Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

Locus Magazine has these great sections of nothing but zine reviews, which doesn’t seem like much at first. However, as you go through them, you realize that this is a great resource for finding zines you would not otherwise hear about in the normal manner or see on the newstands that you normally visit near the drugstore or grocery store. Flytrap: A Little Zine With Teeth, is just such a zine. I had read about it only slightly, then heard they were opening for submissions, sent in my submission and got the requisite rejection and subsequently subscribed to it anyway, because it’s good to do these things when you’re a writer, even if said magazine has rejected you (and let’s face it – at this point – for me anyway – they all have). You need to know what other people are writing, what’s out there. So, here is what is out there in regards to Flytrap.

Flytrap is put out by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw at Tropism Press. It is a simple black and white formatted zine, 8 1/2 x 14 inch folded and stapled twice in the center so it’s about 8 1/2 x 7 when it gets to you. They publish stories, poetry, and have a few non-fiction (or “True(ish)”) pieces as well. This issue had 4 stories, 3 poems, and 5 other articles, which, including the bios, came to about 44 pages of text. There were also some photographs to illustrate the magazine, taken by Heather Shaw and featuring the artwork and sculpture garden of C.R. Schiefer. The photographs and the sculptures were a nice touch in an otherwise sparse little zine.

Now, for the writing. Ray Vukcevich, who made an appearance in the July 2007 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction (which I reviewed here – you can see what I said about him at the very bottom), also made an appearance in Flytrap with a story called “My Shoes,” which seems to be about someone who gets their disguise ripped off by an ex-wife. It was entertaining. I was very amused by the paragraph long sentence near the beginning. That was fun. However, while I don’t think myself an unintelligent person, as funny as the rest of the story was, I got lost at the end. I mean, I think I figured it out, but I can’t tell.

I had the same unresolved feelings with “Frankenfetish” by Leslie What. It started out fairly well. I was kind of getting into it. It had a weird, gross vibe that bordered on the horrific in that kind of sterile way some stories have where you’re pretty sure that the nice little girl in the pink dress is the sociopathic murderer. But I didn’t get the end. It lost me, so I fell flat.

“Apology” by Jan Wildt I just skipped over after the first page. It just was not my cup of tea. It may be someone else’s dose of heroine or LSD or something, but it’s just not for me. I didn’t like it at all. It was poetic in a lot of ways, but for what it was trying to do (show the world from an infant’s point of view), I think it went on WAY too long. It should have been a very short story or flash fiction and not the long ass thing it was. But like I said, it could be someone else’s cup of tea. Obviously, the editors liked it enough to buy it (though I can’t figure out for the life of me why).

My favorite story, the one that made the most sense and I think was the best written (well, Vukcevich’s was close) was “The Gardener of Hell” by Amy Beth Forbes. I liked that story a LOT. A resident of Hell finds a meaning in death and a way to make other people’s deaths more meaningful as well. It was a good read. I hope Forbes is able to sell more of her work. You can apparently see more of it here.

The three poems featured were all by Jay Wentworth. They were called “An Elegy in Five Photos,” “Orange,” and “Home Again.” They were all well written and were basically on his emotions in regards to his mother’s death.”Five Photos” was poignant and familiar for anyone who has done the bedside vigil of a loved one as they slowly (and suddenly) pass away. “Home Again” was fine, but not memorable for me. I think of the three, “Orange” may have been the best. It did what I think poetry does best – create an essence to be enjoyed or meditated upon.

Of the True(ish) bits, the editorial by Tim Pratt was a really fun read. And congratulations to Tim and Heather as they are pregnant and due to have a baby Halloween 2007! The informative article by Erin Kelley, “Wham! Bam! Pow!” was also entertaining to read, briefly educating the reader on new cool things out there in the world of the graphic novel. “Cut Up: Jung vs. Freud” and “Automatic Writing” by Douglas Lain, I didn’t get. I just didn’t get those two little bits at all. They were not accessible to me. However, “Life Among the Obliterati” by Nick Mamatas was my favorite of this entire section. First off, he talks about that one story that every writer has that will never have a home. Of course, none of mine has found a home, so who am I to talk? But what he does, by way of showing an example of such a story, is to include his OWN story, “Solidarity Forever,” that has never found a home. And guess what, I liked it better than most of the stuff in this zine, aside from Forbes’ and Vukcevich’s tales. It has no real plot and the only fantastical stuff that happens is at the end and it’s just plopped in there, but the way it’s written, it’s hilarious in a darkly humorous way. IMHO, it’s the kind of thing that Italo Calvino might have been entertained by. I can see why mainstream zines would have rejected it, but not supposedly cutting edge zines, cuz it was pretty entertaining and nothing was sacred.

Again, however, who am I to talk? I feel like a broken record saying this, but apparently, I have very pedestrian tastes or am not intelligent enough since I just didn’t get most of this stuff, and I really wanted to. I was really excited to get Flytrap. I signed up for a year, so hopefully I’ll have a better time with the other issues. I really enjoyed the writing style of the editors and the artwork. And the pieces I enjoyed, I’m glad I read and I’m glad I was introduced to those writers. I look forward to more by Ray Vukcevich, Amy Beth Forbes, and Nick Mamatas in the future. I would love to have a Guinness with Erin Kelley. The rest, I can pass on.