Let Me Clarify It

I realized that I've been talking about a "literary magazine" in my last two posts without really explaining what it is. So here it is:

Lit mags usually display these awesome, unique, super artsy covers. Impossible not to love.

The Dial, one of the earliest literary
magazines, was first published in 1840.

A literary magazine is a collection of pages, put together much like a conventional magazine, that have art as a topic. Lit mags or lit journals, as they are also called, serve the purpose of showcasing prose, poetry, and artwork from less known, or even anonymous, artists. These magazines are made by and for the arts -not for the profit or the fame, but with the intent of sharing and spreading pieces of the souls of writers and artists around the world, with whoever wants to appreciate them. It is a beautiful cause.

But people don't only submit pieces to a lit mag with the intent of blessing the world with the intricate, beautiful depths of their hearts. The magazines are often used as a platform to reach acknowledgement within the literary world. Many writers that are big names in the literary world started off with literary journals. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller with their lit mag, The Dial, are to this day two of the most well known transcendentalist writers.

My inspiration! (this post is becoming very visual
and I love it)

Despite that, they make between none and little profit. Literary magazines are either free, funded by the government, available online, or cost little. The writers and artists that submit material to them don't usually get money for their work, and if they do, it's not much. There are some exceptions, such as The New Yorker, but these are the ones that include some aspects of conventional magazines -articles and opinion pages. That is because the people that read lit journals are usually strictly interested in them, rather than literature and arts in general.

My intentions in choosing this topic are simple: I want to be able to create a literary magazine that will appeal to a wider audience. But when I start thinking about the how... that's when things start getting complicated. My inspiration, for now, is The New Yorker. Even though I don't have it all crystal clear, figured out in my mind, I know I'm going somewhere.

And it will become a beautiful cause.

"Literary Journals And Magazines: What They Are, Who Runs Them, and How They Benefit You - Writer's Relief, Inc." Writer's Relief, Inc. 2010. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://writersrelief.com/blog/2010/06/literary-journals-and-magazines-what-they-are-who-runs-them-and-how-they-benefit-you/>.

"Literary Magazine." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_magazine>.

"Magazine - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine>.

"The Online Books Page." The Dial Archives. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=thedial>. 

"Top 50 Literary Magazines." Top 50 Literary Magazines. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://www.everywritersresource.com/topliterarymagazines.html>.

1867

I guess you might be wondering why the description of my blog says "A journey through 1867." Well, no, this is not a magazine about 1867 -in fact, I'm not sure I know of any major events that happened during 1867 (Wikipedia just informed me that it was the year when African Americans gained voting rights in D.C. and Alaska was purchased from Russia). No, this is not a magazine taking place in 1867. No, it is not about African Americans gaining voting rights in D.C., although I think that'd be a very good topic to explore in a magazine -in 1867, I mean. And now I'm starting to realize I've already said that I'll be creating a literary magazine, which makes all these options I just listed very unlikely to have crossed your mind.

1867 has become a big topic in this post, so fun fact:
it is a prime number.

So the most likely option: no, this is not a magazine about literature in the 1867 or how certain literary movements were happening during mid-nineteenth century (and that's realism, in case you're wondering). This is just a literary magazine that I decided to title 1867.

Why? Why not, I ask you. Well, there is a why yes and it's very simple: Typewriters had been around the world, being created, un-created, improved, since the 16th century. The first record of an "impressing machine" is in 1575, from the Italian Francesco Rampazzetto, followed by Henry Mill, who actually obtained a patent for his machine. But the creation of the typewriter is widely attributed to Christopher Latham Sholes; his patent is from 1866, but the machine became commercially sold and successful in 1867.

Evolution of typewriters for you. Look how beautiful they are.

One of my greatest wishes since I was a kid was to own a typewriter. My grandfather owns one and I remember one day he actually let me use it -actually type on it and play around! As far as I remember it, it was an awesome experience - even though the keys were hard to press, I kept messing up, and refilling the paper was a very tricky process. But it was something that, for me, as a little child, was magical. I was playing with a grown-up toy and my grandpa kept saying that I was doing "all right." I don't know if that moment contributed to my later on developed fondness of writing and desire to become a writer, but I choose to believe so. I still wish to buy a typewriter one day, even though I know is much easier to just type on my computer, or even own my smartphone, just because of the experience it provides. Because it is an special experience. The invention of the typewriter marked a time where humanity went from having to hand write every single piece of document, legislation, letter, prose, poetry, magazine to having the luxury of a tool to make all that easier. It went from wanting-to-kill-themselves-from-sore-hands to relaxed-hands-and-130-words-per-minute. As many older inventions, most people nowadays take typewriters for granted, just like the wheels or skyscrapers - they have been around for a long time now, and newer, better versions are being built every second. We often forget that we started somewhere: from a simple idea of a simple man on a far away, simple place. We often forget that there was a spark that started this fire, and without this spark there wouldn't be fire today.

"The Typing Life - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/09/the-typing-life>. 

"Typewriter." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter>.

"Christopher Latham Sholes." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Latham_Sholes#Inventing_the_typewriter>.

"The Evolution of the Typewriter." The Coolector Online Mens Lifestyle Magazine Design Gear Fashion. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <http://www.thecoolector.com/evolution-typewriter/>. 

Hi!

My name is Larissa Martins, but I'd rather be called Lari. 

This is my corner, my space, my place to be creative and artistic and express my ideas. As of right now, I see this blog as the one thing I never had: a tangible local to lay down the messes of my brain, sort them out, and, hopefully, create a great final product. Being completely honest, I was never attracted by the idea of having a blog, mainly because I have a hard time organizing my thoughts into coherent, entertaining text. I am a writer, but I write fiction; the idea of having to open up my mind and talk about my struggles, obstacles, problems just doesn't sound right. But now I have the opportunity to overcome this and I think it will be a big, although difficult, step for me.

I will be creating a magazine, a magazine that expresses something I am very passionate about, and hope to be so for the rest of my life: writing. My idea, since the beginning of the year, when the two options of projects were presented and explained to my class, has been to create a literary magazine. I hope to become a writer one day, and by choosing the magazine I saw the opportunity of exploring the more "formulaic" style of a magazine, while adding my own creative, ingenious ideas.

I am extremely excited for starting this journey, and I hope I can transmit it well through this blog. I know I'll have my moments of stress and despair, where I'll think everything is about to fall down, but I'll also have epiphanies and moments of bliss, where everything couldn't look better. 

Welcome to my corner. I hope you feel attached to it as much as I do.