hello hello :> happy spooky season to all ↻(𓄼 .̀ ̮.́)Ψ for our halloween issue this year, we’re digging up issue 4: resurrection .˚⊹.₊˚𖦹⋆ what’s a little dirt under the nails? if the grave was shallow enough to claw your way back up from, the burial was never permanent. write about the things that just will NOT stay dead. habits, fandoms (looking at you, danganronpa), old tech, old selves. necromance the past if you will.
drag up your forgotten phases and visit them one last time. tell us what you wish would make a comeback, or why it needs to stay dead, buried, and dematerialized. how do you feel about the inescapable regurgitation of references and remakes?
send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by friday, october 10th, 5 p.m. with “issue 4 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (~200 words) with your proposal. final drafts will be due wednesday, october 15th by 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1–1000 words.
we’re also looking for front and back cover art for this issue! please pitch us your most spooky concept art via email. also! for our centrefold, we’ll be accepting spooky undead doodles (can be drawn irl at prod, or emailed as pdfs!) great opportunity to get a doodle in your journal printed and floating around campus.
masthead will rise from the dead for production at 5 p.m. on thursday, october 23rd in the junior common room and will remain until the witching hour (more like 9-ish…). pizza will be summoned. possibly ghosts? if you’re interested in a less spooky time, come back by the issue 3: dreamgirl prod night this thursday (oct. 9).
some spooky prompts for the eager gargling:
uc: how long have you been in the city? did you grow up in toronto or the gta, are there any places that remind you of better times…of worse times? we all have our favourite spots, did you ever abandon them and then find them again? talk about places you recently rediscovered in the city. tell us about all the places you have haunted in the late hours of the night or the early, slithering hours of the morning. carlton imagine cinemas at 1AM? lakeview diner at 1:15AM? the green room at 1:30AM? sneaky dee’s nachos at 1:45AM? sneaky link at wild wing at 1:55AM? someone watching you while you take the 2AM GO-train to Maple?
PS: if you’ve been on the uoft ghost tour please please please write about it i’ve always wanted to go.
arts & culture: talk about a piece of media that brought you to life. what cultural phenomena/trends need to make a comeback? how are you giving new lives to old hyperfixations? is fanfiction a type of rebirth? discuss revival genres. complain about remakes of remakes. what should stay dead? are we obsessed with revival because it’s comforting, or because we’ve run out of original thoughts? can anything ever truly die, or will it all be revived eventually?
politics: explore how empires “resurrect” myths of past glory to “give life” to nationalist rhetoric. what motivates gen z’s obsession with nostalgia and analog media’s “resurrection”? how do the ghosts of forgotten political history still haunt us? debunk right-wing nostalgia and the myth of restoration (“this is what they took from us”). what do political assassinations reveal about our cultural climate? the meaning behind the monster: political subtext in horror.
opinions: the horror of return. what’s something you buried that won’t stay buried? what do we owe the dead? talk about the most recent resurrection in your life, a relationship, a hobby, a trend…? who would you resurrect? what would you NEVER resurrect? god forbid, do YOU want to be resurrected? buried or cremated? tell us about loved cultural revivals in your cities or circles. also zombies. tell us about zombies.
avant garg: is to be resurrected to be reborn? can death absolve you of sin? narrate from a gravedigger’s perspective. storytell from six feet under. is that the tip of a shovel or are you just happy to see me? resurrect an old flame and journal how it burns this time around. tell us about people who came back wrong–or worse, right. dig your own grave. lie in it.
comics: resurrect your favourite dead shows and characters. tell us about that one thing that just won’t die for good, no matter how many times you kill it. bring back your old art styles, OCs, favourite art trends, and comics! halloween is approaching…draw us some sick-ass zombies, ghouls, and goblins >:)
see you soon,
amareena saleh, communications editor
