|
Pif Magazine
Pif Magazine |
LitKit 
LitKit is a literary 'zine with a simple contents page - turquoise & white coloring and intriguing wood engravings to break up the text - that also boasts an impressive list of names, including Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie. It turns out that most of these names are simply books in review, but it is enough to get you in. George Myers, Jr. is the name behind most of the articles in LitKit, "except where other bylines appear." George calls himself an "idea wrangler," his 'zine a "larkabout for readers with brains, and for writers with lightbulbs blazing in their heads." The site is divided into departments - the Essays section features Jeffrey Yamaguchi mouthing off about Asian-American fiction covers featuring cliched images of teacups, chopsticks and cooking utensils, which he dubs "The Dishware Conspiracy." The Muse section features poetry & fiction, including an excerpt from Ronald Sukenik's novel, Mosaic Man; a Tom Wolfe excerpt (as if he needs the publicity) as well as work from some lesser known authors. The evolution of LitKit is here for all to see - previous issues are contained in the current one as separate articles, which eliminates the randomness of scrolling through the archives hoping you'll come up with something good. The downside of this archiving technique is that the "current" issue isn't, in parts, all that current: clicking on "Peter Carey" leads to an archived interview with the author, as do links to other big names, like Alice Walker and Kurt Vonnegut. There is a great interview with Paul Auster about his new book, Timbuktu, (mistakenly referred to as "Timkuktu" throughout the article). The book is narrated by a dog called Mr Bones, who tells us "more about the human condition and about the nature of love than perhaps any other fictional character in recent memory." At least, this is what George Jr reckons - I'm not too sure, but it certainly made me want to read the book. Other tidbits include mystery writer Sue Grafton talking about her latest whodunit, O is for Outlaw and her meticulous journal entries. I'm not sure I need to know that she started writing Chapter One on January 15, 1998 and finished on February 16, 1999, ending up with eight separate notebooks, which converts to 376 single spaced pages of notes about the book. The "fun" bit is the Arcadia section, where you can learn to "speak like a deconstructionist" by filling in a simple form - my selections resulted in the phrase, "Do we really have to show me Roland Barthes to cover the smell?" – displayed as a JavaScript alert in French. I think something was lost in the translation, but it is a cute idea. There's also a Magic 8-Ball and a column from Kitty, the "Life-advice doyenne" who gives meaningful answers to questions such as "My cats eat too fast and then puke. What can I do to change this?" The complainant in this case was advised that the cats have been doing some "gastrointestinal editorializing" on their owner's behalf. I like this site for its gentle sense of humor and understated intelligence - it offers a delightful mix of good design with insightful content that informs without taking itself too seriously. Bookmark it. Tell us what you think. Email talkback@pifmagazine.com Want Pif to review your zine? Ingrid Woodrow is a writer based in Brisbane, Australia. Her first novel, Goddess and the Galaxy Boy, will be published in early 2001. She is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland and working on a new novel.She is also 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. Further information and samples of her work can be obtained by visiting www.uq.edu.au/~eniwoodr
|
||||
