The Weekly Atticus (06/24/2017)

This Letter is a Lie | The Weekly Atticus

June 24, 2017

A recap of the week at Atticus Review, along with some extras.

Dear ,

"The first sentence in this letter is a lie."

This is what is referred to as the

. Here's why: If the sentence were a true statement, or an assertion of some kind of fact, then it would itself have to be a lie and not true. On the other hand, if my goal in using the sentence were to tell a lie, that would make the sentence itself true and not a lie, after all. The sentence, it seems, is both true and not true. It is a contradiction.

Contradictions tend to bother us. In most cases, a thing cannot be both true and not true. If my first name is David, it can't also be

not David

. If my age is 43 years, it can't also be

not 43 years

. If I liked Mumford & Sons, I couldn't also be of sound mind. 

And yet, contradictions can and do exist. It's proven by the liar paradox. Logicians have tried for centuries to offer solutions to the liar paradox because of the belief that contradictions cannot exist. But others have asserted that maybe they can. Maybe a thing can be true and not true. 

"I am a writer." / "I am not a writer." 

I hold these two ideas in my mind a lot. Which is true? How are we to determine "truth" in this situation? Let's examine the evidence...

Am I writer? Well look, I have written an awful lot of sentences. The sentences tend to come out all willy nilly, but every so often I will manage to organize them into an essay. Once, I moved them around persistently enough to get them to form a book. Examples of my arranging sentences into larger things could be some convincing evidence of me as "writer." 

That is, until you set it against the mounds of evidence to support the case for my not being a writer, the largest compendium of which is the volumes of books out there on "how to be a writer." If I am to judge by these books, I am not a writer at all: You have to be disciplined. You have to get up early. But this body of evidence is nothing compared to the pages and pages of other books I admire, books that do not purport to teach me how to be a writer at all but merely offer themselves as well-meaning and benign examples of other writers. I am perhaps most not a writer when reading these books.This is to say nothing of the fact that I spend a great deal of my time

not writing

. Even worse, sometimes I don't even like to write. I do not need to or want to. Sometimes I would rather take photos. Or play music. Or collect lint from various orifices, not a single one of them remotely literary. 

So does the writer/not writer dilemma constitute a contradiction? Maybe so. 

And what if we just let that contradiction wash over us? What if a good deal of the time we are simply not writers? And what if we are simply okay with that? What if this didn't diminish the viability of us being a "writer," but rather, enhanced it? 

We have some good stories this week (by some true writers) so let's get on with that. Also, if you are a writer who has been published by Atticus Review, we want to hear about your updates, so send them our way!

We're glad you're here.

David Olimpio, Editor-in-Chief

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BOOK REVIEW: An Absence of Heat and Light:A Review of Camanchaca by Diego ZúñigalReview by Stephanie Joyal"The novel consists of two threads in the narrator's memory, interweaving stories from the past with his mother, and those unfolding in the present with his father as they drive across the desert. The purpose of this journey is to see a dentist because his teeth are about to fall out, and the tension of the physical, emotional, and temporal distance between his parents is palpably manifest in this trip."READ MORE

FICTION: I KNOW By Melissa Goode"I will tell him something I read today, about why stars explode, or the lifespan of a comet, or how Mars came to have five, giant impact scars, or for how long the sun will last. They will be facts about the cosmos. They will be important but seem inconsequential, because we cannot see any of this, we can only know it. He will smile, but perhaps only at my effort, my endless fucking effort."READ MORE

POETRY: CONTRACTIONSBy John Repp"You don’t always have to be careful or safe, though sometimes seeming safecarries the most power. Understatement, I mean. Irony. So manyshades of irony. But bellow if you want, or if it wants, the “it”that needs—& I mean hungers—to be said. Or whisper. Say what you need.Catch my drift? Use as many or few words..."READ MORE

NONFICTION: HOTTY TODDY, GOSH ALMIGHTY, WHO THE HELL ARE WE?By Andrew M. Freiman"There is more violence, torture, rape, that I can’t see. A volcano underneath the country, this county, this town, and this campus. The effigies burned or strung up, the nooses made. The slurs, the mascots, the flags. The land. I try my best to figure out how to tell my students, how to convey that under our feet is a plantation, corn or cotton or tobacco. Anything that would grow. Anything that could be sold. There is no nice way to tell anyone this."READ MORE

THEATER REVIEW: HOW TO BE SAFE by Ashley J. JacobsonBy Rachel E. Diken"While not shying away from some of the extremes that can accompany mental illness—the playbill includes a self-harm disclaimer—the variety of off-kilter behaviors are written tastefully and handled deftly by leading actors Jenna D’Angelo, Faith Sandberg, and Brandon Ferraro."READ MORE

MUSIC REVIEW: HOT THOUGHTS ON A COOL AURAL DESSERTA Review of Hot Thoughts from SpoonBy Nathan Leslie"Spoon is an exceptional singles band, though not always an album band. In Hot Thoughts Spoon is more attentive to the album-oriented concept as a whole, but it comes at the expense of grit."READ MORE

If you’ve been published by Atticus Review, we want to hear from you. Send us news about any new publications you have and we will share these in our monthly column. To get in this month’s update, please submit by the end of the day on Wednesday, June 28th!Use this form