WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 I want you to picture, just for a second, the 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:04.900 sheer volume of content you scroll past on any 00:00:04.900 --> 00:00:07.679 given Tuesday. Oh, it is an absolute avalanche. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:10.240 Right, exactly. Thousands of posts, articles, 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:13.279 videos, all competing for just a fraction of 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:14.779 your attention. You just swipe, swipe, swipe. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:17.199 You barely even register half of it. Yeah, you 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.359 really don't. Now, imagine if I told you that 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:21.879 one of the most profound cultural shifts in modern 00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:25.539 literature wasn't started by, you know, a massive 00:00:25.539 --> 00:00:28.000 media empire with millions of followers. Or a 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.640 viral algorithm. Right, or an algorithm. Instead, 00:00:30.839 --> 00:00:33.420 it was sparked by a tiny, seemingly insignificant 00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:37.500 publication from the year 1915. And this publication 00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:40.990 had... fewer than 300 subscribers. 300. That 00:00:40.990 --> 00:00:44.070 is just, it's wild to think about. 300. I am 00:00:44.070 --> 00:00:46.609 so incredibly excited to welcome you to today's 00:00:46.609 --> 00:00:49.409 deep dive where we are pouring over a fascinating 00:00:49.409 --> 00:00:51.990 Wikipedia article on a little literary magazine 00:00:51.990 --> 00:00:55.850 called Others, a magazine of the new verse. It 00:00:55.850 --> 00:00:58.479 is such an incredible piece of history. It really 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:01.500 is. And our mission today is simple but powerful. 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:04.900 We are going to extract the core insights from 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:08.219 our source material on how a small group of marginalized 00:01:08.219 --> 00:01:12.159 creators built a sanctuary for otherness that 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:14.920 ended up completely rewriting the rules of the 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:17.439 written word. A total paradigm shift. Exactly. 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:20.739 It is a perfect study in how you can avoid information 00:01:20.739 --> 00:01:23.159 overload by focusing on high impact history. 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:25.879 You don't need a million voices to change the 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:27.900 world. Sometimes you just need. the right 300 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:31.439 listening. It truly is a remarkable story. But 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:34.379 to fully grasp what we're looking at today, it's 00:01:34.379 --> 00:01:37.019 essential to understand that this isn't just 00:01:37.019 --> 00:01:38.980 a story about poetry. No, not at all. If you 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:40.659 look at the source text, it becomes immediately 00:01:40.659 --> 00:01:42.500 clear that this is a story about the American 00:01:42.500 --> 00:01:44.599 identity itself. I mean, we are talking about 00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:47.540 1915. It's the explosive rise of the industrial 00:01:47.540 --> 00:01:49.560 metropolis, the intense collision of different 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:51.980 cultures, and the deliberate, forceful disruption 00:01:51.980 --> 00:01:54.840 of societal norms. It was a very volatile time. 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:58.459 Very. We are looking at a crucible moment where 00:01:58.459 --> 00:02:00.719 the very definition of what it meant to be an 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:02.879 artist, to be a woman, to be an immigrant, was 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:06.099 actively being dismantled and reassembled right 00:02:06.099 --> 00:02:08.039 there on the printed page. Okay, let's unpack 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:10.520 this. Because the origin of this magazine is 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:12.479 where the whole vision really starts. We have 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:14.969 to begin. with a man named Alfred Kreimberg. 00:02:15.150 --> 00:02:17.830 Right. According to our source, Kreimberg was 00:02:17.830 --> 00:02:20.430 completely mesmerized by another visionary of 00:02:20.430 --> 00:02:23.629 the time, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz. 00:02:23.830 --> 00:02:26.490 Yes, a massive figure in the art world. Huge. 00:02:26.930 --> 00:02:29.009 Stieglitz had this internationally renowned art 00:02:29.009 --> 00:02:32.110 gallery known as 291, and he produced a magazine 00:02:32.110 --> 00:02:34.699 of the same name. His whole objective was to 00:02:34.699 --> 00:02:37.379 publish original artwork by new unknown artists. 