You’re Not in Kansas Anymore… but in Homonumos Magazine part.1

I thoroughly enjoy meeting and working with people that are doing something to bring the various faces facets of the human condition/experience to light. I like people that really take the extra steps to make what their ideas are into something tangible and real. Not just thinking that the ideas are the end but bringing those ides into the physically palpable. If you throw in a very eclectic and multidisciplinary approach as well, you’ve got something unique and very worth checking out, well you also have Homonumos. I wanted to get to the bottom of the magazine and to help it in the ways that I can. So I got in touch with the creator Christine Bellerose and the Editorialist Virginie Mangin.

…and an amazing friendship to Virginie. We met on a street corner for about 30 seconds. After one email. If this isn’t destiny…I’m loving homonumos. -Christine-

Homonumos cover #1 by Lydia Kibiuk

Human Unlimited by Christine Bellerose

How is your magazine different from others?

Virginie: The concept was to unite people from all backgrounds and from all humanities/arts, to have a sculptor for instance meet a scientist on a given subject, to break barriers most magazines have set themselves. The idea is to develop a worldwide network of people around the magazine. The mag is totally globalized and does not belong just to one city as most mags do.

Christine: It merges literature philosophy and science (applied, social, abstract). It is a platform to develop ideas
ted issues. And Chinese people famous for their art, portray a China that they haven’t suffered. I’m not saying we are the truth. I’m saying, multicultural is encompassing. And excluding the worth of what living in China does to my foreign head, transforming my perspective, yet still I keep my identity. This is a facet of “Asia” that is not media-cized at all.

Avant-garde in this way, is to go forward with coming out of the closet as an Asian-North America mind (Asian-European for Virginie). And it hasn’t been done before.

By using many different languages are you trying to gain a wider audience or what is the reason for this?

Virginie: There are several reasons. As I said writers come from all over the world and we wanted them to express themselves in their original language. A lot of the work i.e. the graphic texts, cannot be translated anyway. We try and offer when possible a translation in English as that is the common denominator so that a maximum of people understand the texts. This choice is in no way connected to gain a wider audience. Another reason is that the mag was launched in Beijing and our readership is mostly expatriates that come from all continents.

Christine: People think in a given language. Often the mother tongue. Since the magazine is about ideas, I’m looking for the essence of it. Not to shun translation. Translating prose and philosophy is an art.

I enjoyed your idea of the ‘pillars of truth‘ on your blogspot page, is this your personal philosophy and/or an excerpt from the magazine?

Christine: My brother Pierrot died a sudden death. To cope with (avoiding) grief I fabricated memories of our existence together. 8 years later my best friend Louise fought against cancer. While she was dying I had time to adapt to the finality of our relationship. In preparing for her death, I started to re-live my grief for Pierrot. Talking about it to my mother and Louise’s mother. I realized (without ever talking about it to my family) that I had manipulated the memories of my brother, those of us together, to attenuate the pain of the loss. I’m going to skip the details. But the only memory I can trust for a period of 16 years having anything to do with Pierrot are the pictures from our family album. I can only trust if they relate to a photo that I remember. Otherwise, my memories aren’t “true.”

Since we program our decisions based on experience, since we hurt in order not to repeat mistakes, since we learn from mistakes. Since our judgment is affected by the conclusion of our past adventures (a part is of course programmed by society-identity), then if the memory of my experience is X, I’m going to adopt X as a future behavior if experience X was satisfying. And not adopt X, rather take Z, if I didn’t like what X procured me. But what if X was in fact W, or L. Then I wouldn’t be living truly according to my experience. Still, my conviction wouldn’t be changed. This made me realize that pillars of truths are invisible, flexible, in temporal, multi-dimensional.

Living in a different culture, interpreting the other using my language to explain it, there’s no way in hell I can even come close to its reality. Like I said in my note from the editor (no.2, Perspective. The oak and the bamboo). “it depends”.

Trademark Face by Yiren

I Titled This Poem by Bob Marcacci

Do you find that having a publication that is distributed internationally makes it easier or harder to find interested people to purchase the magazines?

Virginie: At the moment it is harder : it is difficult/impossible to find advertising and distributors in Paris are not that interested in having a mag which is not all in French. (The French library in Beijing turned down selling our magazine. They didn’t like it.) But in the long run I think it will be easy to sell. There is something universal about the mag which is very appealing.

Christine: Funding is hard to find because I don’t have time to look for it. What Virginie says is true and incredible. Capitals who flaunt their multiculturalism are in fact quite stiff about mono-culture. Now that we have an ISSN number we can distribute through the internet. I’ll be setting up on Amazon and pay pal pretty soon. Those so far having invested in homonumos face similar difficulties as we do. My heart goes out of its way to thank them, for their support. We are, I repeat, we are looking for a generous patron of the arts. In return? I can dance one mean tango…

I think I got beside your question. International distribution is just higher postal fees.

As for buying, as soon as people flip through it, they buy it. More and more people ask to subscribe. No matter what language they speak (We average 6.5 languages per issues) It’s a matter of distribution.

Who is your readership?

Virginie: It is very large. Our international status and the variety of the articles means that most people can find at least one article they find of interest.

Christine: So far, in the USA it’s been academics and ‘real’ avant-garde poets from yonder years. In Canada it’s been environmentally friendly and socially-conscientious, well traveled hippies. In Europe we stand in the category of art magazines. New Zealand we’ve had interests from movie studios. In Beijing the clerks in bookshops view homonumos as a very tiny zine (A5) good for tea-coasters. And the shop owners see homonumos as a design magazine. One woman in Beijing called me to have information on tango after having read the Spanish essay (by a Chinese French writer) in the zine. She then wowed that she had in fact contacted the editor of homonumos, thinking she was contacting a link for tango dance in Beijing. She sent me the contacts of her French friend in Paris, of whom she suggested should write for homonumos.

We go around.

My goal is to reach writers.

My secret dream is to become a source of hypothesis for scientists. (oops, I admitted my secret unbashful dream)

Will you make all or part of your magazine’s content available in an online form?

Virginie: Yes. A website is ready.

Christine: Ready to go. Webmaster for homonumos is a position that has yet to be filled. I love what you have done with yours. What with sounds and pictures and everything. I also owe to some of our writers to post their non-print creation collaboration/parallel efforts on line.

Check back for part 2.

- euphoreador -

contact me josh (at) indyish (dot) com