Quote, unquote: why we don't need any more literary magazines
It’s time to stop the presses. I know it’s not easy to pull that plug. Litmags are icons of intellectual privilege. You have to fight against a lifetime of programming that’s telling you literary magazines are good, therefore more literary magazines must be better. You respond out of habit, and assume it’s good news, like when a baby is born. It’s not. Magazines aren’t babies. In the world we live in, we need literary contraceptives. So stop. Put down the telephone. Put down the really nice pen. We don’t need another literary magazine. Literary magazines are dead.-- blogger Lydia at Harpoonist arguing (asserting?) that the reasons and the justification for the existence of literary magazines are all eclipsed by the speed and immediacy of the internet.
Labels: quote
posted by D. B. Scott at
9:09 am
5 Comments:
Way back in 1993, I walked into Book City in Toronto with fresh copies of ink magazine, a litmag I was putting together with some student friends. The magazine clerk rolled his eyes at me and said, "just what the world needs -- another literary magazine." He took my books, disappeared into the back room and returned with something for me -- a package of his poems.
These days, I guess, what the world really needs is another literary blog.
Thank god someone finally said it.
A blogger with the self-admitted attention span that "stretches to the update cycle of The Onion" calling for the death of the literary magazine? Please, I smell rank self-interest.
There's an interesting debate inherent in the title of this post, but I sincerely doubt the internet is the best argument for fewer literaries. After all, the advent of unedited livejournaling is probably the very best reason that printed, edited literary journals still have value.
I don't see why "paper" and "literary magazine" can't be mutually exclusive.
I think John's right about needing "another literary blog" -- I just don't know if it exists yet. With flexible LCD screens being available, it's only a matter of time before someone finally succeeds in the eBook reader market and everything changes.
It could be argued that the "Fill-in-the-blank is dead" post is dead. This particular form of opinion continues to pose as emphatic headline or revelatory future casting. I've seen the blank filled with art, music, television, books, poetry, irony (post 9-11 headline), magazines, writing, and on an on. It makes me yawn therefore I am not dead?
Karen
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