BLAST

''[http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST]'' was a literary magazine that birthed an artistic and social movement called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorticism Vorticism]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyndham_Lewis Wyndham Lewis] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound Ezra Pound], the founders of the Vorticist movement, were also effectively the chief authors of the two-issue magazine. ''[http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST]'' contained, among other piece of literature, an aggressive manifesto by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyndham_Lewis  Lewis] "blasting" conventional British art and culture and proclaiming the Vorticist aesthetic: ‘The New Vortex plunges to the heart of the Present – we produce a New Living Abstraction’. Incidentally, World War I broke out roughly one month after the publication of the first issue. The cultural and political tensions that fueled Vorticism were now at a dangerous climax...how would this affect the heart of the movement?

In our exploration of ''[http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST]'', we chose to examine both the rhetorical and visual aspects of the content and, in doing so, aimed to understand how the outbreak of World War I impacted the continuation of Vorticism.   

Below is an interactive timeline delineating the events that are relevant to our discussion of ''Blast.''  

Visualization software from Voyant Tools was essential to our rhetorical analysis of ''BLAST.'' By examining and comparing the usage of words that are central to the content, we can make conclusions about how the authors' intent changed between issues.

The usage of the word "art" is fairly consistent between the two issues, which makes sense considering the purpose of the journal is to advocate for a new style of art. Meanwhile, the mention of "war" increases between issues. This makes sense since ''BLAST'' 2 is reflecting on the atrocities of war. Particularly interesting is the fact that the usage of the word "man" goes down. At its prime, vorticism was a nationalistic movement that embraced the power of man to create. The decrease in the word usage suggests some sort of despondence; the empowerment of the authors to create an artistic revolution of sorts may have dwindled as the horror of war forced them to question their deepest beliefs. However, since the decrease is so slight, it could be noted that "man" is still a vital part of the magazine as it may be used to humanize the abstract art included. Overall, the further insight provided by these words helps to demonstrate the great impact of the war on the publication but also shows the continuation of the basic purpose of the authors.

This map shows that even though only two of the contributors and Wyndham Lewis were fighting in the war, the war took a toll on all the contributors. The second issue reveals that the war hit all the contributors equally hard because of the tone and layout of the issue.

<img style="border:5px solid black" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/65/cf/5a/65cf5a80ad61fce7eb6ed109e142eadd--battle-of-the-somme-second-battle-of-ypres.jpg" width="400" >

The first articles of BLAST I and BLAST II are important to consider when assessing some of the differences in the magazines. This was decided based on the assumption that the authors, as artists, chose their introductory pieces to set up the tone and themes of the works. The very first full article in BLAST I is the Preliminary Vortex, which will not be considered as the first BLAST article, because it is almost an introduction to the Vorticist movement rather than the journal itself. Furthermore, it has a different aesthetic than the majority of the other articles in the work. It is formatted in a rather straightforward manner with minimal use of excessive capitals or rearranging of space - something that is arguably the focus of BLAST I.  

The article that will be examined as the first BLAST I article is delineated with a square box and the number 1 in it on page 11. Visually, the article closely resembles the one that follows it, as seen here. It is much more complex, in this way, than the second publication. This can also make it a little bit difficult to follow at times. The designers used different sizes of a stark font in bold, ranging from all capitals to lowercase across the page while playing with the words to create an overall image that resembles the vortex. Portions of the writing are also set up without following a full sentence structure, for example, “THE CURATE of “Eltham” BRITANNIC AESTHETE WILD NATURE CRANK DOMESTICATED POLICEMAN LONDON COLISEUM SOCIALIST-PLAYWRIGHT DALY’S MUSICAL COMEDY GAIETY CHORUS GIRL TONKS” (11). This string of words  is clarified by the very nature of BLAST because of the way that the designers played with the space of the page, as well as conveying meaning through shock and awe. This is more the focus of the first publication meaning that, although there is featured vorticist art, the writing and the displays they are presented in are the art of much of BLAST. Although each page like this is different, almost every single page that uses this display method features an overall pattern indicative of a vortex or whirlwind shape that is created by manipulating the font size and orientation on the page as you can see with the example. This seems to be the artistic focal point, or uniqueness of BLAST, although there are plenty of other featured literary works that are not presented in the same manner and are important to the vorticist movement.  

