Rants
 

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This series of political polemics will attempt to widen political debate in Scotland, and politics will be the core area of activity. However, Vagabond Voices also welcomes manuscripts on social, cultural, philosophical and religious subjects.

These are conformist times, but conformism is mainly imposed not so much by political conspiracy as by the lethargy and careerism of the intellectual class. However neglected it might be, writing remains the most accessible of the arts, and our motivations should not be primarily financial (although this statement is tantamount to a modern heresy). Everything about writing is intoxicating, and nothing is so intoxicating as writing that is inspired by righteous passion but falls short of that line where hatred, dogmatism and intellectual rigidity begin.

According to Chambers Dictionary, a rant is “an empty declamation” (which we will avoid), “bombast”, “a tirade” (most certainly), and in Scots “a noisy frolic” (why not, as there is no reason why loud and passionate political argument should not be mixed with humour and merriment). But the idea is really based on an interview with Norman Finkelstein on the Today Programme: his book, according to the interviewer, was a rant, and he replied, “Was Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France a rant? Of course it was a rant. Was Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man a rant? Of course it was a rant. Is my book a rant? Of course it’s a rant.” That great tradition of pamphleteering in the English-speaking world is one that we should be proud of and reviving.

We cannot tell you where this will take us, as it will depend on what we receive, but we can tell you that Alasdair Gray will launch the series with a rant that will almost certainly also be a noisy frolic in the true Scottish sense. It should be published in the summer of 2009.