Arthur Magazine

[Charming Tedious]

I wrote a letter to the editor which is printed in the new issue.

It is somewhat controversial.

[John]

umm you could umm elaborate a little if you wanna 'cause ummm I ain't got no idea where to read a copy of Arthur

[milly balgeary]

is this it?

http://www.arthurmag.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=65

i'm just blindly guessing blank-ily.

[Charming Tedious]

I sort of called them out for glamorizing psychedelics and adhering to the false binary between evil conservative moralists who want drug use criminalized and cool progressive hipsters who like doing lots of shrooms, thus alienating and rendering invisible the substantial amount of people who think current drug laws are stupid and draconian, but drug use isn't such a great thing either.

I also suggested that if they really wanted to explode kids minds, they'd do something really radical like running a big spread on meditation.

It honestly wasn't a very well written letter, but I'm pleased that my perspective is being represented.

The editor was initially quite defensive, so i was surprised when he later asked to print my letter and said they'd decided to take my suggestion and print a meditation article.

The magazine is available at these locations:
http://www.arthurmag.com/distro/

[Charming Tedious]

is this it?

http://www.arthurmag.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=65

i'm just blindly guessing blank-ily.

Nope.

[milly balgeary]

oh, i googled and guessed. for a moment i fancied myself a shut-in detective.
http://mcsweeneys.net/links/detectives/

drat!

"I sort of called them out for glamorizing psychedelics and adhering to the false binary between evil conservative moralists who want drug use criminalized and cool progressive hipsters who like doing lots of shrooms, thus alienating and rendering invisible the substantial amount of people who think current drug laws are stupid and draconian, but drug use isn't such a great thing either. "

cheers to that.

[Charming Tedious]

I just picked up a copy.  The meditation article they printed in response to my prodding is really good.

Also it comes with a free split EP by White Magic and American Analog Set, courtesy of the good people at Tylenol (?!?).

[convensive]

any chance of posting the letter here??

[SPACERACE]

Also it comes with a free split EP by White Magic and American Analog Set, courtesy of the good people at Tylenol (?!?).

[WTF face]

[Michael]

Also it comes with a free split EP by White Magic and American Analog Set, courtesy of the good people at Tylenol (?!?).

[WTF face]

Yeah, Tylenol has been doing this thing called OUCH!, one of those market-to-the-cool-kids kind of things (OK Cola, anyone?). They have "cool" people do things for them, but usually the thing that is made doesn't have anything to do with tylenol. Like Ron Rege made some nice comics having to do with pain, but tylenol isn't mentioned in them. (I think I saw the cd that was metioned is called "Songs of Hurting and Healing.") They also made some bomb ass figures from Rege's characters. I think Dave Kiersh and David Heatley had comics, too. Most of the stuff has been stupid except for the comics. The website is www.ouchthewebsite.com or something like that. It's kind of bizarre because it's that new kind of subversive branding advertising where they are just trying to make you think of their product without actively selling it to you.

[Nick Ink]

That website's weird stuff.

They seem to have hedged their bets with a pretty scattershot approach to what is 'cool' (skateboarding, AmAnSet, freak folk, high heels), which is, well, cool I suppose, but the whole 'pain thing seems very crowbarred in there. High heels ??? Andrew Kenney's bad back ??

[moneyshot]

i miss the newspaper format! damn, i wish they kept it the way it was. now it feels like an old spin or something.

[Charming Tedious]

any chance of posting the letter here??

i really don't want to retype it.  sorry.  i am lazy today.  maybe later this week.

[JamesSchneider]

Did you handwrite it to begin with then? I hope so, handwriting letters to editors of magazines is hardcore.

[convensive]

i agree... i don't know why, i but i guess i assumed it was a word document you could cut and paste from... if it was handwritten, then that is both extremely extremely hardcore, and also too much trouble to transcribe...

i am in pretty much complete agreement with your premise as stated above... i was just curious to read the letter so i could go "hell yeah"... that's not a good enough reason to re-type it...

