some weekend reading:
La Petite Zine - I came across this little gem, an online journal of what you call "flash fiction." I haven't done a lot of browsing in past issues, but I really enjoyed this piece by David Shumate:
The Races of Man
We learned in elementary school that there were five races of man.
White. Black. Red. Yellow. And, as I recall, brown. We drew pictures
of them with their variously colored faces next to buildings we thought
might be their homes. I gave them lawn mowers and automobiles and
umbrellas. Though my teacher told me some only had huts where they
burned the dried feces of goats and cows to stay warm. There were also
those who carried their belongings around on camels and pitched tents in
the sand which seemed like an exciting life to me. We learned how some
of these people said Hello so if we came upon a caravan crossing the
street, we could be polite. We were introduced to their gods. Some were
angry all the time. Others had four arms and three heads and blue skin.
The kind of deity I wanted watching over me. With each lesson our world
became more complex. We were tested on Fridays. Once our teacher held
up a can of chop suey and asked what color of people would be likely to
eat it. I wrote down white people. Because my mother served it for dinner
on Tuesdays. I later learned that the correct answer was actually Yellow.
so far I've found this recent issue of La Petite Zine to be filled with some off-kilter poetry, a mess of non-sequitors, and a laundry list of... lists. If anything, it makes for quick adventurous weekend reading. Enjoy!
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