What is anarchism?
Anarchism is a philosophy advocating that humans should cooperate together as equals. It represents order, not chaos or lawlessness. Anarchism stands against hierarchy and oppression. Anarchists themselves come in many flavors, from non-authoritarian communists to those favoring socialist free market systems. The ideology is decentralized, promoting consensus and a horizontal structure of society without a ruling class. Please read more at The Anarchist Library and Useful Notes on Anarchism.
What is transhumanism?
Transhumanism supports the enhancement of human physical and mental capacities through technology. For example, eye glasses are an early technology allowing humans to overcome bodily limitations. Long-term, transhumanists fight for the end of biological human death, the future technological singularity, and also becoming "posthuman," where our capabilities so far exceed those of a natural born that we can no longer be called human beings.
How do anarchism and transhumanism fit together?
Both ideals are rooted in the desire to better our existence. Anarchism is routed toward social freedom while transhumanism directs us toward physical freedom. So we feel that melding the two makes perfect sense. A positive transhuman future cannot happen without anarchism and freedom from the profit-motive. What good is all the freedom in the world if one is unable to experience it due to genetic sickness or dying by the the time they are ninety? There is a vast cosmos for our species to explore and it's time we freely ventured out, unshackled by greed or bodily limitations.
Do I need to be an anarchist or transhumanist to submit?
Radon welcome stories by a wide variety of authors. As long as your work falls into one of our four genres it will be fully and equally considered. We are most likely to accept work that combines science fiction or dystopia with progressive social commentary.
Do you accept utopian work?
Unfortunately, no. We feel that utopia is not reflective of our current existence. Additionally, a story without conflict is often boring. You are free to combine utopian and dystopian ideas into a single interesting narrative, however.
Does my writing need to include elements of all four of your genres?
No, we have a wide eye for great writing we will accept. No story or poem is required to be all four genres simultaneously to be considered. If your work is related to any of them and is exciting and well-written, then we will publish it. We chiefly value ideas that view the present or future world in new and fascinating lights. We also look for stories that have additional layers of societal meaning, often revolutionary.
How can I support Radon?
To support independent publishing and help us pay our authors, please subscribe to our Patreon or kindly give a one-time donation at our Ko-Fi page. Our Patreon offers multiple tiers from $2-$15. Join our community of writers and receive dual magazine subscriptions, professional editing services, editor Q&As, detailed response letters, and more.
Do you offer print copies?
For the foreseeable future, Radon will remain an online-only journal.
Will you publish any subgenre of science fiction?
We love them all! From cyberpunk to space opera and all in-between. The subgenre we are least likely to publish is military science fiction. But we will accept military stories that are anti-war in message similar to Joe Haldeman's The Forever War.
How can I increase my chance of acceptance?
The simple answer is by bringing your best work. The longer answer is more nuanced. First and foremost we want to see you put as much effort into you story as we put into reading it. Professional grammar, page formatting, and adhering to our submission guidelines helps. Second, we want to read something novel. We are all veteran readers of science fiction and revolutionary literature. That means we crave new ideas or at least old ones written in new, interesting ways. We love to texts with both a moving narrative and a progressive message.
What stories are you tired of receiving?
Please, no more sex robot stories. Additionally, stories focused solely on aliens viewing Earth or ending with "SURPRISE, WE'RE ALIENS!" are too common to be considered unique.
What poems are you tired of receiving?
Mostly poems that do not tie into any of our four genres. We are also unlikely to choose poems focused exclusively on nature. While environmentalism is an important part of our politics, we find poetry about nature or trees overdone. Poets have focused on this aspect of the world for millennia and we wish to look toward the future and the stars with our journal.
What is the acceptance rate for Radon?
Our overall acceptance rate for issue one was 3.3%, issue two 2%, issue three 1.55%, issue four 2.3%, and issue five 1.7%. We average around 1,000 submissions per reading period.