About the past modernist(s)
the past modernist(s) began partially as an old idea but then transformed into something slightly new. It started with a fascination with small group writers in the 1950′s known as the Beats. It was those late night sessions at the 24 hour Manhattan watering holes where Kerouac, Ginsburg, Burroughs, Corso and others met to talk, read each others work, encouraging and influencing each other in a Benzedrine and caffeine frenzy of youthful energy. This was the 1950′s urban version of the classical “salon” from the 1600′s: A gathering of artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals, coming together to increase their knowledge and refine their own work. Finding myself surrounded by interesting people and storytellers (some actively writing, some not), I began to wonder if I could create my own such salon.
As appealing as it sounded, the modern world is so full of distractions it can often be hard to get a group of people to all be in one place at one time, especially when they are not even in the same state. thepastmodernists.com was created to be the bastard-child-online-equivalent of the Beat’s late night rap sessions and a literary journal. The authors are given a place to discuss their work, get constructive criticism from the other authors and publish their final product. There is no censorship, and only minimal guidelines on form and content. The goal of the past modernist(s) is to create a tight community of writers, inject them with passion, and help them to expand in ability and creativity. We write because we exist, and we exist because we write. We have stories to tell, and tell them we shall!
Thanks for visiting and participating in our little experiment. In the future we are working to add more features including events, writing collaborations and even a podcast. Feel free to poke around the site, read the past modernist(s) writings and leave comments.
- Josh McCool, December 2007