Chekhov’s Mistess

Lit Journals I’m Reading

Last time I profiled issue 16 of The Baffler, Thomas Frank’s excellent journal out of Chicago. In this post I’m going to look at a much younger journal, The Land-Grant College Review, which is in its second issue.

First off, a bit about the origin of the interesting phrase "land-grant college." From the current NYRB,

By the mid-nineteenth century, the need for expert training in up-to-date agricultural and industrial methods was becoming an urgent matter in the expanding nation, and, with the 1862 Morrill Act, Congress provided federal land grants to the loyal states (30,000 acres for each of its senators and representatives) for the purpose of establishing colleges "where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific or classical studies, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." Eventually these "land-grant" colleges evolved into the system of state universities.

I’m not quite sure what that has to do with the journal and why the editors picked land-grant college for the name, but it’s still interesting. Now than, on to the journal itself.

I discovered TLGCR from a couple of prominent, reliable people around the litblogosphere—TEV and Dan Wickett—who recommended it on their own websites. I can’t say that I’ve been let down by their recommendation. The issue I’m reading, number 2, was published in the latter half of 2004 and includes 10 original pieces of fiction.

This may be just me, but TLGCR‘s cover art and its name evoke a kind of folksy, offbeat feel in my head. Most of the stories in issue 2 embody this feeling. The language tends toward the elegant, the unadorned; it’s words used to quietly and effectively tell a story. The stories themselves reflect this approach as well. One tells about two men quietly playing checkers after won was shot by his wife. Another details a couple’s visit to a mystery spotesque roadside attraction—the wife is enchated by the mystery while the husband resists disbelief.

A story called "Miss Tennessee" examines a broken relationship in which the two lovers communicate (or don’t) by assigning dialog to their pet dog, Steve.

"Look," she said. "He’s going: Really I hate this thing. I’ve got to bite it. I hate it. Like somebody who gets drunk and always talks too loud."

I rolled over on my back and stared at the ceiling.

"Like someone who thinks she can do anything she wants and pretend it never happened," I said.

Like someone who passes out and snores," she said, singsong smiling at Steve.

"Like a liar," I said.

"Like someone who doesn’t trust people."

"Someone who doesn’t let people’s feelings get in the way of her fantasy worlds."

These are stories that tend to deny epiphanies. When they end, they tend to end without fanfare, and directly assign you, the reader, the task of figuring out your own understanding of them. It’s not that there isn’t plenty to interpret, but rather that the meaning is left open. These stories play their cards close to the chest.

And that’s something that makes for a nice experience, one that I think is fitting with TLGCR‘s intentions. After all, why go to the trouble of writing such a nice, unadorned story is you’re just going to ornament it in the end with a big red bow? And why collect 10 stories like that into your review, unless you have a particular idea of the kind of story you like to read?

Overall, issue 2 of TLGCR is a good one—good enough that I’m glad I’m a subscriber. Good enough also, to make me wonder when issue 3 will arrive in the mail.

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: February 23, 2005
• Filed Under:
  Wise Men Fish Here: Literature

• Comments:0
• Links to this Post: Technorati

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