From Experimental to Mainstream, Via Arkansas

Well, I’ll definitely give The Toad Suck Review an “A” for Enthusiasm. This elongated journal is published out of the Department of Writing in the College of Fine Arts and Communication at the University of Central Arkansas by staffers who, if nothing else, are wildly engrossed in their field of literature. The editor’s note at the beginning explains that this is the “transitional issue” from the “mythopoetic Exquisite Corpse Annual” to the more fiction-based Toad Suck Review: “We are born from the Corpse, whose experimental sense of humor and international enquiries will always inform our quirky aesthetics.” Now they are inviting in “the mainstream” to participate and submit.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, broadening their style will undoubtedly increase their readership. I have never felt more “square” than while reading Toad Suck Review. I picture the editors as a band of literary misfits-cum-professors, who choose submissions around a table covered in steaming mugs of tea and discarded arm jangles. Perhaps if I had donned more scarves then I could understand some of the disjointed poetics and “quirky sense of humor” that so often eluded me in this journal. Even the name is defiant. Toad Suck is apparently a moniker for the region of Central Arkansas, but is also an intentional nod to the journal’s fiercely-guarded love of the weird.

Which is why there is also something loveable about The Toad Suck Review. It is utterly unpretentious, or perhaps pretentious in such a bubbling and bumbling way that it makes it seem unpretentious. The editors truly want to help writers succeed, to publish people who are expressing themselves, to both teach and learn at every opportunity. Plus they harbor an amusingly strong passion for Arkansas and its literary scene (that I confess, until now, I did not know existed). This journal is about community, even for those on the social margins.

So, you see, I have mixed feelings, kind of how one might have mixed feelings about the hippie kid in the class deciding one day to become part of the popular group and start wearing polos. Toad Suck is confusingly, loveably, unabashedly different – and sometimes that’s refreshing.

Toad Suck is divided into sections, beginning at “Manifesto Introductus”, which is Suck-speak for “Editor’s Note”. The next section is entitled “High Octane Poetics” and begins with “Cristo & Socrates” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. According to his bio in the back of the journal, this author is a legend, however his script-like piece comprised primarily of wisecracks and cheap puns neither advanced my conception of the philosophical relationship between Socrates and Jesus nor did it make me laugh.

I enjoyed Mike Topp’s “Lilliputianless Poems”, though I’m not sure if his random punch lines necessarily count as poetry. Antler’s “Extraterrestrial Extrapolations” explore the wonders of the scientific and physical world. However, these too seem more like the scribbled rant of a hyperactive science nerd than poetry. So does Perrin Carrell’s “Super-Cooled Quantum Blog Poems”, though I liked those too.

Jack Collom’s “Cold Instances” included a set of word and image poetry whose purpose or message was so obscure as to be completely devoid of meaning. Same with Alice Notley’s “Seamless Poem”. Though I recognize that both of these authors use atypical visualization of their poetry, I could not manage to find any higher purpose in their writing.

The section “From the Blood” comes next and I actually gleaned something from the poems of its two contributers – translated works by Toshiya Kamei and a long set of original short poems by Jose Perez Beduya.

The “Artists in Residence” section included a lovely interview and environmental piece called “Beyond Flipper” by David Gessner, founder of the UNC Wilmington journal Ecotone. Gessner’s story describes his loneliness and alienation after moving South and the unexpected companionship he found in the South Carolina dolphins. The whole thing reads like a gulp of fresh air because it makes sense.

C.D. Wright gives an interesting interview on race relations in Arkansas. Even in the interviewing process, the staff’s deep enthusiasm and respect for literature comes through. The interviewer asks some of the most specific and deep-reading oriented questions I have ever seen.

Davis Schneiderman’s interview with The Poetry Class seems to be an attempt by the editors to make the interview format less boring. Surrealist stage directions (for example one of the members of The Poetry Class throws a rubber chicken) are incorporated in and around Schneiderman’s philosophical musings.

The section “Arkana” (which I assume means literature from Arkansas) included my favorite piece – a long excerpt from Kevin Brockmeier’s recently published novel The Illumination.

The section “Non-Nonfictions”, (which is Suck-speak for fictions if we’re going by the rule of double negatives?) included a short story by Teresa Bergen that came off as a little too whiny for my tastes, the protagonist looking more inward than outward toward something larger.

The section “Surreal Lunacy” is where stuff really gets nuts. To demonstrate I will quote a piece by Daniel Grandbois that is an excerpt from his novel The Hermaphrodite (An Hallucinated Memoir): “Disguised as a cactus, the hermaphrodite stole up on us and poked needles in our asses. Then, it winked at Kree, as if to say, Watch this. A sphincter formed in the side of its head, dripping liquid. The hermaphrodite massaged the sphincter until half its forearm was enclosed in the muscle. Squinting, it seemed to search for something. With great care, it retrieved what it had found. A flounder flopped in its palm.” (pg 112-113) I count it as a point of pride that I kept reading until the end.

The next section “Critical Intel” includes some book reviews and a movie review by Mr. Stir Fry called The 2011 Kung Fu Films Economic Index. Not sure how this is related to literature or to anything critical but at least I learned something.

The final section, aptly titled “Last Writes”, includes more Kung-Fu reviews and something called Xaviera’s Happy House by The Editors that invites anyone who wishes to visit the Amersterdam B&B of sexpert Xaviera Hollander. I looked it up on Google – it exists. This section also includes a group of poetry by Lyn Lifshin entitled “Farewell to the #1 Rule Poems” which I really liked.

So if you enjoy drum circles, if your pastimes include padding barefoot around a campfire at night, if you are currently living in a broken down van and writing a screenplay about people discussing philosophy on a raft, then this is the review for you.

If not, well, frankly my dear, Toad Suck doesn’t give a damn.