A Review of a Review - The Feathertale Review, issue 2.

Reviewed by: Leopold McGinnis

$10 Canadian

Available at www.feathertale.com and at bookstores somewhere...

For a magazine that has been 'publishing satire since the beginning of time', as the back of their slick rag says, they're kind of slow about it: The Feathertale Review has only just released their second issue. But their philosophy must be quality over quantity as, apparently thousands (millions?) of years in the making, it's pretty damn good. Maybe not eons-of-effort good, but if you consider that the editorial board for the first several millions years would have been protozoan slime and cavemen, then I think we can disregard the timeliness issue.

Feathertale Review is a yearly compendium of the best content from the Feathertale website. (www.feathertale.com.) Feathertale (the site and the mag) are rather unique in the Canadian context of literary journals/sites due to its focuses on humour. I've done a fair amount of travelling and in almost any country you go to, the people will tell you what makes their country unique is their innate ability to laugh at themselves. I'd say this is true for Canada as well, however, if aliens were to pierce together the Canadian mindset from our literary journals, the resulting construction wouldn't be...how shall we say...fun. The fact that a 'serious' Canadian journal is risqué enough to devote itself entirely to humour is a big break from tradition. They even publish comics...and not 'artsy' serious comics, but, you know, entertaining ones. In colour. Ones that make sense and sort of have a narrative.

First off, Feathertale is a gorgeous looking little magazine. Old dead people long ago thought that we shouldn't judge books by their covers, but it's hard to follow this sage advice when the cover looks so damned good – let alone the insides! My saying this would probably make a shallow review, however illustration is yang Feathertale's humour-ying, and it's other distinguishing feature. It's sad that in the modern world illustration in books is the exception, rather than the norm. The marriage of art and the written word seem predestined, but I can't think of any reason why it has fallen from grace as it has...other than to point the finger at cheap-ass mass-market publishers. Yet, with at least one illustration for every piece(!), Feathertale is making some much needed amends in that area. Some illustrations (like the writing) are better/more appropriate to the piece than others. I have a diploma in Advanced Illustration (not a joke!), so I feel somewhat qualified to judge! However, none of it is bad and all of it is nice, if merely for it's presence.

The Review's appeal might shrivel in the light if the writing did not hold up to the obvious care put into the visual appeal of the magazine. But I'm happy to say that for the large part it excels. And people who know me know that I have rather harsh criticisms for the Canadian literary field. The Review contains, unfortunately, the seemingly requisite pieces referencing or starring famous authors, and both are, well, kinda boring and industry self-indulgent as all other pieces like this (in Canadian literary journals since the dawn of time) have been. On top of this there's a couple poems and another story whose quality, in my opinion, are suspect, however I appreciate the effort to include a variety of styles and, for the most part, these few less-than-perfect pieces are forgiven by some outstanding fiction. Of Ink and Oil by Iain Marlow and A Urinary Quandary by Benson Lee stood out in my mind, amongst some excellent poetry/flash fiction: Submission by Rob Taylor being quite good, and One Side of My Roommate's Conversation by Dan Pasternak being, probably, the most daring and hilarious piece in the review.

Oh yes, and the middle section is a bunch of comics, which were full colour and quite good. I think the worse one involved an extended pun about a music player, but was done well enough to still be fun and fresh.

While I have a few reservations about Feathertale Reviews flirtation with the Canadian literary establishment (while I actually, surprisingly, liked Margaret Atwood's doodles in the magazine, it inspired me to write a short story about Pablo Picasso farting on a napkin.) Of course, I'm showing my Outsider bias, as I'd much prefer to see fresh, new and original rather than, in my opinion, the old, boring, stiff, overrated, over funded and over published stuff you can find in most journals up here. Most outsiders, I think would still classify Feathertale Review well in the academic literary arena. However, unlike so many publications from that domain, Feathertale is fresh, funny, entertaining and different enough that I have a lot of hope of it both being successful and challenging the sort of publications that have been unchallenged for so long.

Overall, the second issue is a great collection and makes me excited to see what they produce next time. I hope to see them branch out a bit more in terms of what they publish, but even with what they've got now they're going strong. Hopefully it wont' take another millennia until we see issue 3.

Last update : 09-03-2008 16:14

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