[ a piece of fictional non-fiction for draft magazine, taking the form of an interview ]
Q: Why are you doing this magazine?
A: Haha, straight in. I think that’s a pretty big question. To keep it simple for the time being, let’s say that I’ve found myself in the exact position to do it. The original idea for a magazine called draft is a couple of years old. When the cosmic climate was ripe to go on and actually do it, the zero issue ‘Unspeakable’ almost created itself on its own. The true roots of its core and content would certainly go deep, though.
On the surface, the idea started off as a multi-platform kind-of online-offline interactive, cultural title that was presented to great acclaim as a student’s project at the London College of Printing, containing top-notch photography by a friend of mine who used to study there (before going on to win the prestgious Observer award for documentary photography). A couple of years later it evolved into a literary magazine of a more ‘intellectual’ slant that envisaged the use of sophisticated Swiss layout and typography done by another friend of mine (who’d done a terrific job as art director of London’s TimeOut during the brief interval that it looked top-shelf). Until it eventually reached the present format that, I feel, will never have to be altered again while its content will never cease to evolve.
Q: How did it go so far and where should it go from here?
A: I’d say it went excellent. It’s been beautifully progressing and growing and has achieved the effect of people understanding that a. they’ve been deceived, b. what scale of deception we’re really talking about and c. that because of this, they might possibly be in great danger. It has also provided a welcoming, genuine and innately kind loophole through which people can escape the denigrating abyss that’s been set-up for everyone the forces of the old cosmos have deemed not worthy of entering the new Era. That’s to reveal some of the reverbrations at its core.
On a more mundane plane, it has managed to re-establish the real purpose and craftmanship of writing and art and will continue to do so. There’s also the opportunity to learn some of the things in cultivation that have so far been kept under great secrecy. The Dao school, just to say, has never talked before about the salvation of sentient beings.
On the even more mundane plane, the rollout of the project involved many tests, both for ourselves and our readers. Like the attempt to pinpoint the true meaning of money and value, for instance. There are many things that run along in the background of the project. It has lots and lots of layers of meaning and levels of accomplishments. So I’m indeed quite happy, how could I not be? Its outlook, repercussion and scope are enormous …
But having said all of this, it’s of course very difficult on a day-to-day basis, trapped in the maze of delusion, torn between faith and doubt, to tell what really goes on behind the scenes and thus to really know what is happening and going to happen. The Three Realms are meant to be that way to provide the perfect possibility to enlighten. When true manifestations do eventually reach the very surface, so that Truth is obvious to see even for the oblivious, then it means that a certain cutting-off point must’ve been reached and things will never be the same again. At that time, it’ll naturally be too late for any regrets on the part of those preferring to live in denial. Where it will go from there and how exactly it will carry on from the Old to the New is certainly not allowed to be fully known. We as cultivators definitely must not know, or aim to know, in order to maximally sustain our environment of upright discernment.
Q: Can you tell us more about the deeper layers of meaning behind the magazine?
A: Well, there’s for one the conceptual matter of Authorship versus Editorship. Where and how is such a line to be drawn? And what are in fact Contributors? What’s Rejection? What’s Qualified? What is True and Upright and what is Fake and Pretentious? After all, there’s cultivation of the Great Law happening in the background of what is subsequently generated and presented as artistic output. So in this resepct also, what is Art? Why would we need it? What is Philopsophy? What are Beliefs? What is Self-interest? What is Intimacy? What constitutes our ‘Reality’ – of course, ultimately? And so, in its somewhat more poetic moments, what will the Future possibly be like? The latter makes the project also quite mysterious and I find that also an interesting layer of the whole thing.