Submissions for the next edition of Short Vine have recently opened. With that comes a new team of editors, a new website design, and, perhaps most importantly, a brand-new theme. This fall, we have decided to explore the theme, Living Between Illusion and Delusion: What is Reality but Perception? What does this mean, though? What could you use for inspiration if writing for this theme feels a little daunting?
I’ve asked the rest of the Short Vine team to share pieces of art, music, writing, and other media that reminds them of our theme. As the word cloud may suggest, this amalgamation of inspiration and media is quite chaotic and requires a bit of abstract thought. With that, be prepared to see a wide variety of media that simply carries the undertone of illusion/delusion that our journal is looking for this fall.
On Illusion/Delusion:
- “I think of classic horror films and old Victorian houses. I think of women with transatlantic accents and the scent of mothballs. I think about that moment right before you’re fully awake, where you can vividly feel your body move, yet your mind is unaware that the day has started.” – Madeline Schrand (she/her)
- “Everyone sees the world through their own morphed lens. A lens can be clouded, rose-tinted, or clear. How do you know what’s real? Should the lens be broken, even if it destroys the sense of bliss and peace it gives us?” – Recorded from editorial discussions by Niki Acosta (she/her)
- “This theme reminds me of just the differing perspectives of reality. Everyone has their own view as to how the world works and how they perceive the world, so I am most interested in seeing how people tie this back into their own stories.” – Catherine Ladouceur (she/her)
- “I like the idea of using natural occurrences that seem supernatural, like playing with time and physics.” – Catherine Ladouceur (she/her)
- “L’appel du vide, literally ‘the call of the void’ is a French phrase used to refer to intellectual thoughts, or the urge to engage in destructive behaviors during everyday life.”
- “Kalopsia – The delusion of things being more beautiful than they are.”
Lili Alimohammadi (they/them) on Literary Distortion
- “I think of writings with unreliable narrators and plot twists. I think of literary distortion and abstraction, like filtering words through a kaleidoscope.”
- Some of Richard Kostelanetz’ poems or some forms of maximalism seem right in line with the concepts we’re thinking of.
- Black & White film, from The Twilight Zone to Gaslight (1944).
John Blevins (he/him) on Fiction
- “Uzumaki by Junji Ito … a surreal horror manga. The manga starts with one man who becomes obsessed with spirals, then spirals start showing up everywhere, eventually their town is overtaken by spirals.
- “Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. [It’s] much more light-hearted, a sort of magical realistic novel where the main character embraces the strangeness of the world they find themselves in.”
Other Pieces of Media from River Risk (she/her), Quino Casanova (she/her), and Jack Morgan (he/him)
- The Prestige
- Over the Garden Wall
- Dreamland and Pork Soda by Glass Animals
- The Twilight Zone
- The No-Show
- On the movie titled Smile – “That movie was so freaky because you never knew what was real.”
- On “The Test Dream” from The Sopranos – “It’s just a super abstract, super chaotic masterpiece of an episode.”
Overall, we at Short Vine have a wide range of inspiration and interests regarding the theme for our fall edition, but one thing is for certain – we are all thrilled by the idea of experimental and surrealist work that we think this theme will inspire. We can’t wait to see what this edition has in store, and hope that this list has served as even a small dash of inspiration for you all.