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:40.500 To give them a real platform. Right. So Kreinberg 00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:43.000 looks at this and is just enthralled by the atmosphere. 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:45.539 He sees experimental artists and photographers 00:02:45.539 --> 00:02:47.979 gathering together, exchanging bold ideas and 00:02:47.979 --> 00:02:50.400 actually earning praise for art that would have 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.360 been completely ridiculed by the mainstream. 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:55.300 Which was most of it, honestly. Yeah. So Kreinberg 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:57.819 decides he wants to create that exact same kind 00:02:57.819 --> 00:03:01.259 of sanctuary, but exclusively for literary artists. 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:04.840 But. He doesn't just immediately launch others, 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:07.280 right? He actually has a pretty significant failure 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:10.639 first. He does, yeah. Before others, Cranberg 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:12.840 attempted to launch a magazine called The Glebe. 00:03:13.159 --> 00:03:15.479 And the name itself is very telling. A glebe 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:18.460 literally means a field or a piece of cultivated 00:03:18.460 --> 00:03:21.080 land. Oh, I like that. Yeah, he envisioned this 00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:24.460 open, fertile field for new artists who lack 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:26.180 the confidence or the mainstream opportunity 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:29.240 to share their experimental work. He managed 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:31.770 to secure financial backing from two men. Albert 00:03:31.770 --> 00:03:34.330 and Charles Boney. But the entire project collapsed 00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:36.629 relatively quickly. What caused it to fall apart 00:03:36.629 --> 00:03:39.169 so fast? Was it just a lack of readership? It 00:03:39.169 --> 00:03:41.469 actually collapsed due to a very specific ideological 00:03:41.469 --> 00:03:43.770 conflict behind the scenes. Oh, really? Yeah. 00:03:44.189 --> 00:03:46.469 Kremburg wanted to use this platform to champion 00:03:46.469 --> 00:03:49.590 American experimentalists. He was looking at 00:03:49.590 --> 00:03:51.949 the raw, homegrown talent right there in the 00:03:51.949 --> 00:03:55.050 city. He wanted local voices. Exactly. The Boney 00:03:55.050 --> 00:03:57.430 brothers, however, strongly preferred European 00:03:57.430 --> 00:04:00.060 art. They wanted to stick to the established 00:04:00.060 --> 00:04:02.939 traditional centers of culture across the Atlantic. 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:05.520 So a classic old world versus new world debate. 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:09.340 Precisely. But Kreimberg remained intensely loyal 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:11.800 to his desire for raw, local experimentation. 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:15.419 He absolutely refused to compromise his vision, 00:04:15.539 --> 00:04:18.519 so he resigned as editor and the glebe slowly 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:21.079 fell apart without him. So Kreinberg walks away 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:23.160 from his own project because he refuses to sell 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:25.500 out his vision. I respect that, but that leaves 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:28.540 him back at square one with no money. How does 00:04:28.540 --> 00:04:31.079 he actually get others off the ground a few years 00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:33.319 later? That's where a man named Walter Conrad 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:36.740 Ahrensberg comes in. In July 1915, Ahrensberg 00:04:36.740 --> 00:04:39.500 provides the critical financial backing and others. 