Koćenlu

Jump to navigation Jump to search
Koćenlu
File:Kocenlu.png
Header since 2008
TypeMagazine
FormatOnline
FoundedDecember 15, 1994; 30 years ago (1994-12-15)
LanguageAininian, Luziycan, Razarian
Country Razaria
Websitekotchenlu.com

Koćenlu, also Kotchenlu, is an online magazine based in Razaria, publishing individual articles irregularly with no set intervals. It was launched in 1994. Articles mainly concern political theory, philosophy, and history. The name is 'kèqián lù' (克前路) in Xiaodongese, literally meaning 'road that defeats the future'; it is also a homophone of Lu Keqian's name with the surname-given name order inverted.

Like many similar magazines founded in the same period, it was created in the context of the large changes in political culture that produced bizarrely new ideas in Razaria following the reforms of Vukašin Branislavić and subsequent extensive contact with foreign philosophy by students and academics. The magazine sources articles from independent writers, contacted via unknown means; its authorship is indeed frequently anonymous or under various pseudonyms. The editorship of the magazine remains unknown although it is independent from the Razarian state. Despite this, many ideas expressed by more influential pieces published on the magazine have been important in shaping discourse in Razaria, and some even speculate influences on state policy.

Koćenlu describes itself as metapolitical and 'trans-contemporary', refusing to discuss within terms and frameworks of mainstream political discourse of the time; it has significant postmodern and futurist themes and influences. Many of its publications have been regarded as accelerationist. Featured pieces have commonly been categorized as speculative fiction, with strong bends of speculative realism. The type of new weird literature characterizing Koćenlu pieces have also increasingly fallen under the label of 'theory-fiction'.

Within trans-contemporary and postmodern circles worldwide, Koćenlu has also been identified as a central publication for 'techno-Vestiborevism', which incorporates metapolitical concepts developed by speculative discourse into the framework of the thinking associated with Nenad Vestiborev. A 2011 piece from the magazine, Robot Tigers for Rides, was instrumental in the formation of the 'techno-occult'. A 2015 Aininian editorial listed the magazine as among the 'must-reads for philosophy weirdos'.