Dear Readers,
This is the first issue of the Odds/Ends Archive. We want it to be a strange and beautiful place for the art you make here and there, that you don’t know what to do with. Art that just doesn’t fit in with the other kids. This Issue, Issue No. 1, our V-Day Issue, our Inaugural Issue (is that word ruined forever? Dammit) doesn’t have much to do with romantic love, we have to admit. But there’s a lot of love in it—from us, from the incredibly talented hearts of our contributors, even from you, our first and beloved readers. But, for some context, Emily Jewel Mundy gives us: A REAL HISTORY OF ST. VALENTINE'S DAY Doesn’t daydreaming about pagan festivals, Christian martyrdom, and Geoffrey Chaucer put you in a saucy, sexy, sensual mood? Oof. Us too. Mulling over the twisted conglomeration of (mostly) violent origins to our beloved Valentine’s Day gets us hot and bothered—hope it’s doing the same for you! This holiday’s deepest roots grow from the ancient Roman festival, Lupercalia, held annually on February (well, close enough) 15th. The purpose of this PC festival was intended to secure the fertility of women (and to keep evil out of their uteruses, of course). Two young, healthy, handsome boys, clad in goat’s skin, the goat representing the embodiment of sexuality, would run around the city happily slapping passersby with long strips of goat flesh. And this ritual must have pleased Faunus, the half-goat/half-man Roman woodland deity of herds and crops, because the festival survived until the end of the 5th century. In 496, Pope Gelasius recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast, declaring February 14th (there we go!) to honor St. Valentine. Which St. Valentine he intended to honor, however, remains a mystery…as there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a bishop in Terni, one was a priest in Rome, and no one knows much about the third except that he met a brutal end in Africa. Astoundingly, all three unlucky St. Valentines were said to have been martyred on February 14th. Rough. Most modern scholars prescribe to the story of the priest in Rome, who royally pissed off Roman emperor Claudius II sometime around 270. Here’s when we teeter between factual and mythical causes for disfavor. According to one legend, Claudius II prohibited marriage for young men, believing they would make better soldiers. Valentine continued to perform marriages in secret (ah, the determined heart) but was put to death once he was caught. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer, and sent her a love letter faithfully signed “from your Valentine.” Too bad he was whacked before she could ever read the love note. The most plausible story centers around agape (Christian love): Valentine was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion. Not surprisingly, the Catholic Church has settled on primarily teaching that origin. Three cheers for self-sacrifice. It wasn’t until the 14th century that this Christian feasting holiday morphed into one definitely feeding into love love, the kissing kind. And none other than the Father of English Literature is responsible for injecting Valentine’s Day with some sticky-liquid romance. In honor of the engagement of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, Chaucer composed a poem called “The Parliament of Fowls” in which he linked the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and Valentine’s Day: For this was on St. Valentine’s Day, When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate. So it went. The royal love birds paved the way for the common flock to flirt and fondle, smooch and get sweet on each other, rather than concern their thoughts with one of the three long-gone St. Valentines. By the 18th century, gift-giving and card-composing had become maddeningly common in England. These hand-made tokens were strewn with lace, ribbons, cupids, and hearts, and eventually spread all the way to America. We have Esther A. Howland to thank for beginning the mass-production of Valentine’s Day cards in the 1850’s—what a commercial success. According to the Greeting Card Association (of which you now know exists), 25% of all cards sent each year are valentines. This Valentine's Day, in lieu of a valentine, here is Issue No. 1. We’ve got a G R E A T S H O W for you tonight. We’ve got otherworldly creatures from the ‘80s, half-instrument half-alien; we’ve got a child who can’t watch the fireworks for the crack and boom of them; we’ve got an internet search history. We’ve got some flora, some fauna, and some objects of undetermined origin. We’ve got a guide to the right (or possibly very wrong) questions to ask on a first date. Thank you for reading. Thank you for making. Thank you, most of all, for loving, in these strange and hateful times. We encourage you to make art: for yourselves, for each other. Happy Valentine’s, from the bottom of our odd hearts, E, L, & M
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