The second publication of BLAST has a much different character than the first. It is also worth noting that the first publication is exactly one hundred pages longer than the second publication. While the amount of time and effort put into the first edition is unknown, the second was published within a year and a month later. In publication terms, this is rather fast, meaning that the authors pulled together and churned out content. This is observable based on the fact that much of the content is reflecting on or reacting to World War I, so the majority of the literary works were probably not pieces that the authors had laying around at home. While the beginning of the article titled “THE GOD OF SPORT AND BLOOD” (9) indicates that the authors are talking about a “merciless war on Cubism and Expressionism” (9), as noted by the distant reading on the word “war”, World War I was having quite an influence on the content of this publication. The most notable section of this article reads, “Sport and blood are inseparable, or Sport without blood is anaemic. Sport and blood again are the rich manure all our vitality battens on” (9). Although it is a bit lengthy, another section that helps depict the mood of the time can be seen by the way the Germans were perceived in this section. The author says that the Germans “[had] become infernally philosophic and democratic, their heads naturally being too weak to resist”, then followed it by saying that “there is only one sort of person who can be conscious and not degenerate”, and concluded the thought by saying that “Germany’s rulers do not belong to that august category” (10). To finish the thought, the author finally says that “[the German’s] wicked and low degeneration and identifying of themselves with the people will recoil on their own heads. No wonder they have an admiration for English cunning, as they describe moderate British good-sense” (10). This is telling of the environment that the author was writing in at the time as it promotes very nationalistic feelings and is themed around the idea of war as sort of a necessary evil.  

Visually, the second issue of BLAST is much more standardized - a two column nightmare of the most part. The second publication of BLAST lost the artful textual displays that were heavily featured in the first and focuses more on articles with informational (in the traditional sense), literary content (although, they often featured small pieces of art at the end of articles, as can be seen above). There appears to be more artwork in the second issue of BLAST as well, and it seems that the vorticist style had more time to develop and solidify than it did in the first. This can be seen below. One can understand this by comparing artwork between the two issues, as the artwork in the second publication is mostly very stark, angular, and even minimalist at times while the artwork of the first publication has more variety to it concerning texture, shading, and shapes. The artwork of the second publication of BLAST seems to be more abstract than that of the first - this could be due to the development of the vorticist style, or it could reflect some of the social and cultural conflict that the WWI was causing. In this way, the second publication of BLAST can be seen as a peek into the emotions and reactions of the Vorticists of the time.

The tone in the two magazines changes drastically from being militant to being much more toned down. This change was specifically due to Kaiser Wilhelm wanting "to space no Cubist prisoners, wounded or otherwise." Before the war the ''BLAST'' often used very harsh language such as "Curse its (England) climate for sins and infections." This cursing of people and things and virile tone was lessened in the second issue. This section of cursing different people and countries was followed by a section of blessing different people and countries. The second issue contained language like "the English have their innocuous little sports." This change in vocabulary was almost exclusively due to the WWI. Many of the contributors of the magazine were involved in the war, causing them to be scarred emotionally. Due to this trauma, the defining tone that the contributors used changed dramatically as they may have tried to slightly avoid the actions that got them into the terrible war.

Through exploring the evolution of ''BLAST'' between issues, we have been able to conclude that the outbreak of World War I had a significant impact on the nature of the publication through the way it drained the magazine of most of its unique energy and replaced it with a more informative portrayal of the articles. However, the abstract style endorsed by the original Vorticists was still preserved in at least one aspect of the second issue: the cover.

The use of the word "war" was found to demonstrate to increase of war in the daily life of the people. "Art" demonstrated the continuous concentration on the original intent of the magazine through both issues. Also, "man" stays fairly constant and demonstrates how the authors consistently humanize the art included in the publication.  

Additionally, we ponder what content, visuals, etc. would encompass ''BLAST'' had the war and the tensions that preceded it not occurred in the same time frame as the journals' publication. Since Vorticism was a nearly direct response to the war that was brewing, we wonder:

'''1. Would the first issue of ''BLAST'' have had such a strong expression of Vorticism?'''

The Tyro journal was an attempt by Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, and their cohorts to continue their form of a modernist movement. They realized, after a few years, that the Vorticist movement had pretty much died off and wanted to take its remains to transform into something else. The Tyro was a journal that was meant “to be a rallying spot for those painters, or persons interested in painting, in [England], for whom ‘painting’ signifies not a lucrative or sentimental calling, but a constant and perpetually renewed effort: requiring as exacting and intelligent application as any science, with as great an aim” (the Tyro, pg 2). Even at the first publication, the magazine describes itself as the only “paper in [England] wholly devoted to the interests of the great European movement in painting and design, the most significant art phenomenon in Europe to-day” (The Tyro, pg 2).  

The overall structure of the two publications of BLAST are wildly different from one another. As has been previously noted, the first publication of BLAST is set up to appear like a vortex to its readers (that being a significant portion of the art in that particular publication). The second publication is mostly written in a double column format with pieces of artwork featured in between the writings. Both publications of the Tyro are written in a way more similar to BLAST in single or double columns, there does not appear to be any major play with spacing or font in this magazine.  

BLAST had two publications that were 212 and 112 pages in length (the first one being longer). BLAST also featured a few pages of ads at the very back of each publication (more on that later). The first publication of the Tyro is 12 pages long while the second is 106 pages long, so the Tyro is shorter than BLAST altogether and the first publication is shorter than the second (the opposite of BLAST).  