00:04:39.860 --> 00:04:42.139 A magazine of the new verse is officially born 00:04:42.139 --> 00:04:44.339 in New York City. And they kept the barrier to 00:04:44.339 --> 00:04:46.560 entry incredibly low, didn't they? Very low. 00:04:46.939 --> 00:04:49.259 each copy of the magazine was sold for just 20 00:04:49.259 --> 00:04:52.639 cents 20 cents a copy under 300 subscribers and 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:54.980 it becomes the launch pad for a literary revolution 00:04:54.980 --> 00:04:57.680 the whole purpose was to create a space for unity 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:00.019 among individuals who differed from the norms 00:05:00.019 --> 00:05:03.060 of society A literal home for the others. Yes. 00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:05.839 And they had the most incredible motto, which 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:08.120 I just have to quote directly. The old expressions 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:10.500 are with us always, and there are always others. 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:13.600 It's such a bold line in the sand. What's fascinating 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:16.560 here is the deep structural connection this magazine 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:18.819 had to its physical and cultural environment. 00:05:19.579 --> 00:05:22.139 Others wasn't operating in a vacuum up in some 00:05:22.139 --> 00:05:25.379 ivory tower. No, it was very grounded. It proclaimed 00:05:25.379 --> 00:05:28.459 a strong, active affiliation with the local community 00:05:28.459 --> 00:05:32.040 of the Lower East Side in New York. At that time, 00:05:32.060 --> 00:05:34.860 you have to picture a neighborhood teeming with 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:37.839 a mixed population of excluded immigrants, particularly 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:41.259 Jewish immigrants. The poets of others deliberately 00:05:41.259 --> 00:05:44.139 wanted to project a positive image of Jewish 00:05:44.139 --> 00:05:47.110 immigration. They were actively subverting a 00:05:47.110 --> 00:05:49.810 very pervasive negative stereotype of the time. 00:05:49.910 --> 00:05:52.509 The article mentions this self -deprecating Jew 00:05:52.509 --> 00:05:54.730 stereotype that was being heavily perpetuated 00:05:54.730 --> 00:05:57.569 by what they call Euro -modernism and by rival 00:05:57.569 --> 00:05:59.689 publications like The Little Review. Yes. But 00:05:59.689 --> 00:06:01.110 for the listener who might not be a literary 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:03.730 historian, what exactly do we mean when we talk 00:06:03.730 --> 00:06:06.189 about Euro -modernism in this context? Think 00:06:06.189 --> 00:06:08.910 of Euro -modernism as the old guard of the literary 00:06:08.910 --> 00:06:11.709 establishment. We are talking about rigid structures. 00:06:12.220 --> 00:06:15.839 rhyming couplets, very traditional, almost aristocratic 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:19.199 subjects. Very stuffy. Very stuffy. It was an 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:21.759 aesthetic that viewed any intrusion of foreignness 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:24.540 as a literal contamination of traditional literature. 00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:28.100 Others, on the other hand, was pushing what we 00:06:28.100 --> 00:06:30.220 call free verse. Right, breaking all the rules. 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:32.459 This basically threw the old rule book out the 00:06:32.459 --> 00:06:35.579 window. No rhyming, no traditional meter, just... 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:39.019 raw, spoken rhythm that mirrored the chaotic 00:06:39.019 --> 00:06:41.600 energy of the city. I love that image. So while 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:43.879 Euromodernism looked down on the immigrant population, 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:47.300 others framed this very same community not as 00:06:47.300 --> 00:06:49.759 something to be ridiculed, but as the literal 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:52.699 representation of social and intellectual progressivism. 00:06:53.370 --> 00:06:55.470 They saw the Lower East Side as the embodiment 00:06:55.470 --> 00:06:57.430 of the experimentation of the new. Which is why 00:06:57.430 --> 00:07:00.050 the critics went absolutely wild. Because Others 00:07:00.050 --> 00:07:02.970 was a house for this innovative free verse, critics 00:07:02.970 --> 00:07:05.110 labeled the magazine dangerous and offensive. 00:07:05.350 --> 00:07:07.350 Dangerous and offensive. It's almost funny to 00:07:07.350 --> 00:07:10.069 think of poetry being called dangerous and offensive 00:07:10.069 --> 00:07:12.610 just because it didn't rhyme and embrace new 00:07:12.610 --> 00:07:15.949 cultures. But they were tackling massive, heavy 00:07:15.949 --> 00:07:19.600 themes. They absolutely were. This tiny 20 cent 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:22.220 magazine was diving headfirst into the realities 00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:24.720 of American life. They were writing about the 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:27.660 grit of the industrial metropolis, the explosive 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:30.959 dynamics of machine age labor and the. absolute 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:34.019 catastrophe of global warfare. Very heavy, very 00:07:34.019 --> 00:07:36.379 real issues. But as they did this, the source 00:07:36.379 --> 00:07:38.800 material notes that the magazine acquired a reputation 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:42.519 for individualism, but also a very specific image 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:45.860 of queerness. Now, we are talking about the 1910s. 