NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

This is a substantial A4-sized, perfect-bound publication, totalling 144 pages, most being printed in double columns. The range of genres represented includes editorials, poetry, art-work, translations, letters, articles and opinion-pieces. The prose throughout is generally engaging, often with considerable scholarly credentials. By contrast, the poetry — which quite correctly is given full-column width wherever needed — is frequently shrill in tone. Nevertheless, as the title suggests, the overall slant of the writing is from a politically left-of-centre stance, and as far as a single such perspective permits, the contents are varied in subject matter, intellectually stimulating, and hugely contrasting in style. There are more than thirty contributors, representing a diversity of interests and aims, and it can be said that all have reflected very seriously upon their topics, and through their writing, invite others to do likewise.

The principal editorial, published anonymously, is very professional in tone and execution, and sets a high standard for what follows. In order to show the breadth of viewpoints and topics of interest, here is a sample selection of the articles and their authors, together with my reflections upon the effectiveness of each piece:

• Michael Fitzgerald, 'Manifest Destiny: American Imperial Myth, Then & Now' — a very interesting piece, marred by a truncated style, with foreshortened paragraphs having only a tangential relationship to one another
• Carol Keiter: 'Cultural Abscess' — a very powerful piece on homelessness and the American economy, badly organized and badly edited.
• E. San Juan, Jr., 'Consensus or hegemony: On the Crisis on U.S. Intellectuals After September 11 & the Wake of the Empire's Decline' — an academically sound article, well-constructed and well-made.
• Dave Stratman - 'The Triumph of Liberalism' — an insightful piece, written in a slightly exasperated manner, and gesturing towards unspecific goals.
• Susan Galleymore, 'Touch the Mothers, Touch a Rock (A military mom's view of war and terror)' — a very vague and unfocussed piece, repeating the oft-repeated.
• Matteo Pasquinelli, 'WARPORN, WARPUNK!: Autonomous Videopoiesis in Wartime' — written in a jittery self-conscious style, and difficult to read.
• Dominic Angerame, 'Anaconda Targets' — a very poorly edited piece, with an annoyingly self-reflexive narrative style, which nevertheless includes some fascinating information about video material illustrating how military technology is marketed in part through the use of videotape evidence of the weapons' effectiveness in combat.

Quite a few of the articles contain important and intriguing views, often convincingly argued and with good evidence of resources having been explored and tested. But far too many of these articles take an excessively long time to state their cases. For example, Laurie Calhoun's WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARS: REGARDING FOG OF WAR, shows excellent judgement in many ways, but is inchoate in its organization and repetitive in both its style and subject-matter. Similarly, Jeffrey Blankfort's DAMAGE CONTROL: NOAM CHOMSKY & THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT is much too long and badly organized. Even more sharply contrasting, Ronald Bleier's SHARON'S DISENGAGEMENT CHARADE: A SCREEN FOR OPPRESSION is a highly professional, erudite piece, and so is John Armitage's COSMOPOLIS OR CHAOSMOPOLIS?: HYPERMODERNISMO IN BOGOTÁ (in spite of poor editing); while P.J. Laska's DON WEST, REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE'S POET has a good subject, but is much too self-congratulatory in style, and Dave Lordan's CRUISE MISSILES OR CLENCHED FISTS: WHAT GOT RID OF MILOSEVIC?, suffers from poor editing, poor grammar, and is the least readable of the lot.

Plainly the biggest and boldest experiment in LEFT CURVE is a lengthy segment called PUBLICity, which includes thirty-five pages of very short prose pieces on a wide variety of themes reflecting 'aspects of global public life'. As with the lengthier articles, this section includes pieces which are informative and thought-provoking, juxtaposed with those which are self-conscious, dull and poorly written. Dipa Basu's POLICING THE COLOUR LINE: CONTROL, CRIME, AND CULTURE AND THE HIP-HOP GENERATION is fascinating, while Alexander Bard and Jan Söderquist's CREATIVITY AND POWER IN THE AGE OF INTERACTIVITY and Kien Nghi Ha's HYBRIDITY AS CULTURAL COMMODIFICATION AND NATIONAL MODERNISATION are both insightful, challenging pieces. Given that PUBLICity includes contributors from every continent, and that its authors (who courageously publish their own email addresses alongside their work) explore diverse subjects, the results are often stunning. For all its risks and weaknesses, this is an experiment worth repeating.

