There are a few notes flying around right now about the CLR. Here, for example, the University of Cambridge’s Press Office has summarised ‘work so far’ and pitched us into battle with The Man. And here, Ken Edwards makes a generous mention of us in the context of the poetry publishing world.
With this flattering surge in attention, and with issue 5 nearing completion, we thought it would be polite to offer an update, notes on contents.
One thing that seems to have caught people’s attention is the Donald Barthelme story that’s going to appear in issue 5. Called ‘The Ontological Basis of Two’, it’s something of a lost work. It appeared in a “men’s magazine” called Cavalier in the 1960s under a pseudonym, and has since dodged the various collected editions of Barthelme’s tales.
The rest of issue 5, meanwhile, is being compiled without a theme in mind. But, as these things do, a dominant note has been struck: observation. Helen Macdonald writes about ethology, the strategies and ethics of watching, immersion. Poetry from Michael Haslam deals with the vocabularies of looking, classification and the vernacular. And of course there is Barthelme, whose story is about a girl who grew up in a Skinner Box—Peridot Concord, her sexlessness, the men who watch her.
Not far from these ideas—fastest route via the unconscious—Geoffrey Hartman discusses China and trauma with Qiong Xie; Bob Walker records dream images in quick succession. There’s more, of course. Reviews will appear for the first time on the Review’s pages: Katrina Forrester on Stanley Cavell, Emma Hogan on Frank O’Hara… The issue is expected in a little over a month. Check back for updates.
