William Markiewicz opened Vagabond Pages in 1995 and continued to 2014. The web was just taking its first breaths in 1995 and after hearing only a brief description of what the web was, he jumped in; there is no better description. He was already a published author and artist and had recently sold the newspaper he published and edited for 13 years. He contributed to journals in various languages – French, English, Polish, Spanish. Writing was a passion. Analysis, criticism, observation, awe and wonder were his daily bread, minute by minute. The web, the mysterious web whatever it would become, was a new way to publish.
It all fell together within hours. It would be “Vagabond Pages” with the tiny logo of the vagabond he’d sketched years before. The image on the opening page titled “Struggle” was captioned with Vagabond’s mission: – “The Vagabond struggles with ideas. Sometimes even plays Devil’s advocate.” Finally, the motto: Attached to nothing; aware of everything.
William did not want to be a personage. The page was for writing. If the reader were to know who he was it would emerge slowly.
The first issue was printed in August 1995. Those were the dial-up days of the internet yet Vagabond received email responses, including one we laughed about: “Who gave you the right to call yourself the VAGABOND?” Vagabond was a monthly at that time. Each issue opened at midnight on the first of the month. Essays and art were added until end of the month. In later years it became a bimonthly. The page was focused on “politics, philosophy, art and literature.” As the years went by, readership averaged between 200 and 500 unique readers each day.
The complete original Vagabond Pages is archived and may be read here. I will continue to bring forward work from that site.
Wilek’s last issue was November 2014. In January 2015, I wrote this note for Vagabond
The Vagabond has paused in his earthly travels after almost twenty years on the web. No writer can replace William but until we find a new path for Vagabond, why not highlight interesting essays, readers’ letters, a piece of art from the past in each new issue? Perhaps you, the reader, will suggest something. In his last article he pays tribute to other vagabonds on their way to the stars.
Yours Truly, Nikole
About Anthropology of Cultures
By William Markiewicz
This subject came to mind when I observed a Scandinavian who looked to me like an archetype. If southerners were country and city dwellers throughout their history, the Normands were mostly sailors and warriors. Other climates, other horizons, experiences, distances, dreams… Monotony of landscapes, steps balancing under their ships… the Darwinian universe gave them power and movement. Jung’s terms, “Oceanic Feelings” and “Cosmic Feelings” were liked by the Nazis but despite rumors Jung was not a Nazi sympathizer, as Nietzsche, who spoke about “die Blonde Prachtvole Bestie”, was not a racist. Ambiance and their lifestyle were, as for everybody, the natural source of their inspiration.
Another people and its “otherness” came to my mind, the Gypsies: perpetual movement, proximity and distance at the same time, tribal “anarchists,” their misery and separation, their arrogance and disdain simultaneously … They didn’t care about disdain from others and paid them with the same money. They left dirt for others to clean. Then, their wonderful, mostly musical inspiration. They were natural actors, perhaps unaware of it. I saw a young Gypsy with a pose like an immobile actor, as a spectacle for the whole universe for which he couldn’t care less. Countless artists would pay a fortune to have him as a model. But he only expressed his moods.
They were inspired and rejected by those who encountered them. An author of a Science Fiction story, I don’t remember the name, saw the blinking stars at night as points of destination for the innumerable Gypsy caravans crossing infinity; symbols of a quest toward noneness, universal pathways.
November 2, 2014