In which the editors alternately opine on speculations relevant to the issue at hand. —Robin & Leila
OPEN
“Open” is not the theme of this issue – this is meant to be an open issue, without a specific theme, but in thinking about this issue’s non-theme, it keeps suggesting itself as one regardless of our original intentions. What I mean is that you might be hard-pressed to try to fit the rather wondrous speculations of this open Issue into the theme of “Open” or perhaps you might not. I haven’t tried but you’re welcome to do so.
We have a tendency at Speculative Nonfiction to settle on one-word themes for our issues. We like to think of these themes as open, in and of themselves, to interpretation, as evocative suggestions for our contributors and readers, as speculative fodder. Our previous issues were: “Dwelling,” “Hold,” “Erasure.”
I feel similarly about Open, though I know it’s not our theme. Or maybe it is a theme in a more meta fashion. What I mean by a “meta” theme is that open fits the ethos of what we’re trying to do here, actually what any journal attempts: peer into, chronicle the cultural moment, and perhaps to influence it. Journals such as ours are open to forms of expression and speculation that might find a rougher reception in the marketplace. Not that we’re trying to breathe only the most rarefied literary air or that we are trying to be so profound that even we don’t even understand what we’re publishing. God no. That’s the stereotype, right? In fact, what you’ll find in this issue, as in all our issues, are open-hearted essays that are playful, funny, sorrowful, yearning, wondering and wandering, none of them oblique (well, except for . . . ). But okay, yes, intellectual (which can be a dirty word in some circles, but which we embrace). By which we mean, that we strive to understand things about our place in the world that can only be approached with an open mind. Isn’t that what speculation is all about? Isn’t it our collective super power, the ability to project ourselves backwards and forwards, to mull over, to make our lives nimble.
For me, the best part of each issue is not this moment when we present the issue to you, though we hope it is the best moment for you. The best moment is not even when we start to read the submissions that come in, though maybe that’s a close second. For me, the best moment is when we decide what our next theme will be. Something as yet unformed starts to come together then, and we don’t know exactly what it is. Open. Yes, that’s as good a theme as any.
While this isn’t the most elegant of segues, I see it nonetheless as an opening to announce our next theme, which we now declare (imagine us lighting an Olympic torch) “Open,” as in ready to receive, but not open in the previous sense:
Passage.
Make what you will of this theme, and in the meantime, we wish you a safe passage through life, though not necessarily through this issue, because we like to think of ourselves as agent provocateurs in the guise of somewhat mild-mannered editors. And with that, we invite you to peruse the passages herein.
Robin Hemley, Co-Editor
Speculative Nonfiction