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Pif Magazine
Pif Magazine |
Littoral West
With that tagline promising "Friction" along with "Fiction" and "Depiction," you'd expect Littoral West to lean toward the subversive — a 'zine that, in one way or another, strives to chafe or get under the collective skin of the mainstream. You'd think, right? Well, Littoral West does indeed get under the skin — only in a very different way. Without a doubt, the current issue is one of the more somber reading experiences you'll find on the 'Net — not at all the sort of thing you'll want to browse if you've just been fired or if your girlfriend has run off with the guy downstairs. Topics range from breast cancer to a friend's suicide to the angst of an ostracized teenager. Spend more than a few minutes here and you may need to click over to hampsterdance.com for a virtual mood-elevator. Be warned, too, that LW is primarily a playground for its own editors. Poetry editrix Evelyn Halle contributes a few poems (one a draft no less!), and Editor-in-Chief D.C. Lessoway throws in a story (or is it an essay?), along with several ponderous "e-art" projects. These, by and large, constitute the "depiction" side of things. Lessoway's "Memory," for example (snap shots, school photos and other artifacts accompanied by fragmented text) looks like a collection of "Intro to Photoshop" projects (careful with that diffuse filter, D.C.!) and is about as interesting. If there's some theory or other behind this mess, it certainly defies identification. Similarly ponderous is Lessoway's story/essay "Steel Cold Blue Sky," the last few paragraphs of which exemplify his flair for the lugubrious:
Overall, the most worthwhile piece here is the "History of Breast Cancer," culled from some publication or other of the Breast Cancer Society of Canada. It's a lengthy and informative piece, though it's hardly lit-mag fare (more general-interest in scope and feel). Lessoway's introduction catalogues several family members' bouts with cancer. Worst of all there's "Teen's POV" which, in this outing, features "Explaining the World [!]: An Analytical Approach to Highschool Popularity," by (highschooler) Karen Mackay, who ponders just what it is that makes those intellectually-stunted, downright mean and nasty "popular" folks tick? Is it their upbringing? Is it rap music? And, damn it all, Mackay asks, why can't I just be myself? Suffice it to say that this is the sort of thing about which Mackay will be very embarrassed when she's, say, 25. From the lack of editorial focus (unless, that is, you count the almost funereal air here), to the low-fi design, to the Tripod pop-ups that sprout with every click, to the conspicuous presence of LW's own editors among its list of contributors, it's pretty clear that this is yet another dilettante's effort, a 'zine that's sprung up overnight thanks to the marvel of free Web page hosting and which will disappear or go dormant just as quickly. In this case, it is just as well.
Tell us what you think. Email talkback@pifmagazine.com Want Pif to review your zine? A graduate of Columbia University and The University of Pennsylvania, life-long New Jerseyan and New York Mets fan, Tom Hartman now lives in Philadelphia where he's an Associate Poetry Editor at Painted Bride Quarterly. Over the years his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Photo Review, City Paper (Philadelphia), and Philadelphia Weekly. When he's not writing he spends far too much time hating the Atlanta Braves.
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