Post by Fewms on Feb 20, 2009 3:20:34 GMT
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~Editor's Opening Address~
"I am afraid of the press which is only a word whose echo lasts twenty-four hours. They are the tyrants which threaten us now." "Come to our country," he said, "you will learn to fear other tyrants." "You speak in vain, prince; you will not succeed in giving me a bad opinion of Russia." "Do not judge Russia either by me or by any Russians who have travelled. With our flexible nature we become cosmopolitans from the moment we leave home, and this trend of mind is already a satire against our government." At this point, in spite of his habit of speaking frankly on all subjects, the prince became afraid of me, of himself, even more of others, and dropped into rather vague descriptions.
- The Journals of the Marquis de Custine, St Petersburg, 1834; p. 30.
Five precepts of the Soviet intelligentsia: Do not think. If you think - do not speak. If you think and speak - do not write. If you think, speak and write - do not sign. If you think, speak, write and sign - don't be surprised.
- Anonymous saying.
The first Papyrus was the outcome of a suggestive conversation that the time was ripe for a fresh review of ideas about social organisation, economics, and political innovation from a Klatchian standpoint. We mused a la Marx: "Until now, philosophers have tried to understand history; the point, however, is to change it." Yet history in Djelibeybi undergoes an Eternal Recurrence. Should not the Djelian Revolution have been impossible, insofar as time in our land is not linear but circular? We eventually concluded that the same Revolution must have occurred innumerable times, in both in the future and in the past, and that there was therefore no inherent contradiction in playing at being its intelligensia (as the Silver Horde remarked before laying waste to the Counterweight Continent, "Don't knock it, it's something to do.").
We wondered how our theorised publication might differ from the two Morporkian newspapers, and realised that we could not go far wrong by making it everything those papers are not. Where the Morporkian papers are mass-produced tabloids, the Papyrus would appear less often, more carefully, and always in a limited edition whose supply would be exceeded by demand. Where the Morporkian papers cover all topics, and cannot sustain a theatrical effect over an entire edition, the Papyrus would be consistent in style, heavily censored, and only concerned with the machinations, politics, economics and paradigmatical affections of the Klatcho-Djelian bloch. The agreed upon formula was that each edition should be one half "Pradva" and one half "The New Yorker". These aims have so far been fulfilled: the most propaganda-filled and explicitly political of all of discworld's publications, the Djelian Papyrus has also been the most affectedly literary, offering the only rhetorical platform for grandiose ideological compositions of a certain type.
A collection of essays by contemporaries actively concerned with various special aspects of Communist progress was proposed, and the project a little enlarged by the inclusion of a general introduction which would serve as a basis of agreement among the several writers. A sort of loose unity was achieved by this method, and though each writer remains only responsible for their own contribution, the reader was led to identify disconnected essays and suggestions with a complete programme. Such was the idea - you might say 'plot' - for the first edition. Happily, this experiment proved able to be reproduced and refined, so many are the possibilities offered by the Djelian Papyrus' default topics of Orientalism and Communist adventure.
When the last edition of the Papyrus was released, it was immediately thought to be the best so far. Its seventy copies sold out within two weeks. Forty were were in Djelian, twenty in Morporkian, six in Ephebian, three in Agatean, one in Uberwaldean, one in Dwarven and one in Gnomish. Twenty-two copies were distributed at no expense to Djelian Citizens, and the rest were sold for two talents each. The nearly one hundred talents thus amassed went partly into the Djelian Treasury, and partly into the coffers of the Papyrus club to defray for as long as possible the fees occasionally demanded by its indefinite perpetuation.
This sixth edition of the paper is the third and last offered under my editorship. The next editor, when one is found, shall probably adopt a different air and style to his three predecessors; such is the Perpetual Dialectic of Djelian innovation. I am glad, over my time as Papyrusical editor-in-chief and as the Censor of Censors, to have been able to bring the publication to a more polished state, and to have been seen what was at first an experiment in Scheherazadean Marxism by Echo and myself come somewhat further into its own.
