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The Rag
The Rag Issue #3
The Rag Issue #3
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The spring season, with its connotations of rebirth and renewal, would seem like a good time for The Rag to show a kinder, gentler side. Perhaps that’s why the selections in our Spring 2012 issue focus on family life … albeit with a distinctly Rag-ish twist. Parent-child, husband-wife: these relationships are examined, twisted, and perverted until the gritty underbelly of family life is fully exposed.
On another level, many of the selections in the spring issue deal with barriers to communication. Our dependence on technology is one barrier that’s examined, most notably in In-World, but others--such as fear, guilt, shame, selfishness, and language itself--are also lurking about, either at the surface or hidden in the depths.
Of course, these stories and poems can mean different things to different people. That’s what makes good literature: depth of thought, multiple layers, with themes that are broad and subtle, rather than narrow and blunt. That’s what we look for when we select the writing we want to share with our readers, and we hope you enjoy these stories and poems as much as we do.
"Flora shoves jars aside in the fridge, pushes full grocery bags inside, and gets a glass from the cabinet—not a wine glass, but a short cylinder glass—and looks around for the bottle of wine. Swearing softly, she realizes it's now behind the grocery bag in the fridge. She excavates the bottle, more of a jug, really, the kind with a loop on top that your finger fits through. Listening for any noise from the basement, not terrible dog-squealing noise, but any which may indicate that Evan is coming up, she pours to the rim of the glass. She takes a big sip, lowering the level of wine to one more associated with a casual evening drink, rather than a late afternoon secret. It's good, and she decides to sit and finish it before she starts dinner and engages in what is surely going to be a long conversation over the many reasons, touching on both the practical and the evil, why they cannot keep a stray dog in the basement for Evan to torture." -from That Thing with the Dog, by Ben Schwartz
On another level, many of the selections in the spring issue deal with barriers to communication. Our dependence on technology is one barrier that’s examined, most notably in In-World, but others--such as fear, guilt, shame, selfishness, and language itself--are also lurking about, either at the surface or hidden in the depths.
Of course, these stories and poems can mean different things to different people. That’s what makes good literature: depth of thought, multiple layers, with themes that are broad and subtle, rather than narrow and blunt. That’s what we look for when we select the writing we want to share with our readers, and we hope you enjoy these stories and poems as much as we do.
"Flora shoves jars aside in the fridge, pushes full grocery bags inside, and gets a glass from the cabinet—not a wine glass, but a short cylinder glass—and looks around for the bottle of wine. Swearing softly, she realizes it's now behind the grocery bag in the fridge. She excavates the bottle, more of a jug, really, the kind with a loop on top that your finger fits through. Listening for any noise from the basement, not terrible dog-squealing noise, but any which may indicate that Evan is coming up, she pours to the rim of the glass. She takes a big sip, lowering the level of wine to one more associated with a casual evening drink, rather than a late afternoon secret. It's good, and she decides to sit and finish it before she starts dinner and engages in what is surely going to be a long conversation over the many reasons, touching on both the practical and the evil, why they cannot keep a stray dog in the basement for Evan to torture." -from That Thing with the Dog, by Ben Schwartz
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