This is the archive page for Otium, Volume 1, Number 1.

Welcome to Otium, a new online prose magazine at the University of Chicago.

At Otium, we contend that good prose evokes otium—leisure or ease—the notion connecting play with work, pleasure with critical thinking.

In this our first issue, we feature content across genres: the short story, the performance text, the question & answer, the html project. Our contributors, too, are diverse. Our writers and graphic artists are undergraduates and actresses, playwrights and professors, from both within and without the university.

We leave you in their hands.

Warmly,
Sarah Adair Frank, Volume One Coordinator
on Behalf of The Otium Staff

Vol. 1 No. 1 Articles

  • A Trumpet Sounds (A Play for Two Voices)

    by Pablo Medina
    9 March 2005

    Winter came and went.
    Mother died of batrachosis.
    Somebody sprinkled salt on her.
    She bloated up, then bloated down
    until there was only skin
    and bones. She gave a final sigh
    that went on all afternoon,
    past dinner, into breakfast the next morning.

    (read more)

  • Excerpts from Pierce

    by William Veeder
    9 March 2005

    Father’s fistic maxim was: First punch of the first round, daughter, nail him right between the eyes; establish who owns the ring; set the ref. to counting. The ring in question proved to be Mr. Bowles’s crammed pantry of an office on the second floor of the Republican building in Springfield.

    (read more)

  • rum & coke

    by Carmen Peláez
    9 March 2005

    What do you mean, don’t do hunger strikes in shifts? Oye, we’re here to protest the starvation of the Cuban people, not show how it’s done. There are eleven million people starving in Cuba and you expect us to starve ourselves voluntarily! Comunista! (Alicia crosses to chair) Asi mismo te lo digo! No, no, now you can go interview your grandmother.

    (read more)

  • Vagina Dentata

    by E. S. Carroll
    9 March 2005

    Its teeth were deceptively feathery looking, but brittle to the touch. He pushed his finger into their center, carefully, and the teeth, not sharp at all, seemed to caress it, sucking it further and deeper inside him before, with an unexpected bite, they severed his finger tip, ingesting it while blood poured across his belly…

    (read more)

  • Finding That Special Someone, and Why It Might Be a Bit Naïve to Presume He or She Exists

    by Kyle Beachy
    9 March 2005

    He cuts the engine and says, “Great day for a game.”

    The irony being: the game will be played inside the domed stadium. The Girlfriend laughs delicately out of habit and sympathy, unable anymore to distinguish her own imitation laughter from real thing. In the backseat, the Other girlfriend smiles because she genuinely finds the Boyfriend’s sense of humor charming. The Other boyfriend stares at the back of the headrest to make sure he doesn’t roll his eyes.

    (read more)

  • Six Views of Jerusalem

    by Spencer Dew
    9 March 2005

    Navigation is possible by franchise restaurant alone. At the sidewalk bar known for selling pork, the table of Americans orders three club sandwiches, two of ham and cheese, feeds bills into the internet jukebox, dated dance numbers.

    (read more)

  • Pop!

    by Lee Wang
    9 March 2005

    “I'm about to load the bomb, Robot.”

    “Get Ur Freak On,” Popbot replied.

    (Why does he always have to say that? she thought to herself. That song was seriously overplayed. She’d have to upload a new song onto him, which, she realized, actually would be another way of sticking it to the proverbial Man.)

    (read more)

  • SOS

    by Tiffany Funk
    9 March 2005

    I’m rambling again and need to breathe and let my hand rest. I can’t write too quickly or I’ll break the lead of the pencil, and it will take too long to sharpen it on the claw end of the hammer. I can’t waste this time or this energy. I need for you to get this message and understand.

    (read more)

  • A Conversation with William Veeder

    by Jenny Gavacs
    9 March 2005

    Beauty is good, I mean, look at the responses to Millenium Park downtown, that jelly bean or whatever the hell it is. People just love to be in the presence of the jellybean. They love to look at Frank Gehry’s band shell, they just stand there and look at it. People who are not trained in art history. People who don’t know anything about Frank Gehry… but they know that they like to be around it. There’s a wonderful feeling down at the park. I think we’re starved for beauty.

    (read more)

  • So Much

    by Merrie Greenfield
    9 March 2005

    She actually become this sort of inside joke around the magazine. This person who produced SOOOO MUCH CRAP. Reams of it. It was obvious after reading five pieces that it was all trash. It was sad how much manpower must have gone into just writing it all down. It contained no evidence of editing. (Oh GOD, hopefully this wasn't a piece she'd re-read and improved upon, was it?)

    (read more)

  • Shoreland as an Internet/Student Domain

    by Jeremy Guttman
    9 March 2005

    ENTER

    The Front Desk will be asking
    You to show your bus pass
    Each time you enter the building.
    Thank you

    THERE ARE NO
    PUBLIC BATHROOMS
    OR PUBLIC TELEPHONES
    IN THIS BUILDING

    (read more)

  • Drawings

    by Melina Kolb
    9 March 2005

    (view)

  • Photos

    by Chris Libby
    9 March 2005

    (view)

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