III
Editor-in-Chief’s note
There seems to be a sense of completeness brought about by putting things in threes; they’re not so many as to be excessive and yet, not so few as to leave more to be desired, just…right. The Romans (well, Cicero, to be precise) had a phrase for all things three, like they seem to do for everything: Omne trium perfectum — everything that comes in threes is perfect. Think of triads and trios, of trinities and trilogies, of trifectas and tercets, of memorable statements like Lincoln’s definition of democracy — a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
The Book Club, ABH perhaps needs no introduction, even to those who had never heard of it before now. It is a book club — they do what book clubs do. The thing with having booklovers in one place though is that, sooner or later, they start trying to translate their (sometimes wild) imaginations to reality — like attempting to publish a bulletin, attempting and succeeding not once but twice. If you’re yet to read through these first and second editions of the bulletin, I dare say you are doing yourself a disservice. The bulletin, Mindsplash!, is no Paris Review but I think you’ll like it there. You’ll find links to them at the end of this article.
So, the club is set to publish the third edition of its bulletin, hence all that introductory bit about threes and Latin phrases. From poetry to comics and artworks, if you can think it and create it, it would be our singular pleasure to receive it and possibly publish it in this edition. Monday, October 4 is the deadline for receiving whatever you deign to send us, however, so time is of the essence, as they would say. When isn’t it though?
If you are a member of the Alexander Brown Hall — better yet, if you are a clinical student of the University of Ibadan — do send in your creative works using the link below. Our readership numbers in the hundreds, and although that probably counts for something, I think Chinua Achebe presents a more apposite reason for us to do this and you to humour us, in these words of his: A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground, it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.
Submit here: https://bit.ly/TheBookClubBullEntries
First Edition: https://bit.ly/Mindsplash1stEdition
Second (Independence) Edition: https://bit.ly/MindsplashIndependenceEdition
