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, something ruptures the routine. Be it verse, be it art, be it song, be it scene; in them we glimpse and touch ideas enduring, and we decide what they mean.

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