can you hear us? issue 5: language is speaking to you |˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞ
what words live rent-free in your head? how does language shape what you can’t say, or what you wish existed? what happens when words fail and translation breaks, when meaning gets lost between tongues?
send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by october 24th at 5 p.m. with “issue 5 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (~200 words) with your proposal. final drafts are due november 3rd at 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1–1000 words.
if you’d like to include another language in your submission, we’d love to hear about that. please include in your pitch what language(s) you want to include, to what degree you are familiar with it, and what exactly you want to write in another language (words, lyrics/sentences, original prose). if you have a bit of your piece in draft form, please send that along in your pitch, too. some of our masthead and alumni have volunteered to edit in other languages, but as some topics require a more comprehensive knowledge of vocabulary, articles will be accepted on a case by case basis.
masthead will reconvene to chat (and eat pizza) at 5 p.m. on thursday, november 13th in the jcr. come babble with us. the garg is listening
some prompts from your section editors:
uc: in this issue, the uc section embarks on finding the best limericks in all the land. and the best dad jokes. and the best haikus. and also, if possible, the best epic poems. we want the next odyssey. we need our new milton. there is a seminar full of students waiting for you. write, starchild. you can hear them calling your name. a whisper in the wind. your time awaits…to shine…
arts & culture: explore what is lost in translation. who is entitled to understanding the meanings of a language? do non-native speakers deserve access to those meanings? share some fun idioms from your heritage language. how does language shift online? what new dialects are being born? make something out of a mistranslation, make something out of an extended amount of silence. reimagine your favorite piece in a new language – what doesn’t translate?
politics: do institutions invoke inclusive language without actually being inclusive? publish The Epistemic Yap (AKA the social function of talking shit). how do you remain media literate in a sea of capital D discourse (asking for a friend btw)? please for god’s sake someone write about prose, poetry, and politics.
opinions: are you bilingual? trilingual? what even is ‘fluency’? what does it mean to be ‘lost in translation’? what’s it like using google translate to communicate? subtitles: whats your preference? curse in your mother tongue. what does it mean to speak the language of your colonizer? tell us about your relationship with duolingo. dissect the dialect of the internet. does siri understand your accent? when does language fail? let’s switch it up: body language, love languages—how do you communicate without words?
avant garg: tell the story of moribund languages and document their wisdom. transcribe an interaction and argue on the side of stereotypically feminine phenomena so often disparaged online. write a letter deborah cameron style. grace us with your heritage language; dialect; creole; pidgin. codify a whole new way of writing (conlangs welcome here!).
comics: how can language and visual arts complement each other? does a picture really say a thousand words? create a comic in your native tongue. give us a visual dictionary for those words and phrases that can’t fully translate across languages.
see you soon,
amareena saleh, communications editor