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:47.399 I imagine that word carried a very different 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:49.279 weight and meaning back then than it does today. 00:07:49.420 --> 00:07:51.759 What exactly were critics accusing them of? That 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:53.939 is a crucial distinction to make for anyone listening 00:07:53.939 --> 00:07:56.500 today. In this specific literary environment 00:07:56.500 --> 00:08:00.000 in the 1910s, queerness was not strictly... or 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.920 entirely associated with homosexuality. It was 00:08:02.920 --> 00:08:04.839 used as a catch -all term by the establishment 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:07.800 to describe radical innovation and the breaking 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:10.279 free of societal norms. So just anything outside 00:08:10.279 --> 00:08:13.439 the box. Exactly. It meant a total rejection 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:17.019 of conventional styles of poetry, coupled with 00:08:17.019 --> 00:08:20.439 a fierce resistance to sexual modesty. If you 00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:22.379 didn't conform to the polite, traditional way 00:08:22.379 --> 00:08:24.800 of living and writing, your work was labeled 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:27.519 queer. And the backlash they faced from the establishment 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:31.399 was relentless. rival poetry magazines like Poetry 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:34.480 and the Little Magazine openly criticized this 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:36.539 new verse style. They actually called the entire 00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:39.200 accomplishment of others a fluke. It's completely 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:41.580 dismissive. Completely. But the gendered insults 00:08:41.580 --> 00:08:43.879 are what really stand out to me. The male poets 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:46.700 who contributed to others were mocked by critics 00:08:46.700 --> 00:08:49.779 as being weak and effeminate. Right. So essentially, 00:08:49.899 --> 00:08:52.360 the 1915 version of internet trolls were just 00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:54.759 calling these guys soft for writing free verse 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:57.620 instead of traditional sonnets. Meanwhile, the 00:08:57.620 --> 00:08:59.399 women writers who published there were portrayed 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:02.960 as supermodern Sappho. Which was a direct accusation 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:05.879 of being female homosexuals, meant entirely to 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:08.769 dismiss and demean their work. The critics couldn't 00:09:08.769 --> 00:09:10.570 attack the underlying intellect of the poetry, 00:09:10.789 --> 00:09:13.129 so they attacked the perceived masculinity or 00:09:13.129 --> 00:09:15.490 femininity of the poets themselves. That is so 00:09:15.490 --> 00:09:17.629 frustrating, but unfortunately not surprising. 00:09:18.129 --> 00:09:21.529 No, it's a very common tactic. Yet, despite this 00:09:21.529 --> 00:09:24.230 barrage of criticism from traditional readers 00:09:24.230 --> 00:09:26.690 and rival editors, the work ultimately spoke 00:09:26.690 --> 00:09:29.429 for itself. Reviewers like H .L. Mencken and 00:09:29.429 --> 00:09:31.990 J .B. Kerfoot actually stepped up to defend them. 00:09:32.070 --> 00:09:34.850 They saw what was really happening. Yes, they 00:09:34.850 --> 00:09:37.289 recognized and acknowledged this. free verse, 00:09:37.490 --> 00:09:40.690 not as a dangerous contamination, but as a movement 00:09:40.690 --> 00:09:43.570 that was fundamentally reawakening American individualism. 00:09:43.929 --> 00:09:46.690 And when you look at the roster of talent they 00:09:46.690 --> 00:09:49.330 managed to cram into this tiny publication, it 00:09:49.330 --> 00:09:52.470 is just staggering. We are talking about the 00:09:52.470 --> 00:09:55.070 undisputed heavy hitters of modern literature. 