[Bernard]

Thought this might be of interest to you, Charming Tedious:

http://suicidegirls.com/words/Grant+Morrison/


"GM: That's not true but I do understand what he's trying to say. Theoretically, you can recreate all states of consciousness just by thinking about them but having tried both meditation and drugs and often both at the same time I'm not sure about this one. It's a bit like saying you can recreate the feeling of a Thanksgiving Dinner using meditation. Maybe you could but why would you? Meditation can take you to some places that some drugs can also take you too but I don't believe meditation can reproduce a full-on acid experience or a high dose mushroom or DMT trip, nor would it be helpful if it did. It can reproduce something like an ecstasy experience. Meditators who claim they can recreate all of these drug states are probably either unfamiliar with the drugs or they're being slightly disingenuous about the whole issue."

[Lalitree]

We picked up that issue of Arthur the other day, by the way. Well-written letter, CT.

[chalaza]

Is his letter to the editor and the meditation article in the same issue? (#15)

[cold before sunrise]

charming tedious: do you have an extra copy of the magazine? i'd buy it for that letter alone.

[milly balgeary]

letter to charming tedious.

dear charming tendious,

look, we're both black right? we have something in common. does that suddenly tickle your racism trigger. that's what i thought. i got your number. no, pal. look: i'm not about to go out, buy some arthur magazine. first of all, i don't buy magazines named after dudley moore. he starred in this mind-body-transfer movie i do not dig. second. hey, back on the mind transfer body thing, how did kirk cameron go from that - to this wal mart type biblical novels thing? don't digress me, g. why don't you type up the letter and put it here. its been long enough.

sincerely
etc

[Nicholson]

I'll transcribe the letter from the magazine itself, and hopefully will not add any typos:

I've been enjoying Arthur since issue 4. Here's some reflections:

Arthur seems to be embracing the role of Sixties revivalist in a lot of ways. If you're going to go that route, it's important that you avoid replicating the mistakes of that era.

There are a lot of young people who look back and have to conclude that drugs were the achilles heel of the Sixties peace movement. Trying to get stoners politically organized is like herding cats. There's people who've been trying to start a NORML chapter at my college for like six years, but by their own admission, their drug intake means they always seem to lack the motivation and organization. The corporate media then-as-now loves drugs cultrue because its emphasis on immediate gratification resonates so strongly with consumerist desire (cf. Thomas Frank's first book, Commodification Of Cool). They glamorize and normalize getting fucked up through shitty movies like Dude, Where's My Car and shitty music like Pantera and Cypress Hill and Staind. For many of us, getting serious about overthrowing the corporate oligarchy means staying self-aware by not fucking with our brain chemistry.

So that's why it bugs me to see articles like Mark Pilkington's piece on magic mushrooms, replete with glamorous photos ["Re-Psychedelica Britannica," January 2005]. Pilkington adheres to a false binary between cool progressive hipsters who like drugs and stodgy old conservatives who wanna stop them. This oversimplification means that people who support the decriminalization of drugs but have strong reservations about their use are never represented. This is pretty much true throughout the magazine.

I don't want to come off as authoritarian and judgmental. Of course drug policy in this country is absurd, racist, and counter-productive. I'm open to the idea that psychedelics might provide legitimate insights or heightened consciousness for some folks, though I'm certain that one can get there in other ways. And of course, I'd rather see the 14-year-olds around my small rural town doing shrooms than meth or Oxycontin (seriously a big problem here). But I'd REALLY rather see them explode their minds in healthier ways. If you're going to try to start a consciousness-raising trend, why not publish a nice big feature spread on transcendental meditation?

I guess what I'm asking for is balance.

Also: more articles written by and about women and queers. Please? Thanks.
xo,
Kevin Erickson
Walla Walla, Washington

I'd like to point out the new Arthur t-shirt for sale at their site. I think it's unintentionally hilarious, in its combination of mushroom glorification, shitty color scheme, and the worst possible stereotype of some kind of hippie/viking warrior imagery. Really embarassing, and I'm generally a fan of the magazine.

[Nicholson]

I should clarify that I'm aware that said t-shirt doesn't actually depict a viking warrior, but there's a definite "playing Dungeons And Dragons in the basement" kind of vibe. Or a "stoned in Social Studies class and aping Frank Frazetta on stolen line paper" kind of vibe.

[elpollodiablo]

Apparently didn't have any trouble moving em, though.

[Nicholson]

That's not the one I'm talking about... That one's fine. I'm talking about a new one, displayed on their main page, drawn by a dude named Arik Moonhawk Roper or something equally haha.

[elpollodiablo]

Oh. Well, I thought you said maple leaves...