In regards to themed writing, it seems that a lot of literary journals are trying to move away from this now (unsure as to how long this will last, or if it will go over well, or what), but I know that our lit journal (The Cream City Review) is actually dropping a theme (i.e. humor, siblinghood, etc…) and instead choosing to move into more of a stylistic them: i.e. short shorts, flash fiction, prose poetry… but, I suppose that wouldn’t necessarily be condusive to where Litmocracy is at.

Hmm… just doing my best to talk it out and help brainstorm.

<<...and then one fourth of Literal Translations would come from each of those categories?  I’ve actually been toying with something along those lines.  But rather than using some number of different categories and then arbitrarily determining how much of the magazine should be published from each category…>

Well, it wouldn’t be “arbitrary” if it was a RULE that “one fourth of Literal Translations would come from each of those categories.”  (You’d have to figure out what was meant by 1/4, of course… you could arbitrarily but FIRMLY say at the outset:  “three or four poems, one or two or three short stories, one or two non-fiction/opinion, and at least one photo for every issue.”  At least people would know roughly what they’re dealing with, submitting to, and voting on….)  Especially if there were only four categories, and especially if you stick to the original premise, that the stuff is decided democratically, with editor’s discretion to decide the details as to whether “one or two” etc. depending on what’s out there.  There is actually a lot of good stuff in the archives right now, so eg. supposing, on the off-chance that there are no good non-fiction submissions for two months, I bet you could pull stuff back up into the non-fiction voting area and inspire people to write their own stuff in that category.  And if there are 43 excellent short stories… well… maybe THEN have an issue devoted to that theme or category.  As litmocracy grows, it’s going to get harder and harder to administrate, Oh, lazy one.  (HA)

There are a couple of cool and unique things about litmocracy compared to other literary websites that I’ve been to, and one is the open-endedness of the submission-type policy in terms of the subject matter.  I really LIKED the categories when I first came here, because I’d never seen anything like that anywhere else.  (Still haven’t, and that’s why I’m upset that you’re doing away with them.)  The other thing, of course, is the voting aspect. 

I think the issues of Literal Translations that you’ve published so far are great, because it’s kind of like Vanity Fair or something—I mean, there’s something for everybody.  It’s a digest, a magazine, not just a bunch of short stories, or whatever, about something or other, chosen by somebody or other.

You’re not lazy REALLY… I just hate to see this turn into something like everything else on the web, when it is really unique.

Yo, SarahJohannaGrace!

Yo.

(I just felt like breaking out into “Yo ho, yo ho… a pirate’s life for me”

Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle o’ rum!

(Surely I did not start this.)

Rum, Dave.  Quick.

I smell alcohol.. Do you smell alcohol?

Your non arbitrary rule is a rule alright, but that don’t make it non-arbitrary.

...and I code around your “harder and harder to administrate” so HA yourself.

You are a fun girl!

Dave. (running.  fast.)

How do I tell anymore who is in first place?  This is utterly inefficient.  ARRR!  Yo yo ho etc.!

As for the arbitrariness, in the famous words of Ludwig Wittgenstein, well, I can’t remember them exactly.  But he said something to the effect of:  Everything is like everything else, in some way or another. 

When you point your finger at something, the dog looks at your finger.  You have to discuss it with the dog for quite awhile, and in detail, before he stops doing that.  After awhile, dog goes over where you’re pointing and fetches what you are pointing at. 

I don’t drink hard liquor, but ho ho ho anyways! 

Pls fix issue can’t read ends of some of the longer posts!  Also, pls do everything I tell you, as I am always right. 

Thnks,

Julie

Smthng hv hppnd t my vwls.

som day i would lik to writan _ l_ss novl

I’m just happily assuming Dave is so busy doing what I told him to do, that he doesn’t have time to post here…
BTW, apparently it’s been discovered that people can understand most stuff even when the vowels are left out.  It’s a brilliant discovery in brain science, or something (I forget, n brn, hh hh).

But dogs can’t write anyway.  At least mine can’t.  And the eat vowels (and consonants too!), so I don’t think we need to worry about who’s pointing and who’s drinking hard liquor.  Maybe some aspirin would help?

Funny graduate school moment: I was out with a few fellow classmates, some editors, a few writers, and some professors. This being the third bar of the night, everyone was a bit tipsy and, well… you know writers… everyone has to have a story to tell. We were discussing writing accessories when one of my professors (we’ll call him Chad) says, “I have martini boxers”

I think my ears turned bright red. But, hey, I guess I should be thankful that we are such a comfortable audience.

I’ve been pondering these remarks for days now, and can only figure out (so far) that, um, boxers are some kind of dog.  And that dogs will eat anything.  I still don’t see how any of this addresses my complaint about the fact that there aren’t any categories anymore.  In fact, if I am right (which I almost inevitably and invariably am), what we are left with is boxers and boxer shorts.  And that is ambiguous, to say the least.  See what I MEAN, Dave???

Complaints Department Head Supervisor in Charge of Operations and Ad Hoc Whinging,
Julia Colterjohn

Heh heh, didn’t see any harm in giving myself a promotion….