Where does literature come from?
Editor's Note for Issue 2
Where does literature come from?
As the second issue of The Apostrophe began to come together, this question began to arise. It is related to that other old saw, “Where do you get your ideas from?” as well as the larger, rhetorical question, “Yes, but is it art?”
The source of all literature is, above all, the human mind - our theme for this issue. Many authors say that their ideas come to them in dreams. Those can be waking dreams, or even voices that come from within, like that in one of the poems in this issue. Stories can also be the result of deliberate, methodical brainstorming, or perhaps the pursuit of a thought experiment (“What if?”) to its terrifying endpoint. In this issue, we are publishing our first horror story, which begins with a scientific curiosity and goes down an increasingly disturbing path.
Yet literature is also created externally. Formal writing prompts, randomly intense external experiences, and amusing incidents create the color and texture that make written work entertaining, moving, and relatable. And we are people: we love to hear, and read, about other people, and their relationships with each other and ourselves. Literature also comes from culture. In this issue, a personal essay (another first) traces not only the history of a single group of relationships, but the intricacies and interdependencies between them and the author, in the context of sweeping cultural change. Meanwhile, in another extraordinary poem, a cultural phenomenon is given a personal, narrative framework and raises questions about the relationship between this world and the beyond.
The magic happens when all of these interact with each other. And sometimes this interaction creates that elusive, wonderful form: comedy. In our first comic poem, the events and pressures of the external world have spawned an explosive, hilarious fantasy, one that says as much about context as it does about the narrator and the narrator’s surroundings.
Literature takes on another dimension when it is paired with the visual arts. In this issue of The Apostrophe, we are lucky enough to be able to feature a range of visual interpretations of our theme, “MIND”. The photographs and paintings come from Hong Kong and around the world, and while they are not direct illustrations of the poetry, stories, and essays in this issue, they can provoke the imagination and provide an alternative interpretation of what is written.
Yet beyond all of these, literature comes to life because of the reader. At the fundamental level, the mind creates, and it does so based on external stimuli, and the work is put together in black and white on the page. But it reaches another level when it is taken into the mind of another, interpreted, absorbed, loved, or hated, laughed at or cried with, and remembered or forgotten. Although the mind of the author and the mind of the reader may meet only through a single piece of writing, they are connected in a unique way in that moment when the piece is read.
And that, authors, readers, and friends, is what we are seeking.
Issue 2 of The Apostrophe will be published beginning September 1, 2023 - one work per day, with the full PDF version published on the final day.