About Rags Drum
If we ignore the attitude of revolt that the present generation adopts toward what has gone before, … then it is impossible to understand the works of today. … To occupy the theater for different kinds of audiences: this is both a task and an opportunity.
—Bertolt Brecht
The Lab on Roof Rags Drum Organizing Committee has decided to announce the results of Rags Drum 2021, the second annual ACG call for submissions.
Results
After three plus two months of submissions and more than a month of judging, the Lab on Roof Rags Drum Organizing Committee announces the following results. Under the Eve Festival standard of completeness and majority approval by the jury, eight entries were ultimately named prizewinning works. Under the After Festival standard of unanimous approval, no entry received a prize.
Two entries participated only in the Eve Festival and passed its review. They are listed in the order received:
- “From Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to Touhou Kikeijuu ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature: ‘Entrusting the World to an Idol’ amid Many Predicaments”, 宫酒姬
- “Beginning with the Haruhi Suzumiya Series and ‘Sekaikei’: Some Ramblings on Postmodernism and ACGN Studies”, 真紅様
Six entries by five authors had either a complete manuscript or an abstract pass Eve Festival review, but unfortunately did not receive unanimous approval from the jury in the After Festival:
- “Chips, Amputation, and the Death Drive: Kaiji Itou’s Suicide Game”, 米岡
- “From Replicas to Simulacra: The Modern Turn in Cultural Consumption”, 米岡
- “Spatialized Bodies vs. Embodied Spaces: Imagining Space and the Body in Japanese Anime”, 斑鸠
- “Decoding ‘The Drowned Giant’: An Interpretation of the ‘Giant’ Metaphor”, 心田安详
- “Monster-Fear: Why America Became the Homeland of the Titans”, 哲哥
- “How Does Death Become ‘New Life’? Death in Isekai-Reincarnation Stories”, 甚谁
Congratulations to all these authors! Under the previously announced rules, each entry that passed the Eve Festival will receive an honorarium of RMB 300.
Three entries had their abstracts pass Eve Festival review, but their completed manuscripts unfortunately failed to win majority approval from the jury in the After Festival:
- “Mr. Osomatsu Season 3: Matsubara Shū’s Journey Through Sketch Comedy,” CM
- “Post-Bishōjo and After Bishōjo: A ‘Post’-ological Study of Bishōjo Games,” 宫酒姬
- “How Did Fan Pilgrimage Become Possible? On the Contingency of the Suicide Journey in Narcissu” (later retitled “Contingent Narcissu: Notes on an Impossible Fan Pilgrimage”),1 红茶泡海苔
For the prizewinning entries, the organizing committee will notify the authors of the results and, with their consent, publish the works as soon as possible. Authors of entries that did not receive a prize regain full discretion over what to do with them (standalone submissions are still welcome, lol). Whatever the result, we sincerely thank every author above for submitting their work.
I. Acknowledgements
We thank the members of the jury for volunteering their labor:
will, ACG enthusiast.
马小褂, ACG enthusiast.
有电拍拍, ACG enthusiast.
rocefactor, ACG enthusiast.
屋顶第十一任所长, ACG enthusiast.
We thank 唯一指定真实August_Rush for artistic and promotional support, including production of the poster, and the writers, communities, and platforms that offered generous advice and sincere assistance. The Lab on Roof Rags Drum Organizing Committee will present each of these six people with a Dangdang bookstore gift card worth RMB 50 as a token of thanks.
In organizing this event, the Lab on Roof Rags Drum Organizing Committee gained further experience and learned further lessons. If our inexperience or limited abilities caused any difficulty for writers or readers along the way, we ask for your understanding and welcome your feedback. Next year we will put those lessons into practice, continue refining the event, and address its shortcomings so that writers and readers can derive greater benefit from it. Thank you for your support and attention. We hope you will follow, read, and share the event entries to be published next.
Rags Drum—we hope to see you again next year.
Lab on Roof Rags Drum Organizing Committee
November 19, 2021