The Analog Sea Review: Number One

Analog Sea Review #1

by Jonathan Simons (Editor), Janos Tedeschi (Editor), Kyra Levine (Editor)

The Analog Sea Review is an offline journal because it fits nicely in your pocket but won’t wake you up at night. The Analog Sea Review is an offline journal because it’s food for dreaming, and because our dreams will surely be the last frontier to be swept up and digitized.

The Analog Sea Review is an offline journal because it’s made from trees, vegetable oils, and linen thread. It is produced as ecologically as possible but cannot compete with a data file. It has texture and smell, like a lover. And like a lover, it brings you stories and poems in the night.

For the past few years, we’ve been asking artists, poets, and other writers what they see, what they feel and what they create when the machines are all sleeping and they find themselves back again amid that most valuable natural resource — time.

The result is the first edition of The Analog Sea Review, featuring another stunning painting from Joseph-Antoine d’Ornano on the cover, and a careful selection of poetry, fiction, interviews, essays, and artwork.

Analog Sea is delighted to announce the release of the inaugural edition of The Analog Sea Review. Featuring previously unpublished writing from Leonard Cohen, poetry by Mary Oliver, a philosophical treatise on leisure from German philosopher Byung-Chul Han, and interviews with award-winning filmmaker Patrick Shen, British novelist Jameela Siddiqi, and Koyaanisqatsi director Godfrey Reggio, it is perfectly suited to satiating one’s contemplative summer thirst.

Analog Sea is a small community of writers and artists wishing to maintain contemplative life in the digital age. As an offline publisher, we distribute our high-quality printed books exclusively to select, independent physical bookstores throughout North America and Europe.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Essays, Philosophy, Art, Literature, Anthologies

140 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Nahal Tav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing this on an app seems counterintuitive to the underlying ethos of this wonderful publication, but here goes. I came across this book just a few days before Germany went into quarantine and I couldn’t have found it at a better moment.

“For us, Analog Sea is really a quiet little song, a little songbird singing out into nothingness.”

Well, I heard your song, and I am singing back from my sunny balcony. Every single excerpt, poem, interview, letter to the editor made me sit in silence and feel the interconnectedness of all things. And I’m grateful.

Thank you to the editors. I will be writing you an analog letter by post soon ;)

[Darius Hinks · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful little book. It’s an anthology of essays, poems, interviews etc but that’s underselling it somehow. The different parts are all hung together in such a clever way. I’m a convert. Really excited to read the next one.

[Bonisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journal articulating what I'm struggling with on earth. Favorites:

- The Would Always Touch the Earth, Trebbe Johnson
- Interview with Patrick Shen
- Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas Merton
- The Light Is Different There, Lesley Saunders
- Interview with Jameela Siddiqi


I didn't understand all of Byung-Chul Han's Vita Contemplativa or Leonard Cohen's Loneliness and History but I will come back to both because it they belong on the list, I know it.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m very pleased to have found the Analog Sea Review, this is my third of the journals. The nature of both solitude and connectedness runs through all of them and itis a pleasure to connect with the writers of this beautiful book.

[Mads Floyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite periodical of all time, it helps one reconnect to the slow moments in life and reflection upon the world around oneself. I always take my time with these volumes as the point is not to finish them in a hurry, but to really dig in. I’ve discovered countless other authors and poets via Analog Sea.

[Jason Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful presentation of poems & story by a plethora of wordsmiths including Carl Sagan, Leonard Cohen, Thomas Merton, among others.

[Mike White · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s true, so much of what we consume now is secondary experience. It’s the Instagram feeds, for example, and how we’re constantly engaging with people’s secondary experience to the extent that we begin to see ourselves and the world through this lens. The world now is like a dangerous trick because while we are flooded with secondary representations what we really want –even though we don’t always know it so clearly – is for depth experience to be our primary way of experiencing our world. But we seem to lack the tools and strategies to flip the narrative.” Interview with Patrick Shen.
“As the Japanese might suggest, the qualities of the silence we encounter are defined by our surroundings, past experiences, memories, and even our emotional state. The hushed voices of a museum experienced after a bustling city sidewalk have vastly different qualities than the dead quiet of an empty church interrupted by the sporadic creak of a wooden pew. One person feels a sense of nostalgia in an old church whereas another finds it suffocating. One person’s journey into silence doesn’t and shouldn’t resemble the next person’s.” Form Out of Formlessness, by Patrick Shen
A collection of interviews, poems and artwork published by the Analog Sea, an offline publisher of printed books.
Nicely presented collection of variable interest. I found it thought-provoking and in parts illuminating.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished a remarkable little anthology of essays, interviews, art, and poetry titled THE ANALOG SEA REVIEW: NUMBER ONE (there are four printed so far). The contributors intend it to be digested slowly. In the words of the editor, Jonathan Simons, "We find ourselves in a historical moment of pervasive mediocrity. Fueled by basic human drive--flights from death and boredom--the new technologies, bright and all-consuming, increasingly blur the lines between direct experience and representation. A photograph of an apple is not food and the Internet has neither scent nor texture...when depth experience emerges and wipes the sleep from our eyes, we turn our gaze away from spectacle and back toward raw, unmediated life. We call these ideas 'the emerging field of offline culture' and seek out poems, essays, and artworks made by others who maintain deep connection with the natural world." One interviewer asked Simons to describe the REVIEW in three words: "Life beyond machines."
If you can find a copy, I highly recommend THE ANALOG SEA REVIEW. You can only purchase it at select independent bookstores, such as the Collected Works Bookstore in downtown Santa Fe. If you live in Abilene, you can check it out at the McMurry University library.
[On a tangential note, I've read articles on Artificial Intelligence, have witnessed it write a sonnet about peanut butter, have been pestered to view podcasts on how it will improve my workplace. Then I remembered a critical scene in the film "Good Will Hunting" when the psychologist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) tells Will (Matt Damon) that even though he's brilliant and seems to know everything about everything, in reality he knows nothing because he hasn't lived. AI is a computerized faux Will Hunting. THE ANALOG SEA REVIEW reminds you that real life exists outside of FaceBook, TikTok, AI, etc. Turn off your iPhone and smell a real rose.]

