The New Enthusiast is a print and online magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 published by The Shuttlecoque Sporting Club. It was one of the first venues through which poet Carson Cistulli

Carson Cistulli

Carson Cistulli is an American poet, essayist and English professor. His works of poetry include Some Common Weaknesses Illustrated, Assorted Fictions, and A Century of Enthusiasm.- Early Years :...

 published his writings from November 2007 to March 2008.

History

On November 15, 2007, The Shuttlecoque Sporting Club released a pilot issue to accompany its radio program the Shuttlecoque Sporting Hour (which aired that year on 1450AM Portland, Oregon). On November 29, 2007, the weekly New Enthusiast Week in Review magazine released its initial issue. The goal, as announced in the initial mission statement, is "spreading the Gospel of Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm originally meant inspiration or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a god. Johnson's Dictionary, the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, defines enthusiasm as "a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or...

" to reach "the Good Life

The good life

The good life is a term for the life that one would like to live, or for happiness, associated with the work of Aristotle and his teaching on ethics.-Religious approaches:...

, by which term we mean freedom from anxiety, emotional disturbance, and unnecessary exertions (a state known as ataraxia

Ataraxia

Ataraxia is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for a lucid state, characterized by freedom from worry or any other preoccupation.For the Epicureans, ataraxia was synonymous with the only true happiness possible for a person...

 in the Greek)." The initial staff included F.J. Mahoulahan, Carson Cistulli

Carson Cistulli

Carson Cistulli is an American poet, essayist and English professor. His works of poetry include Some Common Weaknesses Illustrated, Assorted Fictions, and A Century of Enthusiasm.- Early Years :...

, and Eamon Ffitch as editors.

While the third issue offered a book review of Some Common Weaknesses Illustrated, Carson Cistulli

Carson Cistulli

Carson Cistulli is an American poet, essayist and English professor. His works of poetry include Some Common Weaknesses Illustrated, Assorted Fictions, and A Century of Enthusiasm.- Early Years :...

 himself would make his debut in the fourth issue with his piece "In Which the Authors Predict a Miracle".

Guiding principles

The magazine was formed around five principles: Sports as "provocation

Provocation

Provocation and provoke may refer to:* Provocation , a type of legal defense in court which claims the "victim" provoked the accused's actions...

," "play

Play (activity)

Play is a term employed in ethology and psychology to describe to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment...

," "ethical living

Ethical living

Ethical living is the philosophy of making decisions for daily life which take into account ethics and moral values, particularly with regard to consumerism, sustainability, environmentalism, wildlife and animal welfare...

," "friendship

Friendship

Friendship is a form of interpersonal relationship generally considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and associations. Friendship and association are often thought of as spanning across the same continuum...

," and "faith in search of understanding." While they would eventually pay attention to the statistical elements as well, it was in view of these initial ideas, "to call attention to, and ably champion, those aspects of sport that are either most ennobling or transcendent

Transcendence (philosophy)

In philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning , of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages...

."