Letter from the editors: Arrete

Abstract

We here at continent. gratefully share with you the fourth issue of our first volume. As 2011 draws to a close, we've finished up our first of what promises to be many years building and collecting manifestations of thought in its many forms. Guiding our thinking in this issue is the term arête. A thin sharp line, a lateral peak which separates valleys, ribs of sifted rock made mounds. With one stutter, the term becomes areté, a form of virtue, of goodness. Another stuttering, and we hear the French arreter—to stop. All of our stuttering is perhaps a form of nervous anticipation; a call for rest as well as an echo for change. For this December issue, we've drawn out these stutters: the solid fluidity of geology; the virtuous skill of craft; the possibility of a repose. Among many other givings in continent.1.4, we bring you Alain Badiou's hopes for neg through his interview with John Van Houdt, and John A. Sweeney's veiling and unveiling of politics in the pit-stop urban space.