Issue 1 July 2009 price: free (as in beer) Metamorphosis Haiku of Basho Magnolia Seitan Pubs Also in this issue: Does science really exist? ­ Infant cannibalism recipes on a budget ­ Crossword Clinton on hunting with hounds ­ Is Swine Flu a cover for the REPTILIAN AGENDA? So this article's got the word "fuck" in it, what the fuck are you going to do about it? 2 The Rationalia Magazine Team Editor: Pappa Contributors: Clinton Huxley, Dasein, FrigidSymphony, Meekychuppet, Ryokan, Xamonas Chegwé Conspirators: born­again­atheist, Charlou, DP Layout and Design: Pappa No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the explicit written permission of Rationalia Association. The articles remain the intellectual property of their respective authors. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it! Advertisement: Bible Opoly ­ One of the most popular Christian games of all time! BIBLEOPOLY has very unique game play. The object of the game is to be the first player to build a church in one of the Bible cities. In BIBLEOPOLY, you can't win by destroying your opponents. You will only win by assisting the fellow players. Cooperation is what allows you to gain the things necessary to build your church and be a winner. ­ Go Jesus!!! 3 Editorial Features Why don't politicians just fuck off? On Love and Barley ­ Haiku of Basho.................. 4 We've all got them; town and county Pubs................................................................... 14 councillors, mayors, commissioners, MPs, Analysis: Metamorphosis....................................17 senators, prime ministers, presidents, Under Magnolia's Shade.................................... 19 dictators... our lives are ruled and run by them, often at a distant level, but every day our Fiction: Quorp's Tableau..................................... 23 actions are controlled and guided by their A Compact Messiah............................................35 collective will. We're so used to them, we assume their existence is a normal and necessary part of human civilisation. Regulars As the recent expenses scandal in the UK, or any number of other political scandals around Ask Clinton Huxley............................................. 16 the world show, both now and in the past, The Zaniac: Mangy Horrorscopes...................... 20 politicians have a penchant for being thieving, manipulative, self­serving, secretive, lying Cookery Corner.................................................. 33 bastards. Why don't we get rid of them? Sports Roundup..................................................36 Q&A.................................................................... 37 But wouldn't this result in anarchic, Mad Max post­apocalypse murderous chaos? How could a nation exist without governance? Wouldn't we just run amok, looting, killing and raping each other? Would we ignore ethical considerations if there was no ultimate coercion? Ration books weren't scrapped immediately after WWII because the governments believed Haiku of Basho ­ 4 that food distribution wasn't possible if it was not organised centrally. Yet, since then, a free market has managed to get food to every part of the world, on time, and (usually) at a fair price. Centralised planning and distribution are nowadays regarded as inefficient ­ the idea forms part of a standard critique of Communism. Pubs ­ 14 Self­organisation is clearly possible, as this magazine, the website that spawned it and numerous others like it show. Ethical systems and rules of conduct can spawn themselves spontaneously. Groups of individuals can agree to work together to create an endless number of wonderful things. In this respect, human Metamorphosis ­ 17 creativity knows no bounds. Could this non­coercive cooperation extend to the self­organisation of districts, counties, states, nations and continents? I don't know, but wouldn't it be fun to find out? ­ Pappa Magnolia ­ 19 Issue 1 — June 2009 4 On Love and Barley ­ Haiku of Basho throughout the country, recreate Basho's life prior to heading west, east, and far his settlement in the Basho into the northern wilderness to Hut. It is believed that he was gain inspiration for his writing born in 1644 at or near Ueno and haiku. His poems are in Iga Province, about thirty influenced by his first­hand miles south­east of Kyoto and experience of the world two hundred miles west of around him, often Edo. The social status of the encapsulating the feeling of a family, while respectable, was scene in a few simple not of the kind that promised a elements. bright future for young Basho if he were to follow an ordinary Matsuo Basho elevated haikai course of life. and gave it a new popularity. Hokku is the first verse of the Basho's life seems to have collaborative haikai or renku, been peaceful so far, and he but its position as the opening might for the rest of his life In the land of the