Before I go on, the QUTE magazine website is now open for business!

It’d be be mighty hypocritical of me to rant and rave against censorship only to censor articles in my own publication.
So I won’t.

So far the only article censored in QUTE mag by the Student Guild Executive Board was an article about not letting chivalry die in the face of feminism. I can understand that, despite the article being written by a woman and allowed for publication by the Guild President, also a woman, the article is the kind of regressive sentiment that I loathe and helps nobody. Pitting politeness against feminism is one of the more intellectually lazy ways of making a point, but it was submitted and was well written enough to be published.

I haven’t published everything that I’ve been sent, but that’s slightly different. If I haven’t published something it’s because it’s either too long, poorly written beyond my ability to edit, or flat-out incomplete.

Now, if the Student Guild owned the qutemag.org domain, I’d be bound by their wishes and be unable to publish anything the board had censored. Fortunately the owner of the domain will remain a secret.

Kat Henderson has been extremely supportive of the magazine and she’s really stuck to her guns in allowing our own little corner of the fourth estate to flourish. She can’t, however, control the entire Guild, so the democratic process won’t always result in particularly democratic outcomes. This is the nature of democracy; sometimes the people will choose to hamstring themselves, and we must respect that as a democratic decision.

I can’t speak for Kat but she’s given every indication that she is anti-censorship and should be given all credit for never trying to censor my magazine.

A part of that respect, however, is to constantly challenge it when the result is unjust, unfair or obfuscating. That is why I will post censored articles on the site, to challenge those who would censor the magazine into siding with all censorship or no censorship. There is no line. The families of Australia do not ‘just know’ where the line is and nobody working with a human mind can be trusted to draw one.

The theme for issue 3 of QUTE magazine is ‘response’.

I’m looking for responses to something current, whether it be a response to Clive Hamilton’s latest article or an interview with Mel Gibson or a government policy you dislike.

Example a)

You’ve just read an article called “Fighting Child Porn: thinking about the children” by Wei Tu Yung, advocating a mandatory internet filter as the best way to prevent domestic violence against children. You realise that Miss Wei is full of shit so you write an article for QUTE that picks their apart. You submit, I publish, we all win the prize.

Example b)

Your law student friend left the OQPC website open at the bills page. You see an upcoming bill (which will probably become law soon) that wants to prohibit people from saying negative things about religious people. You realise Anna Bligh is Kim Jong il’s evil sister and tear the policy to shreds, in QUTE mag, which all the important people read.

Example c)

You’ve just seen a band that you like. Some idiot in skinny jeans reviewed them the next day and you can tell that they either weren’t there or wrote the review under the influence of crystal meth. Write a review and bag the idiot out. Then submit it to QUTE and receive 53 virgins.

Be constructive and don’t just rely on your own ramblings. If you’re sending me a rant it better be the funniest thing you’ve ever written. I’m looking for articles that can’t exist in a vacuum. Respond to the world around you, culture is a conversation, not a monologue.

My attempts at keeping a broad scope of contributions to the magazine have failed; instead of getting a wide sweep of interesting content I get a whole lot of people not submitting anything from lack of guidance.

So, instead of asking me ‘what’s the theme?’ or ‘what should I write?’, read this instead.

