The Double Dealer, Issue 9
All art created and owned by Shimmy. Shimmy on Twitter, Shimmy on Substack
We're so back! We've never been this back. After almost 100 years since our last publication, the very best writers and artists of the South (and their token Yankee), have band together to revive one of the most influential literary magazines in the history of the United States. We were the first magazine to bring the public names like Hemingway, Faulkner, Crane, and so many others. Our goal is to stand on the shoulders of these giants and bring into the future, creatives whose names we can etch in the Canon's marble and carry on the tradition of English Prose that has been tarnished and thrown away by our mainstream contemporaries.
The modern-age writer is like a fool, wandering through a dark forest, erasing his footsteps behind him as he bounds forward in circles, declaring himself a trailblazer. This has caused tension in those with the sense to find these methods untenable and distasteful. Do we return to the well-worn path abandoned by our forebears, returning to the techniques, ideas, and traditions that we know work, but may feel stale or do we blaze actual, new trails and risk circling our own drain?
We declare to do both. We are the Double Dealer, after all. We, like America, are cowboys. We live on the edge of civilization and savagery. We look out at the horizon and see possibility and danger, and as we look behind us we see prosperity, though it is stifling. But, the savage lands are free and the civilized folk are foreigners. We take refuge from the madness of the modern world in our dreams, dreams that do not conform to polite society, or the mores of court officials and their jesters. If we succeed, we shall do so modestly and graciously, for it is you, dear reader, who have made us a hit. I'd we fail, we shall do so boldly and bombastically and shoulder the burden of our failures ourselves.
In this issue, you'll find a theme of death, an appropriate response for any person paying attention to the world around them. Some may call that pessimism, but remember, the reason we have our glorious Spring is because of a long, painful Winter. The Double Dealer is only reborn because it once died. The world we inhabit is dying, God please allow us to build a new one. Welcome!
Your Humble Editor,
T.R. Hudson
Boy, that Hudson fellow sure can spin a yarn