many doors as we walk beyond the lantern’s glow to the endarkened places where academic and other such publications stop. Join us in a walk with Winter’s shrouded companion as we sing the many songs of Death.
For more information, visit: lanternjournal.org
To submit, visit: http://lanternjournal.org/category/submissions
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