Submit to Chaos
In the fevered fight for truth, propositions about the nature of reality rise up to impose order on the world. Objects bend to fit our concepts. Fetish alters us to fit an object’s strange reality. Constructions displace things rather than unveil their essence. Significance is hostage to the words which set it free. The faulty lens of interpretation distorts as much as it reveals. The ordered system of signs, symbols and grammar betrays our classifying minds while intuition of ontological truths remain concealed in the heart. Layers of interpretation obscures as much it reveals.
If we can’t interact with the world directly, we can negotiate with it critically — in smoke and in darkness, from slight errors and wildly inaccurate prediction, to non-linear dynamics and gestalt — from a flock of birds to a school of fish, from Plato's forms to Descartes' method and Hegel's dialectic — Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit, next omit, which differs from it, bona fide, alibi, gyrate, dowry and awry — set down the plastic ruler of mathematical paradigms, the hydrocarbons of deductive reasoning, and the acetate sheet of abstract universals. Untie the perpetually inadequate theories of meaning.
Flowers bloom in the desperate earth,
guide us through the realm: the CHAOS issue.
Submissions open until October 22nd 2023
Submission Guidelines:
Essay: 1000 - 3000 words
Fiction: 1500 - 3000 words - Please use double quotation marks for dialogue ("____")
Poetry: send up to three poems
Art: send up to three images
Submissions containing classical or historical references should make connection to contemporary or alternate worlds.
Document title: [Your First Name]_[Your Last Name]_[Title of Your_Piece]
Subject-line: Chaos Issue Submission.
Entries cannot have been previously published elsewhere.
Submissions are open to members of The University of Oxford.
Entries are open to all for The Wonderland Fiction Competition.
