This is New Orpheu, the latest in a series of blogs that accrete out of nothingness before dissolving back into the ether.
Its title is inspired by the original (short-lived) Portuguese modernist publication of 1915. Orpheu was a bomb planted at the feet of a literary elite uninterested in Europe’s cultural cutting-edge. The magazine’s contributors — young, unknown, encompassing both written and visual mediums — stood briefly in the spotlight before Orpheu‘s closure after merely two issues. The passage of time, the coming regime of Salazar, suicide, illness, and idleness would eventually whittle away the group of artists who tried to shake up the heart of Portugal.
So, then, will New Orpheu grab the standard from the original’s cold hands? No. This will not be a blog dedicated to bringing a new form of writing to the world; leave that to the professionals.
Instead, New Orpheu will pick up where its (online) predecessors left off. Namely, as a grab bag of items of interest. In an ideal world it will stand as a repository of thoughts, questions, reviews, occasional essays, and photo albums of the things one comes into contact with through life. It will avoid attributing much to its creator, having learned that openly tying an identity to a piece of truly amateur work is a quick way to undercut momentum through self-doubt and second-guessing.
New Orpheu shall be updated if and when there is something worth writing or posting about. The hope is those certain somethings will occur more often than it did for its ancestors.
In any event, you have the site’s thanks for ending up here.
New Orpheu 