Psrf 49: October 1998

http://psrf.detritus.net/volume/9/p49.html

The New Orthography: Spelling Reformed Edition

This issue began a curious, abortive “utopianist” phase. The main text is the contribution of an author who preferred, in this instance at least, to go only by his initials, F.C. It is the tale of a protagonist’s journey through a stange, allegorical land, with special attention paid to the metaphysical belief system of the land’s inhabitants.

The images go along with the text, but do not, in fact, illustrate it. That is to say that the images do not ‘represent’ the text by depicting scenes from the narrative. Instead, they only accompany it, though a thematic resonance is certain to be noted.

The two works that comprise this issue, 1) the text and 2) the series of images, were not created collaboratively, or even with any knowledge of the other, but were only united at the editing stage when the aforementioned resonance of theme was noticed. Each seem pregnant with the idea of a (pseudo-) secret layer of meaning, which must be decoded to understand fully the communication that is being attempted.

The present volume is perhaps most unusual in its use of a reformed spelling of English, the invention of the editor. Although it appears daunting, the supplied key should give the reader enough orientation to permit him to read the text with little trouble. We encourage you to read it in this way; however, we have provided this transliteration into standard English spelling for those who would rather not bother.