Editor's Note

The title of this issue could have easily been "Intellectuals in Dark Times." Its genesis was a series of conversations between Ian Buchanan, the Associate Editor of this journal, and myself about the increasing levels of discouragement we find among our colleagues around the world. Ian was, at that time, living and working in Australia (he is now in Great Britain), while I was and remain in the United States. It seemed that despite living on different continents and being involved in different professional environments, nearly every colleague we spoke with shared a common set of discouraging responses regarding the ability of academics and intellectuals to respond to increasingly disturbing social, political, economic and environmental policies that were being implemented around the world.

We decided at that point that an issue of symplokē should be solely devoted to critical reflection on discouragement. We knew that Fredric Jameson had mused that a theory of discouragement was needed, but did not know precisely what one might entail. The hope in putting together this issue was that it might not only inspire others to develop such a theory, but also that exploration of the general topic of discouragement might work toward addressing the feeling shared by many intellectuals and academics: that no matter how important or interesting their message may be, it will not galvanize change.

Though the articles collected in this issue take up the topic of discouragement and its role in various dimensions of intellectual and academic life, they provide a more hopeful message than one might assume. Just as Salman Rushdie thought that in its own way the fatwa on his life had been a good thing because it showed that books could still matter enough for people to get shot for writing them, the articles in this issue collectively establish a complex dialectic wherein hope reveals itself in the wake of an extremely discouraging set of circumstances.

Working versions of some of the articles in this issue were presented in a very exciting two-day seminar in March of 2005 at the American Comparative Literature Association Conference at Penn State. I thank the participants in this session, particularly Michael Bérubé, Gregory Flaxman, Gregg Lambert, Jeffrey Nealon, David R. Shumway, and Jeffrey J. Williams for the stimulating dialogue that enriched the articles published here—my own included.

Currently, three issues are in preparation. The first issue is entitled Cinema without Borders (Vol. 15, Nos. 1-2 (2007)). It will be concerned with philosophical questions of the border in film, including literal border cinema, multinational productions, theoretical investigations of liminal space and challenges to "world cinema" paradigms. This issue will address the question, if we are moving past notions of nation towards a borderless global order, how is this shift both reflected in and brought about by cinema? Submission deadline: closed.

The second issue in preparation will be entitled Anonymity (Vol. 16, No. 1 (2008)). Welcome are contributions discussing the nature and limits of anonymity. What are the social, economic, political, and intellectual dimensions of anonymity in contemporary public and/or academic culture? How does anonymity affect reading, writing and teaching practices, as well as other aspects of academic performance such as tenure and publication review? What are the philosophical dimensions of anonymity? What are the theoretical implications of new media technologies and globalization on anonymity? Submission deadline: 1 July 2007.

The third and final issue in preparation will be entitled Gaming and Theory (Vol. 16, No. 2 (2008)). Welcome are contributions that engage the various intersections of the idea and practice of digital gaming and critical theory. Topics include, but are not limited to, gaming and postmodernism, the politics of gaming, gaming and cultural studies, gaming and philosophy, gaming and narrative theory, gaming and globalization, gaming and pedagogical theory, gaming and aesthetics, gaming and media theory, gaming and feminism, and gaming and its critics. Submission deadline: 31 December 2007.

I would like to thank the contributors to this issue for sharing their intriguing thoughts and reflections on discouragement with us, and Ian Buchanan for helping to get this issue off the ground. Special thanks also to David Felts...