ephlis01 SUMMER/FALL 2001 (THE LOST ISSUE): Part 1
Writing for what was to be the last print issue of ephlis01 began in the early Spring of 2001, about three months after the release of the Winter 2000 issue. It was largely completed by June and I expected to have it to the printer for a late Summer release in September.
What happened in September of 2001?
It was a definite case of writer’s block. Specifically, the final story in the issue, TRUTH, did not have an ending. I put it aside. I returned to it numerous times without success, eventually walking away from it for good.
Until now.
I recently read this “lost” ephlis01 Summer/Fall 2001 for the first time in years and realized many of the themes and issues I wrote about that Spring and Summer of 2001 would later dominate our national dialogue and zeitgeist following 9/11 and the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
I’ve decided to release the contents of the issue here in installments.
Accompanying the text will be descriptions of how the issue would have looked if it were printed and, whenever necessary, explanatory comments.
The plan was to use a Japanese stab binding printed on unbleached recycled paper in a stiff card stock portfolio, measuring 5 by 7.5 inches. The issue would be accompanied by a magnifying glass (for the aforementioned story TRUTH).
The portfolio: A tri-fold resembling a pack of matches. On the front (first panel of the tri-fold), printed in the upper right corner: ephlis01* (Cane Hollow font). Just below the masthead are the words Summer 2001 (Cane Hollow font) in smaller type. The third and smallest panel of the portfolio at the bottom would be a black striking strip with: *CLOSE BEFORE STRIKING (Cane Hollow font) printed below the strip. The verso of the matchbook (the back or second panel of the tri-fold) is a reprint of the frontispiece from the book CARVING AND BONING LIKE AN EXPERT by Oreste Carnevali, a sketch by Pat Stewart depicting the author sharpening a knife with a steel.
Opening up the portfolio, one sees the cover of the issue, an image of matchsticks.
Page 1: After the matchsticks cover is the following quote in large letters (teletype font) framing a small empty orange-bordered box:
Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them?
But in the case of painting, people have to understand. If only they could realize above all that the artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can’t explain them either.
Pablo Picasso, Avant Garde # 2, March 1968
Page 2: Largely blank page with only a tiny orange-bordered box in the middle. In the box is printed in very small type (teletype font) the following quote:
Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time, it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy the cage.