Written in cursive blood is the authentic and attested signature of Gwydion auf der Scheibe in Djelian:
Minister Gwydion auf der Scheibe.
page 3
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; ; '\_~Editor's Opening Address~
"I am afraid of the press which is only a word whose echo lasts twenty-four hours. They are the tyrants which threaten us now." "Come to our country," he said, "you will learn to fear other tyrants." "You speak in vain, prince; you will not succeed in giving me a bad opinion of Russia." "Do not judge Russia either by me or by any Russians who have travelled. With our flexible nature we become cosmopolitans from the moment we leave home, and this trend of mind is already a satire against our government." At this point, in spite of his habit of speaking frankly on all subjects, the prince became afraid of me, of himself, even more of others, and dropped into rather vague descriptions.
- The Journals of the Marquis de Custine, St Petersburg, 1834; p. 30.
Five precepts of the Soviet intelligentsia: Do not think. If you think - do not speak. If you think and speak - do not write. If you think, speak and write - do not sign. If you think, speak, write and sign - don't be surprised.
- Anonymous saying.
The first Papyrus was the outcome of a suggestive conversation that the time was ripe for a fresh review of ideas about social organisation, economics, and political innovation from a Klatchian standpoint. We mused a la Marx: "Until now, philosophers have tried to understand history; the point, however, is to change it." Yet history in Djelibeybi undergoes an Eternal Recurrence. Should not the Djelian Revolution have been impossible, insofar as time in our land is not linear but circular? We eventually concluded that the same Revolution must have occurred innumerable times, in both in the future and in the past, and that there was therefore no inherent contradiction in playing at being its intelligensia (as the Silver Horde remarked before laying waste to the Counterweight Continent, "Don't knock it, it's something to do.").
We wondered how our theorised publication might differ from the two Morporkian newspapers, and realised that we could not go far wrong by making it everything those papers are not. Where the Morporkian papers are mass-produced tabloids, the Papyrus would appear less often, more carefully, and always in a limited edition whose supply would be exceeded by demand. Where the Morporkian papers cover all topics, and cannot sustain a theatrical effect over an entire edition, the Papyrus would be consistent in style, heavily censored, and only concerned with the machinations, politics, economics and paradigmatical affections of the Klatcho-Djelian bloch. The agreed upon formula was that each edition should be one half "Pradva" and one half "The New Yorker". These aims have so far been fulfilled: the most propaganda-filled and explicitly political of all of discworld's publications, the Djelian Papyrus has also been the most affectedly literary, offering the only rhetorical platform for grandiose ideological compositions of a certain type.
A collection of essays by contemporaries actively concerned with various special aspects of Communist progress was proposed, and the project a little enlarged by the inclusion of a general introduction which would serve as a basis of agreement among the several writers. A sort of loose unity was achieved by this method, and though each writer remains only responsible for their own contribution, the reader was led to identify disconnected essays and suggestions with a complete programme. Such was the idea - you might say 'plot' - for the first edition. Happily, this experiment proved able to be reproduced and refined, so many are the possibilities offered by the Djelian Papyrus' default topics of Orientalism and Communist adventure.
When the last edition of the Papyrus was released, it was immediately thought to be the best so far. Its seventy copies sold out within two weeks. Forty were were in Djelian, twenty in Morporkian, six in Ephebian, three in Agatean, one in Uberwaldean, one in Dwarven and one in Gnomish. Twenty-two copies were distributed at no expense to Djelian Citizens, and the rest were sold for two talents each. The nearly one hundred talents thus amassed went partly into the Djelian Treasury, and partly into the coffers of the Papyrus club to defray for as long as possible the fees occasionally demanded by its indefinite perpetuation.
This sixth edition of the paper is the third and last offered under my editorship. The next editor, when one is found, shall probably adopt a different air and style to his three predecessors; such is the Perpetual Dialectic of Djelian innovation. I am glad, over my time as Papyrusical editor-in-chief and as the Censor of Censors, to have been able to bring the publication to a more polished state, and to have been seen what was at first an experiment in Scheherazadean Marxism by Echo and myself come somewhat further into its own.
Written in cursive blood is the authentic and attested signature of Gwydion auf der Scheibe in Djelian:
Minister Gwydion auf der Scheibe.