Rags Drum 2020: Lab on Roof’s Annual Call for Submissions
About Rags Drum
“The kingdom of poetry has collapsed from within. . . . Salvation is not a premium on existence, but the last way out for a man whose path, as Kafka puts it, is ‘blocked . . . by his own frontal bone.’” —Walter Benjamin
To encourage the reproduction of more—and better—criticism and research on anime, comics, and games, and to foster exchange among those who undertake such work, Lab on Roof decided to hold an annual call for ACG submissions beginning in 2020. Its name is Rags Drum 2020.
The Results
Now, after a three-plus-two-month submission period and more than a month of judging, Lab on Roof is ready to announce the entries that qualified in both the Eve Festival and After Festival, together with their authors. We will first publish their titles and authors here, then release the essays themselves as soon as possible in the days ahead.
Eight entries qualified in both the Eve Festival and After Festival (listed in no particular order):
- “What Is ‘Yun Behavior’? Ontology and Internal Heterogeneity”, Austoria
- “The Messiah Who Is Always Late: One Reading of The Big O”, 斑鸠
- “Are You Playing the Game, or Is the Game Playing You?”, 辛巴不吃素
- “Constructing Morgan Yu’s Posthuman Body in Prey”, ilan
- “FGO 2.4: Soyons tout!”, 両儀式所失去的
- “Romero’s Monsters: The Zombie Image and the Fallen Other”, 哲哥
- “Animation and Reality, or the Coordinates of Isao Takahata’s Realism”, 学级委员一条同学
- “The Radicality of VR and the Limit of Bishōjo Games: On Project LUX”, 红茶泡海苔
The following entries qualified in the Eve Festival but, regrettably, did not receive the judging panel’s unanimous approval in the After Festival:
Under the event rules announced earlier, each entry that qualified in both the Eve Festival and After Festival will receive an honorarium of RMB 1,250, while each Eve-Festival-only qualifying entry will receive RMB 200. Let us celebrate.
Additional Notes
We thank the following members of the judging panel for volunteering their time and labor:
马小掛, ACG enthusiast
钟子默, ACG enthusiast
塔塔君, ACG enthusiast
rocefactor, ACG enthusiast
屋顶第七任所长 (Lab on Roof’s seventh director), ACG enthusiast
We thank 唯一指定真实August_Rush for creating the event posters and promotional video, and we thank the critics, organizations, and platforms that offered kind advice and sincere assistance.
As the organizer, Lab on Roof also learned many lessons in the course of holding this event. If our lack of experience or ability caused any inconvenience to writers or readers, we ask for your generous understanding. Next year we will learn from this experience, keep improving, and strive to expand what writers and readers can gain from the event. Thank you for your support and attention. We hope you will follow, read, and share the entries as they appear.
Rags Drum—see you next year.
