Month: April 2018

Criticism

Julio Cortázar’s “Bestiary”: An Allegory for How We All Tiptoe Around Chaos Both Personal & Global

What has always made Julio Cortázar stand out from most writers both of his time and outside of it is the manner in which he applies quotidian details to encompass a larger, more philosophical (and therefore usually more disturbing) meaning. In one of his early short stories, “Bestiary”–published in 1951–Cortázar’s knack for this manner of expression is both subtle and garish. After all, the premise of … Continue reading Julio Cortázar’s “Bestiary”: An Allegory for How We All Tiptoe Around Chaos Both Personal & Global

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Poetry

Bookmarks by Timothy Robbins

I laminate bookmarks because I can’t laminate men. Not one bad actor lighting another bad actor’s cigarette in a fake transport plane. Not the stuntman rising from the sand, his parachute opening behind him, framing his safe landing like an O’Keefe canvas. I mark my books because I can’t mark men. Not the astonishing Filipino, maybe named Nathan. Two years of lunch hours visits. He … Continue reading Bookmarks by Timothy Robbins

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Criticism

Beyond Party Lines: Barbara Bush & Literacy

Like Nancy Reagan with her “Just Say No” campaign to tie in conveniently with the War on Drugs platform taken by Ronald (now, in retrospect, more tolerable than Donald) in the 1980s, so too, did fellow Republican First Lady Barbara Bush ultimately carve out her own memorable pulpit, though one slightly more beyond party lines than merely trying to keep people from smoking weed. That … Continue reading Beyond Party Lines: Barbara Bush & Literacy

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Fiction

Predators and Reapers by Matt Jones

1. The day stuck out for me because I discovered a sasquatch underneath the barracks. I investigated closely: this was not a military-issued sasquatch. He had wormed his way beneath the shower room, and was curled in the opposite corner from where the floor got soggy and sagged. As I shone the flashlight up and down his hulking body, dozens of greasy frogs hopped away … Continue reading Predators and Reapers by Matt Jones

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Criticism

Why Is Literature Always So Serious In Order to Be Taken Seriously?: On Andrew Sean Greer’s Less Winning the Pulitzer

The most polarizing occurrences tend to happen when stodgy institutions start to get on board–generally well after the zeitgeist has already happened–with a certain “trend” that will make them more palatable to the mainstream, leading those who still “uphold their medium to a certain standard” scratching their heads violently with skepticism. This happened in an egregious fashion with Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize, but … Continue reading Why Is Literature Always So Serious In Order to Be Taken Seriously?: On Andrew Sean Greer’s Less Winning the Pulitzer

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Poetry

Gargoyle by Martin Parsons

Stony-eyed meets beady eyes and match, latch upon, as masses move on. An undying champion: Set. Game. Won. In surveillance, unblinded by sun. Done. For that dreamless state is become stateless dream, then dream of state, slate wiped clean. One. Staunch with practicality, perched, its practically eternal praxis That rain makes good – – flying buttresses! – – Sitting, spitting… While flitting Round and round … Continue reading Gargoyle by Martin Parsons

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Poetry

If The World Is Indistinct by Amy Poague

then your various eyes stare across the room at the Snellen chart: nonsense, smartly ordered, meaning subtracted. Glyphs are just shapes before they are threads weaving a mind in and out. From where do the eye’s minds return? Meaning’s long silence gives you time to interpret the chart as an abbreviated handbook for visionaries, so cover the mind’s eyes and read, handing over your tangled … Continue reading If The World Is Indistinct by Amy Poague

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Criticism

“I’m Not Just Doing It For the Likes”: Does Writing Mean Anything If No One Sees It?

I once had an “s/o” who used to criticize me for, among other things, constantly feeling the need to publish my work (belittled to that still demeaning term, “blogging”) ad nauseum on all social media outlets. He would taunt and lord his superiority over me, remarking of his own writing, “I’m not just doing it for the likes,” as though to emphasize precisely how frivolous … Continue reading “I’m Not Just Doing It For the Likes”: Does Writing Mean Anything If No One Sees It?

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Poetry

Being the bad guy by Camille Adnot

No matter what I do, I’m the bad guy. The villain, the tempress, the thief. The one who’ll steal your boyfriend, or your girlfriend, just being there, just talking. Apparently, I’m… too sexy. Too beautiful. Too clever. Too passionate. Apparently I’m bad! Without trying to be. A real threat to be around. DANGER… DANGER… I am sick of being the bad guy. Of you blaming … Continue reading Being the bad guy by Camille Adnot

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