And Then

And Then, Vol. 10,2001.


And Then is a radical literary magazine which has been edited and published
for the last fourteen years by Robert Roth and Arnold Sachar. The
publication of And Then is a labor of love for Roth, Sachar and several
close friends. The design of the Cover for each issue is done by Shelly
Haven, and the type setting is done by Marguerite Bunyan.

 The most recent issue of And Then contains several different kinds of
texts. There are poems, drawings and short prose narratives, as well as a
letter written by a female political prisoner and a book review of Ellen
Willis's Don't think, Smile: Notes on a Decade of Denial. The topics covered
in this issue include class, race, gender and sexual orientation as well as
some very interesting pieces on family violence, education and the role of
historical memory. "Politics" is defined in a very broad way by the editors
and contributors.  They try to express the relationship between the personal
and the political in the context of the objective character of capitalism
and the subjective experience of everyday life.

One of my favorite pieces is a poem by Howard Pflanzer called "The Adjunct."
Here are two stances of the poem:

"Why are we
in this rich country
The envy of the world
The students
The teacher
The growth of knowledge
Stunted by a poisoned soil?

The colleges are to be cleansed
Of what
Of those who are different
Darked skinned
Un-American?
The privilege to keep
Their power and position
They fear the dark invading hordes
Swarming from unknown neighborhoods
Will overrun them
Like a plague of rats.

The poem goes on to discuss both the plite of the adjunct, a kind of
underpayed nomad, and the attitude of the ruling class toward our working
class students in all their diversity. Perhaps I have a particular fondness
for this poem because I worked for twenty years as an adjunct teaching the
kind of students Pflanzer describes before finally getting a full-time
position teaching the same students. He ends the poem by saying that he
loves the students. I know that this may sound a little sentimental, but it
is not.

 As I read the poems and other pieces in And Then, I was reminded of the
relationship between the metaphorical and referential functions of language.
One can only represent the world by participating in a discourse. Poems and
prose narratives tell stories while they connect with other poems and
experiences, passed and present. There is certainly something beyond the
text, but we can only name this reality through discourse. The discourse of
And Then is a discourse of desire, hope, pain and faith in the human project
of liberation.humor and irony are central to this project.

 I view And Then and Socialism and Democracy as parts of a common project of
struggle, critique and reflection. Both operate in the space of the
political; both address the human condition under capitalism, and both try
to give life to our highest aspirations and desires for a truly human world.

 Copies of And Then can be obtained for $5 from Robert Roth at 210 West 10th
Street, Apt. 3-d, New York, NY 10014

George Snedeker
Sociology Department
SUNY/College at Old Westbury