One of my least-liked Issues, this one is pieces that are representative of nine old, neglected or dead literary forms. The structure of the issue is that the form is introduced along with a picture of what the old writing looked like. Next there's a classical work (or excerpt) reprinted of that type of writing, such as an excerpt from Plato's "Republic" as an example of Socratic dialogue. Finally, modern writers try their hand at producing a work that represents the old form. If it sounds academic, it often is. Most of the "stories" have (and require) annotations to help the reader navigate these now unfamiliar literary genres.

In my mind, while perhaps historically interesting, these literary forms are dead for a reason.

Bonus is a tabloid size magazine folded into the end pages with excerpts from three McSweeney's books being published at the time, Bill Cotter's "Fever Chart," Jessica Anthony's "The Convalescent," and James Hannaham's "God Says No." ( )

A collection of "old" narrative forms, revisited. More creative than some other McSweeney's issues, and somewhat engaging. ( )

Speels, divers, boordevol verrassingen. Hoogtepunten: David Thomson, Will Sheff en, jawel, Douglas Coupland. De 'pantoum'-gedichten doen verlangen naar meer. De bijdrage van Shelley Jackson liet ik, na een halfslachtige poging, ongelezen. ( )

I loved this McSweeney's. The whole theme is forgotten literary genres. These include Pantoum Poetry, Whore Dialogue, Legendary Saga, Biji, Nivola, Senryu, Socratic Dialogue, Graustarkian Romance, and Consuetudinary. The pantoums were great, in a puzzle sort of way. the best one I think was Crackpot Arctic Octopus by Nicky Beer. Douglas Coupland's biji Survivor was very funny and typical of his writing. David Thomson has a great Socratic Dialogue featuring some great characters: Susan Sontag, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, and Orson Welles. They all debate the qualities of Citizen Kane at an after life cafe. Out of all the stories, the best is the new legendary saga by Will Sheff of the band Okkervil River. This saga uses the Icelandic saga The Tale of Ragnar's Sons as a format and is called Black Metal Circle Saga. It does what most sagas do, which is basically following a lineage of heros, tracing their battles and exploits, usually resulting in lots of people dying in battle. There are also usually some dwarfs or elves involved and a magic weapon here or there. Basically its a fantasy novel from 700 years ago. Sheff's saga has chapters titled Blood on the Ice, War Pigs, and Let's Fucking Die or We're Gonna Burn This Place to the Ground. Reading it was quite a treat.

The only piece I could have lived without was the consuetudinary by Shelley Jackson. The manual is based on a fictional church, The Church of the Dead Letter. The whole thing was hard to follow which is disappointing because the idea of consuetudinary is interesting, its just this fictional example was just too far out there to keep my interest. ( )