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A thought is born. A synapse in the brain triggers an impulse which is
routed through the nervous system to the muscle cells where, in a sequence
of contractions, the finger clicks a mouse or taps a keyboard, and
the impulse begins its journey as an electromagnetic signal interacting with
other computers in the network we call the World Wide Web, each preserving
the integrity of the initial impulse, passing it from one to the next like a
baton, guiding it toward its final destination where The Cortland Review's
computer is waiting to serve any signal that introduces itself, announces
where it came from, and requests the latest issue. Quick to comply, The Cortland Review's computer responds electronically through the same network
to the point of origin, where a human eye re-accepts the signal via the visible electromagnetic spectrum, and the brain
gets what it wants: TCR's Issue 10—and the whole trip took less time than you spent reading the first sentence of this paragraph.
At the stroke of midnight, December 31, 1999, we celebrated
the new millennium (though some would argue we were a year early). Nation by
nation, we turned the page on a new chapter in
history. This era arrives during the proliferation of a new thinking
with technology as its catalyst. The Internet brings us the first global
network using the very same framework the brain uses. It allows us to communicate
regardless of
geography, race, religion or gender.
The Cortland Review is excited to be part of this revolution. We recognize, however, that we
ride on the coattails of some pretty impressive thinkers. Scientists,
inventors, printers and writers have
brought us to the ledge of this new world: Johannes Gutenberg created moveable and reusable type; Benjamin Franklin published "Poor Richard's Almanack," the most widely read periodical in its time,
and discovered electricity; Thomas Edison took Franklin's electrical current and invented the
phonograph recorder; and Walt Whitman, the father of contemporary poetry,
read the first poem ever recorded live.
In the tradition of that pioneering spirit, and mindful of the entire community of writers and readers, The Cortland Review is pleased to present Issue
10 in both text and audio, our very own electronic entry in the ledger of the new millennium.
Guy Shahar
Editor-in-Chief
If you wou'd not be
forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten
Either write things worth reading,
Or do things worth the writing
—Benjamin Franklin
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