1. Attack something. If you’ve read an article or op-ed piece you disagree with, write a response to it. Take each point made in the offending article and strip it bare like the cold, vicious intellectual you are. Then cite references.
2. Find some policy and write about it. Seriously, go to the OQPC or COMLAW sites and pick a bill (or part thereof) apart. If you don’t know what this means, don’t do it, this is the hardest but easily the most awesome thing you could possibly submit.Law students pay attention.
3. Submit your old assignments. Seriously, someone smarter than you decided it was a worthwhile topic and you had to write more than your own opinion. I instantly accept assignments of a 5 or better (though even sixes are edited, sevens not so much). For BFA (writing) students it’s a sin not to submit your better work to QUTE unless you’re selling it elsewhere. Two of my own pieces were assignments.
4. Submit something that would change a person’s schedule. Changing someone’s mind is better left to people with a lot of experience doing exactly that. Opinion is good but practical advice is better and far harder to fuck up. Even the people I respect most (in terms of opinion writing) get things horribly wrong. If you’re under the age of twenty you’ll probably suck at it. Students get more out of schedules than opinions anyway (a decade under the libs having destroyed the link between ‘education’ and ‘ideas’) May Adamson is currently the reigning champion of this.
5. Submit something with spine. It’s rare that anyone other than a creative writing student is every asked to submit an assignment without references, please don’t disrespect me by failing to back your opinion/analysis with evidence. Get a topic you’re passionate about, read up on it and put the pieces together for us. Give people a roadmap to an issue.
6. We have two issues out now (probably more by the time you’ve read this), why not attack something we’ve already published?
7. Write about your least favourite subject. Don’t get mad, don’t get offensive and don’t just rant. Think clear, calm rational thoughts. Are you the only one that doesn’t like it? The CI core subjects get panned on a daily basis, why not write about them? One caveat: if you’re hating the subject because you’re useless at it, maybe you should be writing about why you’re useless instead.
8. Read a magazine other than Woman’s day, you’ll get the idea real quick.
9. Review a book. Reviews of Twilight will be summarily ignored and my refusal is likely to offend, injure and possibly crush your soul.
10. Review a Religion. Why not? Write a meaningful review about the Mormon Church. Write a meaningful review about Islam. Try not to bleed on the keyboard while writing about Christianity. Avoid slander and bitterness, but seriously, if religions want to make claims about their primacy as universal constructs, be my guest and hammer them as if they were (But tell the truth, don’t make shit up because you honestly don’t need to).
11. Defend a religion. Why not? It’ll be harder to use facts, evidence or reason but hey, don’t take my word for gospel. If you’ve written it well I will publish it (with a discalimer about the magazine not promoting self-harm). The upside for me is that I get to update my list of people with whom I can argue.
12. Get off your arse, do something crazy and then write about it. I’m fairly open with this one. Bungee jumping? Sure, go for it. Got arrested? Hell yes! Accidently slept with your cousin? We’ll use fake names. Like I said, don’t make shit up, I want photos as proof. Why not go on a road trip to Nimben, that should work.
13. Interview someone that has done something interesting. Keep in mind that the less interesting the person is, the better your writing has to be.

I know as well as you do that you’re not being paid for submissions. I don’t hold you to the same standards even if I don’t accept trash. Creative pieces are all well and good but in these post-neo-liberal-nothing-without-economic-value days its important that even creative pieces add something to public discourse. Keep in mind that the best contributors to QUTE will be the first people I call when I’m editing my own proper mag/site that can afford to pay contributors.

Don’t see me as overly political, by the way, I take non-political content as readily as I take the political. The only difference is that I need less justification from the contributor for political content because I already consider it important. If it’s not political content, it’ll probably only take one sentence in your email telling my why it’s important regardless.

Anyway, all submissions should be made to websinthe@gmail.com as an RTF, DOC, ODT, or TXT file. Include a bio of yourself, a reason for why I should publish the article and a sworn statement that you’ve proof-read your own work at least twice.

Sixteen years ago I opened a blank schoolbook and began planning a magazine. Today, I start work on that magazine in an official capacity, such is the nature of wishes.

QUTE magazine is the Student Magazine for Queensland University of Technology, run by the student guild, printed by printers, edited by me.

Last year’s QUTE magazine flourished under the magical touch of Michelle Knowles; her fortitude and skills in all things aesthetic took the magazine from startup to number one student mag in the country in under a year. Her ability to attract student contributions and work with Jason (graphic designer) to bring it all together has set a high standard that has been chasing me around my head for about a month now.

That’s right, I’m shitting my pants hoping I can at least keep the magazine going at that level.

I don’t expect to match or replicate the Knowles era of QUTE, it would be disrespectful to try and her style should remain her style. QUTE magazine has established quite the following over the last 12 months, and it’s considered an accomplishment to be published in its deftly designed pages. My job now is to maintain, streamline and expand those standards of publication.

Therefore QUTE magazine will be spread over the following channels:

1. The magazine proper: 5-6 hard copy editions over the academic calendar. Opinion, interviews and high quality works that deserve paper immortality.
2. The magazine website: Updated weekly with more time-sensitive contributions, news updates and media that wouldn’t fit in the print publication.
3. The PodCast: Weekly -fortnightly podcast featuring interviews, student audio plays, humor and analysis.

I’m more excited about the magazine this year than a conservative watching an execution (Fryy ‘im bubba’, fryy ‘im!). I’ll introduce the team as it stands next week when I see them all in the same room at the same time.

Important: If you’re a QUT student of any description and would like to contribute (either periodically or regularly) to QUTE, don’t hesitate to contact me on websinthe at gmail dot com. The team is never finalised and all work will be published (crap work will be published after I’ve reamed it with the proofing-bat).