I admit it: I buy the New Yorker. I subscribe. I stand by the mailslot when each
issue arrives and try to guess the cover title (I never can) and look at the Table of
Contents (I read the author's names first). My favorite issue is the Women's Issue,
despite its perfumed pages. I sometimes get angry, though, because I think: why can't
regular issues have more of these articles? Why do we only get one issue a year? For
a while after the Women's Issue I count articles by men and articles by women. It is
too depressing for words.
Here at Enterzone, we have tried to have women's issues, but something always goes
wrong. Or, goes missing might be more accurate. As in, the women. Where are the
women? About 90% of people who send unsolicited articles are men, which is fine
except when you're trying to put together a women's issue.
So, okay, I thought I would just do a column about women's fiction on the net. There
are some good things out there, like Meg Wise-Lawrence Stein's Sometimes You See Africa, a
full novella available for free on the Web. In terms of length and readability, it is
perfect for the Web. It's about a rock'n'roll daughter who is looking for ... well,
presumeably some answers about her dead rock'n'roll hero father, but probably
something more as well.
The novella centers around Gloria Wilde and Cal, an older man who used to play in the
band with Gloria's father, Jack Wilde. There are some excellent passages; Stein is a
wonderfully spare, fluid writer who is not afraid to be subtle. "I could make myself
lighter," Gloria thinks after the news of her father's death. "I could pare myself
down. I could get rid of my belongings. I could become skin and bones. I could cut my
hair."
There are also some good references to Star Trek: TNG; almost a must for any Web
work.
Another thing I like about Sometimes You See Africa is its interesting, almost
eastern-style art that recurs in various forms throughout the chapters. It also has a
strong female lead character -- you just don't find them all that often these days in
literature, although I don't know why since there are dozens of sit-coms with strong
female leads and so there must be an interest in them.
In fact, originally I set out to write a column exclusively about strong female
characters and came back with a few handfuls of angry Web sites, and a lot of "about
women" sites, but little original fiction. Maybe someone can send me some tips for my
next column? It could be I was just having a bad search-engine day.
Since I couldn't find EXACTLY what I was looking for (and I mean it when I say send
me appropriate URLs if you know of any), let me expand my women's column to a column
on good writing by women, whether or not it is fiction. Here there is a lot to cover.
Cybergrrl has many interesting essays by and
about women in one place, plus the Cybergrrl Comic -- five strong, female superheros
lost in cyberspace. This site is cousin to Nrrdgrrl (sites to make you pinch your lips),
another good collection, though it is one of those "community"-aspiring places. In
the latest Nrrdgrril issue, check out "Strange Music", a
wonderfully lyrical sudden-fiction piece by Margaret Miller Finch. Excellent lines
include: "The sound a dark room makes waiting for Mother to come home" and other
memories.
I also want to mention Girls Can be
Anything ... except Roosters, in particular the essay "Hairy Legs." This 'zine is
more tame and less hip than the above sites, but satisfying in its own way. The
essays are generally short and well written, and there is no perfume anywhere I could
find.
Finally, what's up in hypertext? One I particularly like is Adrianne Wortzel's "The Electronic
Chronicles." I'm not sure how to classify it -- fiction? parody? The site poses
as a futuristic academic document disseminating its research findings on "imprinted
matter" -- i.e., an archeological find which happens to be a newspaper ad for TVs.
The document translates the ad (the "Newsletta Stone") and draws conclusions about the
race who created it:
"Legend would have it that base motor control was employed for these recordings with
the aid of instruments plucked from creatures passing through the lowest level of
their atmosphere. A separate source of fluid ("inc.") was then released off the
instrument's tip on to a semi-absorbent material made from the skin of biological
entities or of deciduous growth."
It's weird. I like it. Check it out. And don't forget to write me if you have any tips on fiction on the Web.