00:09:55.190 --> 00:09:57.409 Oh, the list is incredible. Ezra Pound, T .S. 00:09:57.409 --> 00:10:00.090 Eliot, Wallace Stevens and Fenton Johnson, who 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:02.990 the article explicitly notes was the only African 00:10:02.990 --> 00:10:04.730 -American published in the magazine at the time. 00:10:04.769 --> 00:10:06.870 A huge milestone. Here's where it gets really 00:10:06.870 --> 00:10:08.809 interesting. I want to talk about the women who 00:10:08.809 --> 00:10:11.889 defined the bold, unapologetic image of others, 00:10:12.110 --> 00:10:16.620 specifically. Mina Loy. In 1915, she publishes 00:10:16.620 --> 00:10:18.940 her love songs in the magazine. This is not your 00:10:18.940 --> 00:10:21.960 standard polite romantic poetry. Not at all. 00:10:22.330 --> 00:10:25.110 To understand the shockwave Mina Loy caused, 00:10:25.289 --> 00:10:28.169 you have to remember the strict Victorian conventions 00:10:28.169 --> 00:10:30.950 that still held a massive grip on society. Right, 00:10:30.970 --> 00:10:33.190 the separate spheres. Exactly. The Victorian 00:10:33.190 --> 00:10:36.610 era dictated very rigid gender norms. Men operated 00:10:36.610 --> 00:10:39.350 in the public sphere of business and ideas, while 00:10:39.350 --> 00:10:41.590 women were strictly confined to the private sphere 00:10:41.590 --> 00:10:45.529 of the home, purity, and quiet domesticity. Women 00:10:45.529 --> 00:10:47.929 were certainly not supposed to have, let alone 00:10:47.929 --> 00:10:51.080 express, public sexual desires. Never. And then 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:53.399 Mina Loy kicks the door down. Her love songs 00:10:53.399 --> 00:10:56.080 featured incredibly graphic writing, depicting 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.679 scenes of explicit sex and grotesque sexuality. 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:01.360 She was completely mocking the polite romantic 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:04.279 conventions of Victorian writing. Loy is a perfect 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:06.360 example of the symbiotic relationship between 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:08.600 these creators and the Others platform. Loy needed 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:11.139 Others as an uncensored space to perpetuate her 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:13.960 unorthodox values, and Others heavily depended 00:11:13.960 --> 00:11:16.539 on Loy to establish its image of absolute boldness. 00:11:16.620 --> 00:11:19.879 They fed off each other. They did. By representing 00:11:19.879 --> 00:11:23.259 herself as a sexual woman who was deeply skeptical 00:11:23.259 --> 00:11:26.500 of traditional romance, she effectively inverted 00:11:26.500 --> 00:11:30.600 those rigid Victorian gender norms. Her aggressive 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:33.840 articulation of female fantasies completely rejected 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:37.080 the societal denial of female sexuality. It must 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:40.309 have been so scandalous. It was. And crucially, 00:11:40.429 --> 00:11:43.450 unlike the mainstream magazines, Others was willing 00:11:43.450 --> 00:11:46.470 to publish her longer works exactly as she wrote 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:49.570 them, without imposing format standards or censoring 00:11:49.570 --> 00:11:52.230 her content to protect the delicate sensibilities 00:11:52.230 --> 00:11:55.210 of the reader. So you have Mina Loy blowing up 00:11:55.210 --> 00:11:58.190 Victorian conventions with raw, explicit sexuality. 00:11:58.750 --> 00:12:00.710 But then, on the other hand, you have Marianne 00:12:00.710 --> 00:12:02.710 Moore. And what strikes me about Moore is how 00:12:02.710 --> 00:12:04.330 she approached this rebellion so differently. 00:12:04.529 --> 00:12:06.429 Very differently. She departs from those modern 00:12:06.429 --> 00:12:08.470 sexual conventions entirely. She wasn't using 00:12:08.470 --> 00:12:10.830 shock value in the same way. Yes. Moore's innovation 00:12:10.830 --> 00:12:13.750 was entirely structural and intellectual. Instead 00:12:13.750 --> 00:12:15.889 of being sexually provocative to challenge gender 00:12:15.889 --> 00:12:18.470 norms, she inclined to manipulate the very use 00:12:18.470 --> 00:12:20.929 of grammar itself. Grammar is a tool of rebellion. 00:12:21.070 --> 00:12:23.830 I love that. It's brilliant. She used language 00:12:23.830 --> 00:12:26.129 to equalize the positions of male and female 00:12:26.129 --> 00:12:29.669 subjects and objects within her sentences. She 00:12:29.669 --> 00:12:32.009 was essentially transforming language to free 00:12:32.009 --> 00:12:33.870 herself from the constraints of sexual difference, 00:12:34.110 --> 00:12:36.230 pushing the idea that people should be judged 00:12:36.230 --> 00:12:39.149 on the basis of their abilities rather than adhering 00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:42.649 to any ideas of inherent cultural or gender superiority. 