Written Word, #13, July 2008

The cover story of Written Word #13, “Vote Robot” by Barry Rosemberg, represents an Aussie view of politics and power, for a change. The fast moving, clever wordplay takes a lot of twists and turns, so pay attention, particularly if you’re not from Down Under:

Wally had always been into politics. Since uni, and for the next twenty years, he’d been a member of Democratic labor. Following the ban on nuclear visitations, he’d gone on to reduce guns in the community while increasing trees. […] Wally’s big success had been in uniting Democratic Labor, One Family and the milder Greens into the Green Welfare Alliance. Since this was popularly known as the Green Welf, Aussies called Wally the Green Elf.

How do robots get into this? After lots of political wheeling, dealing, and intrigue. A challenging read which left this American chuckling but lost at a few points along the way.

“Doppelgänger” by Ken Dean is a deeply nuanced look at the complexities of intimate relationships and the struggle between the ideal and real, examined through the mirror of robots and artificial intelligence—with a touch of humor and just the right amount of pathos. A delicious recipe, in my humble opinion.

“Reading the Story” by Michael S. Fedison is a slice of life that doesn’t have an ending, because the trials of life usually don’t just end, but rather spin themselves out over time. A brother, struggling to help his sister recover from a disfiguring accident, channels the healing through the unlikely medium of beloved, beat-up comic books.

Fedison layers the themes of love and loss, which imbues this simply told story with such universal, deep emotion, I found myself shaking my head and saying “ahh” at more than one point.

“I Can Fly” by Rick Novy is a flash, first person narrative by a child that punches the reader in the gut.

In “The Kid Pool” by Ian Rogers, The Kid’s grandmother describes herself as:

…third-generation trailer-trash and she had the trailer to prove it. I was raised in a doublewide Airstream by a doublewide mamma she’d say in the slow, tired delivery of one who has told the same joke so many times it has lost whatever humour it once had.

But her co-workers aren’t much above that, vicariously living the misery of others for entertainment. The cast of characters buys into the pool, like the masses who tune into reality television. There is no happily ever after, but it has a satisfying conclusion.

I wanted “Albino Rhino” by Jacqueline Seewald to go on longer. Not because I needed more gory detail about canned big game hunting of endangered species on a private ranch. But just when my heart was beating in my throat, wondering how the investigative reporter was going to get out of her predicament, it ended in a bit of a deus ex machina. If that had been spun out, there would’ve been enough here for a chilling novella, at least.

Can life’s problems be solved by a board game? Maybe if the game is a magical Monopoly set. “Richard of York” got a surprise when he complained to the lady in the magic shop that it wasn’t what he expected. Aliya Whiteley’s characters are engaging, and this story is a fun read that doesn’t take itself too seriously, even though it is:

I was expecting Jumanji. I wanted elephants and floating riddles. Instead I got the realisation that I’d paid five hundred pounds for a souped up version of Monopoly, and I’ve always hated Monopoly, ever since I beat Cherry at it during our engagement. She smashed her fist down on the board, hard, scattering pieces, houses and cards flying and I never did find that top hat again; you know, it was a sign. Since then I’ve believed not only in signs but in board games, and so it seemed only right to celebrate the separation by asking my one still-single mate over and playing a game, a special game, a life-changing game.

So, a nice mix of humor and pathos sum up the July issue. I continue to be impressed by the variety Written Word serves up, even if their issues come out a little late.