Letter from the Editor
Our beginning, and our end.
A sea we’ve hardly sailed, where we set out on a monumental trip that feels perpetually cut too short. A library filled with points of light which take us an eternity to read, one letter at a time. We’ve spent since the beginning of our collective memory trying to decipher its shapes and cycles: anthropomorphically, mythically, scientifically, existentially. We talk to it in the loudest voice we can muster, and we receive barely audible whispers in return. Familiar stranger; always there, barely seen. We’re made of it, yet know relatively nothing about it. What do we see in it? Where does it live in us?
The cosmos is everything and nothing at the same time; we spend much of our time unable to really see it. Just like we can’t quite see ourselves, just parts and reflections—it’s the same with the cosmos we inhabit. And, the myriad small cosmoï around us, starting with the ones in our bodies, and the body itself. The Earth’s ecosystems, our society’s structure, our myths and religions. They’re all liminal constellations, layered and intersecting, looped with the warp and weft of natural law and meaning.
Eighteen stellar pieces of writing and art meditating on the concept of cosmos and its place in our lives. Revolution, Relation, Revelation—the pieces therein speak to the all-encompassing nothingness of the most liminal space of everything.
Summerlude 2021 is our second publication, but our first mini-issue. Our goal: to showcase more visual art and see how our process worked the second time around in preparation for Vol. 2: Wunderkammer. We also wanted to honour one of our most favourite times of year, the Perseid meteor shower in the northern hemisphere.
We give our warmest heartfelt thanks to everyone who submitted to this issue—it was a difficult selection, but an enjoyable reading period! And we’d like to express our gratitude to everyone who’s joined us since we launched in late-December 2019, and lent their support in helping us find our place in the community and grow.
Fax Aeterna, EIC