BLAST

One of the major differences between the creation of [http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST] and [http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST 2] was the physical separation of the contributors. While [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyndham_Lewis Lewis] was attempting to put together [http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST 2], he was fighting on the French Front. Many of the contributors still resided in London during the war; however, because [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyndham_Lewis Lewis] was on the French Front, coordinating the different pieces of the magazine was infinitely more difficult. This was compounded by other contributors also participating in front line offensives or closely supporting the assaults. Additionally, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Dismorr Jessica Dismoor] served as a nurse on the French Front. The difficulty of war time communication as well as the variability of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyndham_Lewis Lewis'] location likely contributed to some of the changes in style of the second edition of [http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST] compared to the first.

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.