00:12:42.990 --> 00:12:45.570 The imagery she used was so distinctive too. 00:12:45.690 --> 00:12:48.860 The article points out that more frequently felt 00:12:48.860 --> 00:12:51.779 out of place in society, and she would recurrently 00:12:51.779 --> 00:12:54.299 use animals in her poetry to reflect her concern 00:12:54.299 --> 00:12:56.480 for literature and nature. Right, the animal 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:59.200 motifs. Like in her poem, Critics and Connoisseurs, 00:12:59.379 --> 00:13:02.159 she uses the image of a black swan to express 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:05.179 this profound theme of independence. Her style 00:13:05.179 --> 00:13:07.220 wasn't dangerous and provocative like Loy's, 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:09.419 but both of their names are forever linked in 00:13:09.419 --> 00:13:12.000 others because they shared this incredible freshness, 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.340 novelty, and total break from the old guard. 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:17.559 And that break from tradition took many physical 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:20.600 forms on the page. If we connect this to the 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:23.000 bigger picture, we have to look at William Carlos 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:25.000 Williams. He was one of the primary contributors 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:27.840 to the magazine and a massive enthusiast for 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:30.139 testing the boundaries of what poetry could look 00:13:30.139 --> 00:13:32.820 like. His contribution to poetic innovation is 00:13:32.820 --> 00:13:34.720 one of my favorite takeaways from this whole 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:37.580 deep dive. William Carlos Williams is the one 00:13:37.580 --> 00:13:39.879 who introduced the elimination of capital letters 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:43.059 at the beginning of poetic lines. A huge shift. 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:45.779 Now, to us today, writing without capital letters 00:13:45.779 --> 00:13:48.299 just looks like a casual text message. But back 00:13:48.299 --> 00:13:50.740 then, capitalizing the start of every single 00:13:50.740 --> 00:13:53.539 line was the ultimate unquestionable sign of 00:13:53.539 --> 00:13:56.600 high art it was the standard by dropping to lowercase 00:13:56.600 --> 00:13:59.600 williams was basically saying poetry isn't just 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:02.379 for the elite it's the language of the everyday 00:14:02.379 --> 00:14:04.919 person on the street it was a visual rebellion 00:14:04.919 --> 00:14:07.580 right there on the page and his own background 00:14:07.580 --> 00:14:09.799 played a huge role in his perspective didn't 00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:12.980 it it absolutely did williams had a mixed ancestry 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:15.980 of puerto rican and english descent which furthered 00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:18.320 his own personal affiliation with that core concept 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:21.110 of otherness He understood what it meant to be 00:14:21.110 --> 00:14:23.570 outside the mainstream. He did. He claimed that 00:14:23.570 --> 00:14:27.070 America was his only possible home. Living in 00:14:27.070 --> 00:14:29.850 the area, he witnessed firsthand the openness 00:14:29.850 --> 00:14:32.149 to the immigrant population that was radically 00:14:32.149 --> 00:14:34.269 changing the demographic landscape of the country. 00:14:34.690 --> 00:14:37.289 And unlike the traditionalists who feared it, 00:14:37.409 --> 00:14:39.850 he saw incredible potential there. So he embraced 00:14:39.850 --> 00:14:42.570 it. Yes. He believed that Jewish immigration 00:14:42.570 --> 00:14:45.289 and the overall increase of racial blending were 00:14:45.289 --> 00:14:47.409 going to directly affect and elevate American 00:14:47.409 --> 00:14:51.500 poetry. He saw the demographic shift as the very 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:54.659 engine of literary progress. This forward thinking 00:14:54.659 --> 00:14:58.139 mentality really came to a head in 1916. The 00:14:58.139 --> 00:15:00.519 magazine releases a special issue called A Woman's 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:03.240 Number, which was edited entirely by Helen Hoyt. 00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:06.299 This was a massive moment. The purpose of A Woman's 00:15:06.299 --> 00:15:08.360 Number was groundbreaking for the era. Hoyt's 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:10.139 goal was to establish a brand new relationship 00:15:10.139 --> 00:15:12.340 between the inner woman and the outside world. 