Literary: The Magazine of Writing
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
Literary: The Magazine of Writing is a tiny labor of love which editor Archie Mangold prints out a copy at a time on demand on his color inkjet printer. However this does not mean that everything in it is self-indulgent crap. Rather, it is an example of a niche market. Commercial magazines must reach for the broadest possible market in order to take advantages of the economies of scale that keep costs down. Therefore they must often aim for the lowest common denominator, so that the specialized tastes that may be the province of only a small number of people are left unserved. These tiny markets cannot generate enough revenue to support them, but that does not mean that we should curl our lips in disdain at those who try to serve them simply because they are uneconomical. Money is not the only measure of worthwhileness.
Most of the stories in this are twists on familiar sf/fantasy/horror tropes. For instance, in Hal Marcovitz's "Controlling the Wolf," a marriage counselor's talk about the Big Bad Wolf turns out to be more than just a metaphor. "Monthly Quota" by Barbara J. Less is a darkly humorous look at what can happen when people don't understand statistics. "Vacation" by M. T. Koffien is a story of love and obsession. "Second Chance" by Jim Terry is another look at the old idea of "If you had your life to live over again...." while Deidra Cox's "Footsteps" deals with the all-too-real desire for revenge through the "angel and devil" image of temptation that used to be common in movies and cartoons.
My personal favorite is "Vision of Youth" by Aaron B. Larson. It starts out as a deal with the devil story. However it doesn't end the typical way, with the mortal finding some loophole and outwitting the diabolical agent. Instead Larson turns it on its head to give us a lesson in the perils of trying to recapture an idealized past.
The only thing I didn't like about this zine was the way the editor printed all the letters he'd received, including those that were just "housekeeping," instead of only selecting a few of the most interesting comments about previous stories. While it was interesting to get a peek "behind the scenes," the space could have been given to one more story.