The art and writing is dispersed completely throughout both publications of BLAST and the first publication of the Tyro, however, the second publication of the Tyro follows a different format. The writings and art are completely separated in the second publication of the Tyro. The reason for this is not apparent.  

Another interesting thing to note is the abundance of blank pages in the second publication of the Tyro. These blank pages only occur in the last third of the magazine, where the pieces of artwork appear. There are two hypothesis for this. The artwork of this issue retains much of the starkness that was seen during the Vorticist movement, although the overall style can be quite different, depending on the piece. The themes of the work appear to be less geometric in nature, and a bit more three dimensional in perspective, comparative to the works that appear in BLAST. While, of course, the entire magazine is in black and white, there is more shading and hatching work in the artwork after the Vorticist movement. That being said, the primary (and more likely) hypothesis for the abundance of blank pages is probably for the rather practical reason of keeping the ink from each piece from transferring across pages and ruining the artwork on the opposite side while simultaneously, possibly being ruined itself. This is something that artists can be observed doing with drawings, particularly with graphite, so this is more likely. There is, however, another hypothesis that is a bit more artistic in nature. The second hypothesis is that the blank pages are there so that the readers get some clear space in between works, almost like what would serve as both a mental and physiological palate cleanser.  

Both the Tyro and BLAST contained ads. In both publications of BLAST, the ads were at the back of the magazine and all of the ads were relatively straight-forward (no graphics) and had to do with various types of publication (art, music, memoirs, biographies, poetry, and popular novels). In the Tyro, there are still plenty of ads for books (especially for art, music, and others), but they seem to be catered toward a more specific audience, particularly the wealthy, educated and/or extreme. For example, there are ads for rare and foreign books, music ads, an ad for a Vorticist saloon, radical or contemporary art exhibits, antiques, and fancy hats. The Tyro 2 was a total of 106 pages long, and 6 of its pages were ads.  

Artwork: The first publication of the Tyro seems to contain some more Vorticist characteristics than the second publication (this applies a little to the pieces done by Wyndham Lewis than some of the others), but there is a great deal of new content as well. The pieces by Lewis express the same focus on geometric patterns and stark contrast between black and white, however, other pieces exhibit, in general, more shading and less geometry than strictly Vorticist pieces. The biggest way that this artwork differs from the artwork of BLAST is that the subject is focused on humans (Or Tyros) rather than vortices.  

First full piece comparison for TYRO one and two:

Conclusion: While it is plain to see that the Tyro shared many things with BLAST, it is also quite apparent that it was something else entirely. The structure, content, artwork, and even ads are quite different with the remains of similar modernist themes of the past. This is likely because of how hard Lewis was working to make something that he thought would last and really trying to fight against the odds. Lewis wrote “The question will arise naturally to what extent the European movement that these things typify has succeeded, how the war has affected it, and what its future may be. During the last ten years, at regular intervals, writers and people in conversation have said : ‘Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism, and all the rest of that revolutionary phase of art, is dead’” (the Tyro 2, pg 3). He goes on to argue that “a great innovating movement is not, however, so easily destroyed”, that “the quality of its vitality is certain to be so much truer and harder than that of its multitudes of opponents,” and “that the world would have to penetrate further into chaos than it has done, or is likely to be allowed to go, to make such manifestations impossible” (the Tyro 2, pg 3). Finally, he says that when one compares those movements “with the modes of expression that depend for their existence on the precarious remains of a past order of society and life, you will see that, depending as this other one does on a mentality, in course of formation, whose roots, literally, are in the future, its chances of survival are better than its more immediately traditional rivals” (the Tyro 2, pg 4). It seems as though this magazine were almost an attempt by Lewis and his peers to really advocate for the relevance they thought their work would have in the future. His reasoning may have been slightly overzealous, or overly validating on his own interests, but that could be part of the relevance of his work, and other work like his own.  

Ultimately, this project gives answers, but also provokes thoughtful curiosity. Therefore, this topic lends itself to additional insightful research and discovery in ''BLAST'' and other works, which is one of the most important things a rhetorical analysis of literature can do.

We first approached this project by examining the visual elements, physical aspects, and chronology of ''BLAST''. Because of ''BLAST'' being created so close to the outbreak of WWI, we then decided to mainly focus on how the war impacted ''BLAST'', its subsequent issue, and its future. We decided to utilize

Voyant Tools as this had previously been explored in class and seemed like an impactful way to convey visual representations of important parts of the magazine. Next, we specifically chose the words "art", "man", and "war" as they each represent a major element of ''BLAST''.

We obtained most of our data from digitally scanned copies of ''BLAST'' from the Modern Journals Project website. We supplemented this with research from other common web databases such as Wikipedia. Overall, the formatting of this was done in a standard way with a goal of professionalism.