[MANIFESTO] Nether Strands

Following the Threads in the Tapestry of Literature

Beloved Netherwalkers,

I’m thrilled to introduce a new chapter in the journey of Nether Street Blues. Without further preamble, I welcome you to:

“I’ve become an advocate for poetry in translation. You fold time. You bring voices from the past into the present. If those voices share your vision, you’re building alliances across centuries.”

—

Josh Datko

, when interviewed by

B. Eldon Calder

.

Strands of story and song run through the ages, across continents and cultures, binding each new creation to the origins of the human heart. The cloth they weave is nothing less than the soul made visible.

Through these essays, I aim to illuminate hidden connections, spark fresh visions, and, above all, set us on new quests. Together we can confront the chains that bind us and uncover the hidden mechanisms that turn the gears of human consciousness.

The ultimate purpose of this project is to bring the voices of our artistic ancestors into dialogue with the living voices of today and those yet to come.

---

The Blues: A Brief Case Study

Somewhere in the Mississippi Delta, a man bends over his guitar, coaxing a lament from its strings: a sound as old as sorrow itself. Half a world away, in a land as distant as the stars, a greying woman releases an old melody—half-forgotten by younger generations—from the depths of her soul. And so, the ancient name of that thing that is neither love, nor longing, nor sorrow lives again: dor.

When man came upon this earth, the Blues were already waiting for him. And they will linger long after he is gone.

In Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, the old blues musician Delta reflects that, unlike the religion forced upon the Africans brought into slavery in America, the Blues descended from the music they carried with them from the old continent. But what are the Blues, really?

They are more than music, more than twelve bars and a few chords. They are a feeling made sound, our longing given voice, our despair transfigured into art. And sometimes, perhaps, they are a quiet celebration of the few, fleeting joys still found in this life.

In Romanian folklore, the word doina carries an old and haunting weight, a lyric lament, a melody of longing. The doina, too, defies simple definition. It is more than a song—it is feeling made sound, memory made melody. Unlike the borrowed words from the many empires that trampled our soil, the doina is older, carried silently through the centuries from the Balkan soil from our Thracian ancestors. It is the grief of a people given voice, their sorrow transfigured into art, and sometimes a quiet hymn to the fleeting joys they still manage to find in this life.

Both the Blues and the doina speak in the same quiet, aching tongue, born of uprooting and memory, of pain reshaped into beauty. They are not inventions so much as inheritances, not styles to be learned but truths waiting to be remembered. Beneath their melodies runs the same current, older than nations, older than language itself, whispering that the human heart has always known how to grieve and sing in the same breath.

When man came upon this earth, the Blues were already waiting for him. And they will linger long after he is gone.

---

Purpose of the Strands

The word manifesto carries a certain weight. Perhaps mission statement would be more accurate, but it feels too corporate for what I mean. Manifestos are typically associated with revolutions, whether artistic or political.

My politics are none; my values are wisdom, justice, and love. Artistically, I aim to move forward, but I don’t believe culture needs a revolution. What it needs is preservation and connection. As I write this, a debate swirls about whether this platform has the potential to revolutionize culture.

For me, it has been more straightforward and more profound: I came here seeking validation, but I stayed for the connections—among talented people, with their favorite authors, and with something larger than myself. That is the purpose that inspired Nether Strands.

---

What’s Next?

As I have mentioned before, this section is dedicated to exploring connections between writers separated by time and space. At present, I am developing a series that draws a line between Cormac McCarthy and Lucian Blaga, one of Romania’s foremost poets and most original philosophers.

What also sets Nether Strands apart from my other sections—the main Nether Street Blues, where I publish fiction, and Flaneurisms, where I share short, wandering literary notes—is its emphasis on video. Here, the visual and the spoken word will complement the written essay.

In time, I also hope to conduct interviews with some of my favorite authors working today, and (funding permitting) to commission guest posts that explore these themes from other angles. Because I intend to pay contributors properly, I invite you to support this project by pledging for a paid subscription or buying me a coffee. Above all, though, the most meaningful way to help is to spread the word. If these strands speak to you, share them.