Cherry verse made it the most have been a satisfied, low­ Blossom Festival – poetry important, setting the tone for ranking samurai who spent his has always had a pivotal the whole composition. Even spare time verse writing. He importance. The land, though hokku had sometimes had already come of age and clouded in the mist of cherry appeared individually, they had assumed a samurai's blossoms, kept integrated were always understood in the name, Matsuo Munefusa. But the art of living and the art context of renku. The Basho in the summer of 1666, after of writing poetry. school promoted standalone the sudden and premature hokku by including many in death of his samurai master, Matsuo Basho (1644–1694) their anthologies, thus giving Yoshitada, Basho left his was the most famous poet of birth to what is now called native home and, forsaking his the Edo period in Japan. 'haiku'. Basho also used his samurai status, embarked on During his lifetime, he was hokku as torque points within a wandering life shortly recognized for his works in the his short prose sketches and afterwards. collaborative haikai no renga longer travel diaries. This sub­ form; today, after centuries of genre of haikai is known as Basho's life for the next few commentary, he is recognized haibun. His best­known book, years is very obscure. It has as a master of brief and clear Oku no Hosomichi or Narrow traditionally been held that he haiku. Basho was introduced Roads to the Interior, is went to Kyoto, then the capital to poetry at a young age, and counted as one of the classics of Japan, where he studied after integrating himself into of Japanese literature and has philosophy, poetry and the intellectual scene of Edo been translated into English calligraphy under well­known (Tokyo) he quickly became extensively. experts. However, it is likely well known throughout Japan. that he often left Kyoto during He made a living as a teacher, I. First Metamorphosis: this time; returning to his but renounced the social, From Wanderer to Poet home­town for lengthy visits, urban life of the literary circles or that his studies were and was inclined to wander Little material is available to conducted during short trips to 5 On Love and Barley ­ Haiku of Basho many puns that they may have two or more Japanese Poetry quite dissimilar meanings. From the beginning Japanese poetry has been under strong influence of their Chinese Three major forms of Japanese poetry since neighbours, starting with the time of Tang the nineteenth century have been tanka dynasty. It took them several hundred years (new name for waka), haiku and shi. Haiku is to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of a form consisting of 17 moras (sound unit) in their culture and merge it with their literary three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 moras tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to respectively. Haiku typically contain a kigo, develop the diversity of their native poetry. or seasonal reference, and a kireyi or verbal Japanese language is almost as rich in caesura. Previously called hokku, haiku was homonyms and ordinary double meanings as given its current name by the writer Masaoka is Chinese – some Japanese poems have so Shiki at the end of the 19th century. Kyoto. It is unlikely that he had 1672. days in Edo he stayed at the yet determined to become a home of one or another of his poet. With the curiosity of On the whole, the book patrons. He may have worked youth he may have tried all reveals him to be a man of as a physician's assistant, a sorts of things fashionable brilliant wit and colourful town clerk, or a poet's scribe; among the young libertines of imagination, who had a good but it is generally accepted the day. knowledge of popular songs, that he was employed by the fashionable expressions, and local waterworks department. One indisputable fact is that the new ways of the world in Whatever the truth, his early Basho had not lost his interest general. years in Edo were not easy. in verse writing. A haikai He was probably recalling anthology published in 1667 Probably in the spring of 1672, those days when he later contained as many as thirty­ Basho set out on a journey to wrote: one of his verses, and his Edo, apparently with no work was included in three intention of returning in the "At one time I was weary of other anthologies compiled immediate future. On parting verse writing and wanted to between 1669 and 1671. His he sent a haiku to one of his give it up, and at another time name was gradually becoming friends in Ueno: I was determined to be a poet known to a limited number of until I could establish a proud poets in the capital. That must Kumo to hedatsu name over others. The have earned him considerable Tomo ka ya kari no alternatives battled in my mind respect from the poets in his Ikiwakare and made my life restless." home­town too.