New Escapologist

I publish and edit a magazine called New Escapologist. I also look after the companion website. You can subscribe or buy a copy at the magazine shop.

About

New Escapologist is an irregularly published magazine that celebrates the “flight” bit of the “fight or flight” quandary. We take the stance that running away can sometimes be noble.

Each issue is a compendium of funny and existential essays and anecdotes. We promote freedom, Anarchy and the Absurd.

‘Escape’ is the theme for the series, but each issue has its very own sub-theme. The pending Issue Four is subtitled mauvaise foi.

We use Escapology as a metaphor for human freedom:

Houdini’s popularity as an escape artist came about during a time of technological and political revolution. It was during the 1900s that Ransom Eli Olds implemented the first mass production of marketable cars, Tomas Edison’s phonograph made a commodity out of music and the colonial expansion of Europe and America prompted the birth of the somewhat unpleasant political period known now as New Imperialism. Technologies and movements initially plugged as liberating would soon be discovered by thinkin’ types to be nasty, horrible traps designed only to placate, segment and enfeeble. When people become dependent upon companies or governments to entertain them, to transport them, to plan their days and to import their goods, they forget what it is to be free, alive and autonomous.

The work of Houdini and his contemporaries escaped the province of curiosity – that of conjuring and ventriloquism – and into the universe of metaphor.

- Taken from An invitation to New Escapology.

New Escapologist is at once a collection of ideas on how to live and a satirical exploration of modern urban life.

We also arrange parties, give copies of the magazine to libraries and we’re thinking of running a seminar and comedy cabaret in 2010.