Sybarite: the next Noble Savage?

[eji]

I've put an end to several years of procrastination and have decided to start laying the groundwork for a new literary magazine to fill the void left by The Noble Savage, News from the Republic of Letters, and all the other thoughtful, independent, literature-minded periodicals that have since gone the way of the dodo for one reason or another. The name will be "Sybarite."

I would hope for Sybarite to be a print publication; but if it seems more auspicious to begin with an online edition, I have no reservations about doing so. At the moment I need all manner of assistance: contributors, Web designers, editors, etc. All suggestions are welcome.

Based on some of the posts I've seen in these forums and others like it, I feel that I ought to point out that this isn't a whim or some avant-garde experiment. I'm firmly and wholly committed to putting out a quality periodical that builds on an established tradition in terms of style and content: book reviews, essays, commentaries and poetry, supplemented by discussions of theatre and visual art. Yes, Sybarite will expose new writers and ways of writing; no, it will not be blindly postmodern, middlebrow or hip. In fact, I would argue that obscure postmodernism, middlebrow Gleichschaltung and cynical hipness are the reasons why the contemporary literary scene is in such a bad way for both reader and writer.

You can read more about the project and its aims here: homepage.mac.com/ericjiannelli/sybarite.html

Thanks for your interest.

[sloegin]

Didn't the Sybarites destroy themselves and their city? A name change could be beneficial. I like the idea, despite my pedantic behavior. Please elaborate on essays:perhaps, philosophical rigmaroles, maundering stories.

[Sindhu]

Didn't the Sybarites destroy themselves and their city? Not exactly, the, the invaders did the detroying for them. ;) Sparta nearly always wins over Athens, more's the pity!

[sloegin]

The decadence killed them.

[eji]

One of the myths about Syabaris is that the residents taught their horses to dance to the pipe. When the Crotonians marched on the city, they used this to their advantage and set all the horses a-dancing, thus making the city's destruction a fait accompli.

Another story goes that the Sybarites were so decadent and lazy that they piped their chief export, wine, down to the sea so they wouldn't have to transport it physically.

The name is used with deliberate irony. I'm aware that it can be mistaken as being in earnest, but I'll take my chances with the potential pitfalls. In short, a name change isn't in order anytime soon.

[eji]

In responding to your initial concern (re: the Sybarites' self-destruction, a topic which needed addressing on our FAQ), I overlooked your request for clarification on the definition of essays.

Essay is a broad term and I like to keep it that way. Montaigne, Hazlitt, Orwell ... all very different, all considered essayists. And for this reason I don't want to limit what Sybarite can and can't include by inventing a definition of what an essay should cover. Philosophy? To some extent. Politics? Perhaps. Travel? Likely. Or better yet, a mix of all of these and more. The only stipulation (and still not cast in stone) is that the topic should loosely be related to literature. At the same time, I wouldn't turn down an intelligent, edifying, original piece on, say, American politics because it didn't conform to strict preconceptions. Generally, it should be a subject of interest to the intellectual (i.e., no odes to pop culture) and not couched in specialist jargon.

My only advice to anyone thinking about submitting a piece -- essay, fiction, memoir, etc -- would be to do so and see what happens. As the Sybarite FAQ states, it's impossible to determine the exact character of a magazine that hasn't even made its debut; and even then, "our primary arbiter will be good taste," a form of quality control that still leaves everything open to editorial discretion.

[sloegin]

Fiction submissions, how many words?

[eji]

4,000 max seems about right for the overall layout. If it's slightly more and a work of sheer excellence, send it along and exceptions can be made.