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Pif Magazine
ISSN: 1094-2726
Published by:
Pif, LLC
PMB 248
4820 Yelm Hwy SE
Suite B
Lacey, WA 98503-4903
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Enterzone
Reviewed by Ingrid Woodrow
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Enterzone is a 'zine featuring a range of text, art and media. It also offers a dilemma: the latest issue, number 16, appears to still be under construction, although on first glance the contents page seems full. There's a story from "Machine Breaker" by David Alexander, in which the notorious luddite Rages Crusoe describes his life as a "blob of intense white light, and all the pain, joy, sorrow and struggle can be reduced to that blob." He assures readers that he is not insane, but when I reached the part about the Clanks "with ten legs that scurried like damnation-spawned caterpillars across the battlefield's broken earth, and others with only two great stilt-like legs that made the ground cosmos thunder scream as the Clank stomped and kiboshed across the face of the land," I started to wonder. Also featured in this issue is some poetry - Louis Crew's "A Wafer for My Student," and sections for Feedback, Arts and What's New. |
Enterzone |
It's not clear enough whether Issue 16 is complete (a few links lead to a simple "TBD" announcement), which is a shame, because the impatient reader may miss out on some excellent previous issues, which are all archived here. I particularly liked "No Bird (But an Invisible Thing)" by Xian: "It falls to me once again to tell that same old story seven ways to Sunday." This hypertext is refreshing in that it offers a variety of layout options: Xian offers something for everyone, including a linear No Bird "in deference to the people who want to read the story straight through, the traditional way, to fully appreciate." Such thoughtfulness. It's not a bad work, either, with multiple beginnings inspired by Flann O'Brien's At-Swim-Two-Birds.
I also enjoyed "Terminal Wanderlust," a series of poems by B.C.Cohen that really do "move across the screen in your mind" just like the promotional blurb says. The only problem I could see with these gems, laid out on simple-colored backgrounds, was that they were time-based. Poetry like this looks great but leaves the reader frantically grappling for the "stop" and "back" buttons to read the lines over again. From "Driving to Dallas":
...the girl behind the counter in the Dairy Queen has too many rings in her ears - her face is tender with acne but her eyes are dancing (a slow solitary dance before a mirror in a gothic empty bedroom, true, but dancing nonetheless)...you smile for her future in the dawn of hiphop America where the highway has kept its promise.
From what I can establish, Enterzone has a long and prestigious history - a glimpse through the archives reveals some fantastic work. But what the hell has happened to the rest of Issue 16? Back to work, people!
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Ingrid Woodrow is a writer based in Brisbane, AUSTRALIA. Her novel, Goddess and the Galaxy Boy, was shortlisted in October 1999 in The Australian/Vogel Literary Awards and is currently under consideration by three major Australian publishers. She is completing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland and working on a collection of short stories, one of which received second prize in the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards in June 1999.
Ingrid is the founding editor of the online writing journal Mangrove, which is listed as a "Site of National Significance" in the National Library of Australia's PANDORA archive. Mangrove is also a finalist in the upcoming AIMIAs (Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Awards). Further information and samples of work can be obtained by visiting http://www.uq.edu.au/~eniwoodr