Mayak, book review

« …I am convinced that the idea of degrowth will only make its way into people’s minds with the use of a poetic perception of reality. … Poetry is, in the craft of language proper to poets, as a means of communication.n the sensitive opening of the spirit within reach of each one, the only exercise likely to crudely illuminate the nothingness, the misfortune, the illusion and the despair to offer us another way of evoking the reality and which restores to him the power of attraction and of questioning without which what seemed not to be can become. Poetry is the matrix of future life « writes Jean-Claude Besson-Girard in Decrescendo Cantabile. Small manual for a harmonic decay (Lyon, Paragon, 2005, p. 31). If J.-C. Besson-girard is right, which we believe, there is an excellent reason to read Mayak. 

Every six months an issue of this « magazine-book of invigorating culture (!), fertile solitude (…), possible society (?) » is published. To our knowledge, it is the only book review in the universe that manages, in about 170 pages, to offer such a view of this world that is here (again!) and that resembles in its many interstices a world of the kind that feeds the hopes of the growth objection. You will find unexpected pages on degrowth in issue 5. The sixth opus travels the world in all directions and from right to left, from bottom to top, from silences to music (MAYAK 6 is accompanied by a record of Steve Houben played for the occasion), of black, white, colors. We don’t have enough space to explain how to go from the graphic tour of a caravan to Benedictine permaculture in Katanga. From the Chinese sciences of the 16th century to the spirit of garbage seen from Prague. From Aminata Traoré’s growth objection in Mali to the workers’ fraternity gardens in Mouscron, and then to music therapy. 

Mayak is a magazine-book that creates harmonies, and reading it can give you a feeling of serenity, beauty and surprise. Mayak is in a class of its own, a « marvelous beauty » as the other might have said. there must be a Mayak spell. 

Mayak, a magazine-book linked to the multimedia site www.mayak.be, is published by the association groupe esthétique! 

To support Mayak, subscribe! (Belgium — 35 euros, abroad — 40 euros including shipping) to be paid on the account IBAN BE29 5230 8021 7964. 

info@mayak.be
Tel. : 00 32 (0) 68/44 84 72 

Bookstores where you can find MAYAK:
Brussels: Tropismes, 100 papiers, Filigranes, Libris-Agora Louise, Quartiers latins
Louvain-la-neuve: Agora-Libris
Namur : Point virgule, Papyrus
Liège : Entre-temps (asbl Barricade), Pax, Livres au trésor, le Comptoir, la Carotte
Nivelles : la Compagnie des mots
Boitsfort : ABAO (Middelbourg street)
and one or the other bookstore in Tournai. 

JBG