Primer, n.

the first, the foremost; something which serves as a first means of instruction

The day-to-day occupies us with its imperatives: we rinse, repeat, carry on; functioning like (and now often through) automatons. It is easy to mistake this banality as all there is to reality.

But every now and then, an exquisite form will come along and rupture what we think we know. Be it verse, be it art, be it song, be it scene; in them we glimpse something far more enduring within the here and now.

The Primer is a textbook of these forms in their exquisite, infinite variety. We trace the line of inquiry, see where it will lead — creating a décollage of literature, philosophy, art, music, and everything in between.