(Scroll down if you want to skip the self-congratulatory stuff.) The Best of Magellan's
Log |
|
"I was born to
shiver in the draft of an open mind." Our namesake's expedition needed almost three years (1519-1522) to go around the world. Here we are, after four years, still sailing along with no end in sight. What a trip! To celebrate, we've culled statistics and polled staff and pulled together several best-of lists. Below, you'll find links to what readers liked most and other lists of what the editors and writers liked most. When we started, we fearlessly mixed metaphors and described our proposed voyage in architectural terms. The idea was to create a vast, varied Internet site reflecting as many aspects of culture as we could work up an interest in, a virtual structure with rooms large and small, simple and elaborate, serious and funny, weird and beautiful, some silent and some filled with music. That we have done. What we didn't expect was how much events would affect the shape of many parts of the structure. The turn of the millennium we were already writing about early on. But then came the 2000 presidential election, the market crash, 9-11, Iraq... |
If our Number One Patron Saint is old Ferdinand Magellan himself,
then our Number Two Guy is Jonathan Swift. As unsettling events unfolded, though
we continued in our wide-ranging exploratory mode into poorly mapped cultural areas, out
came the satirical pens, duly sharpened, and we went to work on the various new (and old)
sacred cows. Though we lost a lot of readers who worship the new/old fatted calves of unquestioning patriotism and free-market greed, clearly we spoke to many more new readers. The curve of our global readership has continued to climb. For that we are grateful, partly because it means we are communicating successfully, but mostly because it means we're not alone in this world where so many persons in positions of great power seem truly hell-bent on destruction, exploitation, and the dictatorship of deceit. Thank you for staying with us. I suspect at least the short-term future is going to require a lot more hand-holding and hugging--and also most likely a great deal more satire. For now, scroll down and enjoy the Best of the First Four Years of Magellan's Log. Maybe in the lists below you'll find some buried treasure that you missed the first time around. --Doc Cuddy, Editor.
|
ART BEAUTY BOOKS
CHILIASM COMPUTERS CULTURE
EMPIRE FUN ESL HOME HUMOR
IMAGES LETTERS
LIT LITE MISCELLANY
MUSIC POLITICS
RANDOM SATIRE SELF-HELP SEX TECHNOLOGY
TRAVEL RELIGION
SERVICES TESTS THINK WEIRD ZEN ABOUT US
"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." --Oscar Wilde.
Magellan's Log Copyright ©
2002 Texas Chapbook Press
www.texaschapbookpress.com