A Note from the Editors: Issue 36
“What if we had an entire issue dedicated to Excel spreadsheets?”
“Excel: the bane of my existence.”
“It would be terrible.”
“Unless-”
Sometimes our issue themes come from careful planning and ideation. Sometimes we simply take our own jokes too seriously. The more we ruminated on the idea of an Excel issue, the more we thought about what the word means. How would our contributors respond to it? Would their minds jump to the crisp formulas of a spreadsheet, or would they think of how the world today defines excellence? How would they twist and defy the theme, as they always do?
To excel means to dominate, surmount, or outstrip. It is a competitive word, one that implies a ranking or hierarchy. Winners and losers are clearly defined in the business world. Ideas can be stripped down to numbers that fit into tidy boxes for crunching. For some, this tidiness is comforting, but what about the ideas that don’t fit? We would hate to live in a world where the only excellent art is the art that sells; yet as artists, we also want (and need) to excel.
Does achievement as a writer or artist mean outstripping the competition? This question was made especially prevalent for writers a few weeks ago when this tweet went viral:
“HARSH WRITING ADVICE:
Your writing friends are also your competition.
Sorry.”
Many people clapped back and disagreed with this take on writing communities. The arts don’t need to conform to the same eat-or-be-eaten mentality that exists in the business world. In fact, if writers and artists didn’t hold each other up, capitalism certainly wouldn’t. Postscript grew from our need for a new kind of space: one that encouraged marginalized artists and told the stories that don’t fit into conventional or institutional boxes.
There is the business of being an artist, and maybe there is also an art to business. For this issue, we searched for work that speaks about those intersections, and we found dreams of excellence tucked into the corners of each work. From accidental success and destructive aspirations to artwork that questions how we store emotional data, we loved peeling back the layers of this theme, and we hope you do too.
Love always,
Zoe & Vamika
P.S. Shoutout to Christine, our good friend and Postscript patron, who says her spreadsheets are a work of art and planted the seed for this issue theme. Christine, we will never understand you, but thank you nonetheless.