[Richard Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is indeed counterintuitive to be reviewing a purely offline publication online, but it deserves to be brought to everyone's attention. The Analogue Sea Review is available on in hardback, only available from independent bookshops. All communications from and with the magazine are by letter.

So I unhooked, as you young things say, and read this. It's a thing of beauty, physically, small enough to fit in a coat or jacket pocket, with enough heft to remind you this is a real book. Its contents are things of beauty, too, and led me off on internet-less paths of though I haven't trodden for some long time.

In short, it's a wonder, and I can't wait to read Two and Three.

[josé almeida · Rating 5 out of 5]

trata-se de uma revista literária off-line porque cabe no bolso mas não te acorda de noite. é feita de árvores, linho e óleo - e as imagens que contém não aparecem num ecrã. tem capa dura, acabamento primoroso, cheiro e textura. é uma selecção de textos, imagens e poemas subordinados a um ou vários temas, nunca mencionados (neste número destaco a solidão criativa e o desapego ao virtual). só é distribuída em livrarias independentes (em lisboa, na snob), não há sites nem vendas directas ou on-line. e, com 4 números já publicados, é seguramente um dos projectos editoriais mais bonitos e fascinantes de sempre.

[Cyndel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The old poets
spent their summers
inscribing hidden words
into the trunks of ancient trees.

You can find their poems still,
and their diagrams
and their invisible tracks
leading you deeper into the wood.

The old poets
spent winter
by candle flame, alone
translating nature,
a sort of levitation,
watching snow fall.

Jonathan Simons

[Klaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume was much more thematically connected and told a cohesive narrative through its series of essays, but considering that this is the first attempt at something that, seemingly, is quite novel, I would say it was phenomenal nonetheless. Would highly recommend picking up in your local bookstore and keeping it as a bedside read.

[Andrea Mazzocchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this at a small store in Vancouver and was caught by the composition of the work. It was everything I expected and a bit more. It reminded me of the peace in silence that we have in so many ways lost and connected me to a community I forgot to existed. Looking forward to tracking down #2 and beyond.

[Renier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely outside my comfort zone of what I usually read, but glad I found this at a local bookstore.

Really interesting and eclectic mix of interviews, essays, poems, and art.

The thing I really gravitated towards the most was the philosophy behind the publication.

[Jeff Probst · Rating 3 out of 5]

A journal I discovered at Typewronger Books in Edinburgh. 'Sea' shuns online publication and email, and their philosophical, literary journal can be only be found at various independent bookshops around the world. So far, they have not accepted any of my submissions.

[Faith Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Offline publishers are the best thing to happen in a digital world. To see a book made without offline makes me appreciate a world before media. I love the stories and poems about the world and how we need to connect to one another.

[Christopher Vowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Passionate defence of offline existence.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely selection. It feels wrong updating this online...

[Hannah Farrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire concept. 5+ stars.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice idea for a publication, but quite self-indulgent collection of works and also rather male-centric.

[north pink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend reading analog sea if you haven’t before.

[M. John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of it was really great. Some of it was just . . . very pretentious and privileged.

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely reminder to regain consciousness of our own lives/bodies/experiences and disconnect from the rushing surroundings
Loved this book and excited to read the next few journals :)

[Austra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nav slikti, bet biju gaidījusi kaut ko vairāk (citu?). Gaumes jautājums tie literārie žurnāli.

[aren · Rating 5 out of 5]

bought this on impulse off a lil shelf in a chicago bookstore, found within it beautifully curated thoughts reflecting upon the digital age

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fondly purchased at Malaprops bookstore in Asheville