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By lem2171, on October 30th, 2010
Quarto has been around for over 60 years now, but why not take a look at Quarto’s more recent past? The 2008-2009 issue marks the beginning of Quarto’s reflection on the question “What is literary?” an idea that continues to characterize the magazine.
Take a look at the very first piece for example, Sandra Susser’s Index for the Ruination of Suburbia, a poem in the form of an index, or Aaron Rotenberg’s Rejected Manuscript, in which we see something like a lab report format become a poetic structure. Two non-fiction pieces in this issue, Ben Reninga’s Letters Home and Break Up Letter by Adrienne Giffen introduce the idea that non-fiction, far from being limited to personal essays or reportage, can contain something such as a letter, a piece of writing not only on the subject of true events, but actually pulled straight from their functional purpose in everyday life and transformed into something literary. In fiction, Matt Herzfeld’s How To Observe a Common Black Housefly Closely, Matthew Ira Swaye’s The Administrative Assistant, and Jim Urbom’s A Faerie Tale all seem to explore the form of the short short story.
These nontraditional forms alongside traditional short story, narrative non-fiction, and poetry pieces speak of Quarto’s goal to publish the best writing regardless of the form in which it comes. Whether an idea fits best into a standard form or subverts it, whether it feels born to be a prose poem or an index, a comic or a narrative, a short story or a letter, a haiku or a lab report, a transcription of comical class notes, a play, or a six word memoir, be inspired by the 2008-2009 issue to realize that anything can be literary.
By Matthew Hamilton, on October 19th, 2010 For some reason, even while actually being upset and scolding all the common editors of everyday lexicon and typography, Stephen Fry makes a good point- all you sticklers out there, use your powers for good and funsiness!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY[/youtube]
By ari2103, on October 18th, 2010 I decided to have a look at the 1966 Spring Edition of Quarto and stumbled upon a lovely short poem -The Blue Beret, by David Lukashok, which left me with a sense of loveliness. The strength of his use of color throughout the poem was impressive, and interesting that he chose to use two colors that were at opposite ends of the spectrum. The first time I read it I was left with an ineffable sense of beauty and simplicity, pure and basic, and intensely visual. I decided to try my hand at it and wrote a pastiche of it, but changed the age and sex of the subject in addition to changing the colors Lukashok used. Maybe the different colors might invoke a different feeling to the poem as a whole, I don’t know, but I hope you’ll let me know how differently you felt after reading Lukashok’s original**and after reading my imitation of it. Enjoy.
The Green Sweater
(An interpretation/imitation of David Lukashok’s “The Blue Beret”, by Amital Isaac)
Like a young fellow, a student
My budding beau in green,
Green woven wool
With a sea of waves across his chest
On a knit of soft olive green
And his eyes like clouds of gray hanging above
Piercing and calm as he looked over his shoulder
And then the other way
But both of them O so gray
Where did I see him?
When waves began crashing in my ears
And silver gray specks turned away
All I was left with
All but
His green gray eyes
** Lukashok’s original piece here on Page 48:
http://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/quarto/quarto-1966-spring-issue/
By Matthew Hamilton, on October 12th, 2010 And so begins the first of many posts here at Quarto where we take a look at older pieces within our archives for the purpose of sparking thoughts and conversations about writing at Columbia.
The piece I chose this week is Call Me Uncas by Ralph Perry, in the 1965 Fall issue of Quarto. It also happens to be mirroring a funny comic done by Louise Gluck, a US poet Laureate and also Columbia alumni, and proud School of General Studies’ student, apparently. This short prose piece is a cool periscope view into the mannerisms, and social etiquette of the 60s, or at least what it was in the writer’s eyes. The story is about a guy named Mark and his date at a party, the people they meet, and how they eventually go home together. I was happy to be able to relate to the mention of The Last of The Mohicans, and was surprised at the sperm conversation in the beginning of it. Even as a child of the non-private and evermore explicit 21st century, I hardly think about my sperm going rancid on a daily basis, let alone enough to mention it in conversation. The eventual interplay between Mark and his date was peculiar, and I felt it lacked the emotion I would have imagined it. Perhaps that it’s my perspective on it, but I see it as fragmented, but nostalgic and friendly view of 60s relationships: short, seductive, and there’s a lot they’re not telling you. Check it out for yourself here:
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By Matthew Hamilton, on October 12th, 2010 I thought this article was an interesting, voyeuristic piece on being a paparazzo in New York City. Sometimes we don’t realize the pain people go through just so we can flip through a People magazine and gawk at celebrities:
http://jezebel.com/5660461/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-paparazzo
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