OXYMORON® Vol. II: The Fringe — The Arts and Sciences Annual Publication of Art and Ideas. Volume II (1998) presents the theme of THE FRINGE. Fringe genes, fringe fashion, fringe people, fringe language, fringe science, fringe places, and fringe theology—even Beyond the Fringe—are examined by scientists, journalists, poets, photographers, artists, cartoonists, and writers. Richard Foreman depicts psychosis, Edward Tenner explains why dogs bite back, William Everdell debates the center and periphery in history, Lee Smolin defines the future of science, Dean Radin defends the paranormal, Marcello Truzzi discusses the unknown, James Romm muses on "Alex in Wonderland," F.G. Cassidy remarks on language and dialects, and Nick Campion reveals the real secret of Apocalypse. Duane Michals portrays a Christ for the ’90s; articles on Yoko Ono, Martha Wilson, the Beats, and Ramparts and Evergreen magazines survey past fringes; a Romanian artist satirizes America; paranoid patriots rise to our defense; and a Duke biologist reminds us that the entire male gender is fringe. Designed by Steven Brower and Seymour Chwast of the famous Pushpin Group. Paperback, 160 pp., 12" x 9", 4-color.

From the Publisher, Patricia Hagood, Oxymoron Media, Inc. "An intellectually stimulating and artistically smashing book that will last forever."

From the Editor, Edward Binkowski. "This year’s topic is the fringe: the unassimilated, the unnoticed, the road not taken, the secret history of the world only a few know and fewer still believe. Are you outside the bars looking in or inside, looking out?"

Excerpted from OXYMORON® Volume II: The Fringe ©1998 Reprinted by permission, all rights reserved "The dog is a wolf that came in from the fringe." Edward Tenner, "Why Dogs Bite Back."

"Few American magazines can claim to be agents of change."
Steven Heller, "Evergreen & Ramparts: Agents of Change."

"What hope is there is we have to get psychotic to acquire knowledge, Rainer Thompson? No hope. There is never hope…" Richard Foreman, "Rainer Thompson: Possible Psychotic (No! I am not Psychotic! I am not!)"

"If the New York Times Magazine’s fashion spread today (4/25/98) is any guide, it is no longer easy, if it ever was, to distinguish a fringe from its garment." William Everdell, "Center and Periphery: History’s Other."

"You’re sitting on the school bus, which is like traveling to your own execution everyday. You’re wrapped in a straightjacket of misery, enveloped in silence as your fellow students shriek and chatter around you. You speak to no one, since the six other people who smoke pot in your high school of 2,500 don’t ride your bus." Lynn Yaeger "Frayed Nerve: 150 Years of Transgressive Dressing."

"As George Orwell’s pig had it, a generation ago, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." F.G. Cassidy, "Language on the Fringe."

"Accomplishment/abandonment, idiocy/insight, center/margin. No need to talk about life at the fringe; life is only at the fringe. ‘The truth is out there.’ That is, the truth is there, not here; and it’s out, way out." Ed Binkowski, "The Great Skein of Fringe."