Editorial: not drowning but waving …
It’s been a month since a cut-rate 20cl bottle of prosecco was broken across the bows of the Good Ship CHAINLINK (we couldn’t afford a magnum of champagne) and she was waved off on her maiden voyage. Flags fluttered, crowds cheered, the band played. We watched her sail into the distance, nervously wondering whether we’d be receiving a call from Coastguard or Port Authority. We also wondered why we were thinking of her as she. Surely ships are gender-neutral. Particularly when they’re being used as metaphors for websites.
It’s been a month and much has happened, including:
- the usual military and political fuckery;
- the Annual Offence Against Talent, Musicality & Good Taste (known to its fans as the Eurovision Song Contest), which was won by … somebody;
- a 98 year old WWII veteran driving a Sherman tank over a Tesla car to send Elon Musk the message “we’ve crushed fascism before and we’ll crush it again”;
- Doctor Who dividing the fandom with that ending;
- Jonathan Taylor receiving this year’s Arnold Bennett Book Prize for his short story collection Scablands.
Jonathan was featured in CHAINLINK’s inaugural issue. His fascinating essay on the symphonies of twentieth century German composer Hans Werner Henze was one of the first pieces we received having put a call out to various writers we knew by reputation and whose work we admired. We are pleased to feature Jonathan again in this month’s issue as he ruminates on Arnold Bennett, Stoke, and what the award means to him.
Also online right now are three poems by Maria Taylor, and an essay by yours truly examining Alan Clarke’s disturbing made-for-TV film Elephant and the Gus Van Sant movie that shares its title and takes some of its cues. Clarke gives us a dispassionate account of the human cost of the Troubles, while Van Sant stages an enquiry into school shootings and the American obsession with firearms.
And there’s more in the pipeline. Check back over the coming weeks as new reviews go up, poetry proliferates, and opinions come thick and fast in a series of articles. We’ll be assessing the legacy of a famous conductor, asking whether the reputation for toxicity within cult TV fandom is justified, and entering the shadowy world of a classic Japanese horror movie.
Take your place in the chain and come with us on the journey.
Neil Fulwood
June 2025