00:15:12.539 --> 00:15:14.820 She wanted to portray a hidden femininity that 00:15:14.820 --> 00:15:16.500 could be translated through the expression of 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:20.179 poetry, pushing the radical, unifying idea that 00:15:20.179 --> 00:15:23.200 art is surely sexless. It provided a space for 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:25.919 self -expression, exploring the private prospect 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:28.460 of female experiences and attitudes, largely 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:31.440 using free verse as an act of emancipation from 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:34.200 the deeply repressive sexuality of the decade. 00:15:34.379 --> 00:15:36.460 And the examples from the text are so powerful. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:40.279 I want you, the listener, to really imagine opening 00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:43.399 a magazine in 1916 and reading this. The issue 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:46.019 featured Hoyt's own poem called To a Pregnant 00:15:46.019 --> 00:15:49.139 Woman, where she writes, So absolutely to command, 00:15:49.340 --> 00:15:51.899 to serve, to keep. knowing you hold the beating 00:15:51.899 --> 00:15:53.899 life of the beloved in the depths of your life. 00:15:54.039 --> 00:15:56.659 It's so visceral. It completely lays bare the 00:15:56.659 --> 00:15:58.639 intimate realities, the physical weight, and 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:00.799 the control of a woman's own body. It wasn't 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:03.440 hidden behind polite metaphor. And you also had 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:05.440 poets like H .G. writing boldly about female 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:07.820 sexuality, using the concept of evening as a 00:16:07.820 --> 00:16:09.980 symbol of sensualism to convey bodily desires. 00:16:10.419 --> 00:16:12.200 Naturally, the traditional critics condemned 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:14.700 the issue for its controversial themes. They 00:16:14.700 --> 00:16:18.580 did. The critical pushback was immense. But the 00:16:18.580 --> 00:16:20.519 external critics weren't the only threat to the 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:23.960 magazine. Unfortunately, Others was constantly 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:26.879 battling for its own internal survival. Wait, 00:16:26.940 --> 00:16:29.259 so they have this massive artistic success with 00:16:29.259 --> 00:16:32.240 A Woman's Number in 1916, but behind the scenes 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.580 things are falling apart. How does it go from 00:16:34.580 --> 00:16:38.240 this creative peak to being on the verge of collapse? 00:16:38.740 --> 00:16:41.840 It ultimately came down to the classic struggle 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:44.519 of financing a revolution. It always comes down 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:47.759 to the money. Always. By late 1916, they were 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:49.899 running out of money, and the internal dynamics 00:16:49.899 --> 00:16:52.700 were fraying. Kreinberg needed new partnerships 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:55.080 and financial support just to keep the printing 00:16:55.080 --> 00:16:57.559 presses running. So he brings in William Carlos 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:00.080 Williams to help co -edit, along with a few others 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:01.940 like F .S. Flint and Maxwell Bodenheim. Okay, 00:17:01.940 --> 00:17:03.820 bringing in some fresh energy. But instead of 00:17:03.820 --> 00:17:06.059 saving the original vision, the relationships 00:17:06.059 --> 00:17:09.019 eventually soured. Williams fiercely rejected 00:17:09.019 --> 00:17:11.440 Kreinberg's ideas for further expanding the magazine, 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:13.779 believing it was losing its sharp experimental 00:17:13.779 --> 00:17:17.000 edge. Which leads to the most explosive and honestly 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.680 kind of hilarious ending to a publication I've 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:23.160 ever heard of. In 1919, William Carlos Williams 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:25.700 essentially takes the reins for the final issue 00:17:25.700 --> 00:17:28.400 and officially puts a stop to the magazine. He 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:30.559 shuts it down. But he doesn't just quietly shut 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:32.619 the doors and send a polite thank you note to 00:17:32.619 --> 00:17:35.440 the subscribers. He includes an eight page section 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.640 at the very end entitled Belly Music. And it 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:41.789 is an. absolute rant. Oh, he let them have it. 00:17:41.869 --> 00:17:44.789 He uses these final pages to tear into the entire 00:17:44.789 --> 00:17:48.109 landscape of American poetry criticism, famously 00:17:48.109 --> 00:17:51.650 describing it as sophomoric, puling, and nonsensical. 