With the no. 25 issue, Freaks and Outlaws, the PLURAL collection embarks on a new, semestrial series, donning a new design and proposing more exciting themes. Our aim, though, remains the same: to reinstate the connection, and at the same time highlight the connections, of Romanian values with world culture and civilization, in the context of swift globalization. PLURAL was initiated in 1999 out of the wish to acquaint foreign readers with Romanian literature, art and ways of life, in a user-friendly manner: neither academic, nor didactic-like, yet always sensitive to its readers' likely fields of interest, and scrupulous about the choice of authors, albeit many of the selections are mere excerpts. In addition, the editors envisaged ways of associating various subjects, domains and periods, together with past and present-day opinions and perspectives, without impeding the consonance of the whole. Thus, PLURAL has built for itself a brief, but promising tradition that has embraced so far a multitude of areas: history and the imaginary, art and architecture, avant-garde and surrealism, the fantastic, philosophy, folk legends and tales, minorities, humor, diaries, ballet and dance, music and the art of conducting, traveling, collections and collectors, museums, folk mythology, and many more. Goals and matter-of-fact necessities aside, the task of putting up a foreign version is a stirring adventure in its own right, if only for the obvious fact that the targeted reception is almost entirely dependent on the quality of the translation; in view of that, a native speaker was required to supervise the project, and Steve Hughes has done so in a most efficient and easygoing fashion. You are invited to express your opinions by emailing us at: plural@icr.ro. Editor in Chief
by Aurora Fabritius