00:17:51.769 --> 00:17:54.430 What a mic drop. He killed the magazine but went 00:17:54.430 --> 00:17:56.750 out swinging at the establishment. He certainly 00:17:56.750 --> 00:17:59.190 made sure they had the last word. But in that 00:17:59.190 --> 00:18:01.970 same rant, he also assured the public that the 00:18:01.970 --> 00:18:04.890 end of others was only a pretext for another 00:18:04.890 --> 00:18:07.569 new beginning. And history proved him right. 00:18:07.950 --> 00:18:10.890 It didn't just end there. No, others didn't simply 00:18:10.890 --> 00:18:13.450 disappear without a trace. The community they 00:18:13.450 --> 00:18:15.250 built survived the death of the physical magazine. 00:18:15.650 --> 00:18:17.609 The writers who had contributed to the others 00:18:17.609 --> 00:18:20.230 continued to work together, frequently reviewing 00:18:20.230 --> 00:18:22.269 each other's new work and championing the free 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:24.869 verse movement. They kept the spirit alive. They 00:18:24.869 --> 00:18:27.549 did. And structurally, the legacy was preserved 00:18:27.549 --> 00:18:30.579 when Scofield Thayer The co -publisher and co 00:18:30.579 --> 00:18:33.039 -editor of a major, well -funded publication 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.039 called The Dial asked many of the other's writers 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:39.299 to bring their work to his magazine. Ultimately, 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:42.700 The Dial carried on the exact poetic tone and 00:18:42.700 --> 00:18:45.200 experimental spirit that others had established. 00:18:45.539 --> 00:18:48.650 So what does this all mean? We started by looking 00:18:48.650 --> 00:18:51.450 at a tiny publication from 1915. And what we 00:18:51.450 --> 00:18:55.069 found is an almost impossible paradox. A magazine 00:18:55.069 --> 00:18:58.329 with a maximum of 300 subscribers printed on 00:18:58.329 --> 00:19:01.190 cheap paper and sold for 20 cents a copy managed 00:19:01.190 --> 00:19:03.829 to become the launching pad for American modernism. 00:19:03.890 --> 00:19:06.470 It's an incredible legacy. It provided an uncensored 00:19:06.470 --> 00:19:08.569 platform that empowered women to reclaim their 00:19:08.569 --> 00:19:10.589 private spaces and their physical bodies from 00:19:10.589 --> 00:19:13.650 Victorian standards. It actively celebrated excluded 00:19:13.650 --> 00:19:15.730 immigrants and racial blending as the literal 00:19:15.730 --> 00:19:18.500 future of art. It completely changed the trajectory 00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:20.900 of American literature. This raises an important 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:23.460 question about how we value knowledge and where 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:26.119 we look for community. The story of others proves 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:28.559 that true innovation rarely comes from the well 00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:30.440 -funded center of the establishment. It never 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:32.779 does. It happens on the fringes. It happens when 00:19:32.779 --> 00:19:35.420 marginalized groups create safe, dedicated spaces 00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:38.119 where they are allowed to experiment, to fail, 00:19:38.279 --> 00:19:40.859 and to be viewed as dangerous by the old guard. 00:19:41.470 --> 00:19:44.289 They didn't need mass societal approval. They 00:19:44.289 --> 00:19:46.910 just needed a cultivated space to foster their 00:19:46.910 --> 00:19:48.690 otherness. And that leaves us with a lingering 00:19:48.690 --> 00:19:50.970 thought for you to explore on your own. We live 00:19:50.970 --> 00:19:53.630 in an era obsessed with scale. We measure our 00:19:53.630 --> 00:19:56.690 impact in millions of views, algorithmic virality, 00:19:56.690 --> 00:19:58.789 and global trending topics. We want everything 00:19:58.789 --> 00:20:01.970 to be massive immediately. Exactly. But if a 00:20:01.970 --> 00:20:04.789 magazine called Others was able to spark a permanent 00:20:04.789 --> 00:20:07.609 cultural and literary revolution with just 300 00:20:07.609 --> 00:20:10.730 subscribers and 20 cent paper copies in 1915, 00:20:10.990 --> 00:20:13.750 what defines the actual critical mass needed 00:20:13.750 --> 00:20:16.519 to change the world today? In our modern era 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:19.299 of endless digital noise, is it possible that 00:20:19.299 --> 00:20:22.160 true, lasting artistic rebellion still only requires 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:25.400 an audience of 300 highly dedicated others? Thank 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:27.119 you so much for taking this deep dive with us 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:29.059 today. Keep looking for those hidden pieces of 00:20:29.059 --> 00:20:31.240 history, and we will see you next time.