LEFT CURVE includes only a small amount of discreet advertising, largely by other journals, some of serious repute, and the monochrome illustrations are appropriate and first-rate. Of the many poems given honourable places amidst so much prose, my own favourite is a long piece entitled THE TSUNAMI ARCANE by Jack Hirschman. Here are a few lines from its fifth section:

	The count will never be over,

	...
	and the running, running
	after a hand in the night
	that doesn't end.

LEFT CURVE is an A4, perfect bound journal published in the US. Of its huge 152 pages, perhaps only 10% is given to poetry but that 10% is well spent.

Stephen Hartnett's GLOBALIZING ABU GHRAIB is a riveting read. Presented and subtitled as FOUR MEDITATIONS ON RHETORIC AND VIOLENCE IN AN AGE OF EMPIRE, the titles speak for themselves. Part 1 sees Hartnett commenting on Bush's ineffectual and badly handled war on terrorism. Part 2, entitled ABU GHRAIB AND THE IMPERIAL GULAG, discusses the horrors of Abu Ghraib prison in which American Soldiers were reported to have been involved in horrendous and sadistic tortures. Part 3 deals with managed information dissemination in which we read that the distortion of truth has become US Government Policy. Once Hartnett has painted a damning picture of America's contribution to the world, we lead into part 4 in which we see how the American Government plan to bring their brand of freedom and democracy to the rest of the world.

	that's all the people
	everywhere
	every person
	in every society
	in every corner of the world
	
	That's more than 6 billion beings
	inhabiting almost 200 countries
	speaking innumerable languages
	
	praying to infinite Gods
	all apparently waiting to be saved
	by my bumbling murderous President.

Outside of the number of pages given to poetry, LEFT CURVE carries many well researched and presented articles, fiction, and letters. To list them all would make for a long review — to comment on them all would lead to a piece as long and in-depth as the journal itself. If I had to choose one article for comment, it would be the Louis E Bourgeois interview with Steven Ford Brown of foetry.com. Titled, FOETRY.COM: AND WHAT ACADEMIA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT THE CREATIVE WRITING INDUSTRY, Bourgeois talkes to Brown about his work in uncovering cheating within the industry. Fortunately, Brown is not employed by the industry and is able to speak freely without fear of reprisal. He attacks organisers of competitions who skip over fee paying entrants in favour of those who have completed the organisers' own writing programs. In one case, the winner had not even entered the competition but was solicited from the outside. It is a compelling article bound to be of interest to anyone within the area of creative writing be they inside or outside of the US.

This journal is a highly stimulating read, placed politically left of centre as indicated by its title, and largely filled with articles from writers with impressive credentials and backed by copious footnotes and acknowledgements. The small print tells that this journal is published irregularly but I can imagine each issue to be well worth the uncertain wait.

Left Curve is a publication for people who are concerned about where the world is going and prepared to think deeply. The articles, reviews, short stories and poems in this issue explore themes including Hezbollah, poverty, anti-capitalist art and analyses of capitalism and don't offer easy answers but rather provoke critical thought, encouraging the reader to explore issues from new angles and to recontextualise current events. A number of articles very effectively draw parallels between current affairs and history — for example in NOTHING BUT THE SAME OLD STORY? Ann Rossiter compares Britain's wars on Irish and Islamic Terror and the impact in each case of anti-terror legislation on communities.

Michael Ray Fitzgerald takes the historical approach to TELEVISION PORTRAYALS OF NATIVE AMERICANS: FROM TONTO TO UNCLE RAY (1949-2006) a fascinating article that shows how stereotypes of Native Americans in US literature have been used to justify their repression and extirpation - both literal and symbolic — since the era of the Pigrims discussing how Native Americans have been variously portrayed as evil enemies, noble savages or invisible, largely depending on how these portrayals could serve political needs both in the USA and internationally.

Laurie Calhoun's THE EVIL AND IRRATIONAL ENEMY outlines the dangers and contradictions of labelling the enemy as both evil and irrational and how these labels cloud the real issues in any given conflict and in fact promote war rather than non-violent solutions.

The PUBLICity section of the journal offers a number of shorter articles, dealing with issues that may not have yet made their mark in academic circles. In this issue these articles cover issues including human rights and asylum seekers, the relevance of Maoism today and the power of iconoclasm.

As well as articles and reviews, Left Curve includes a selection of short stories and poetry. BIRDS OF PARADISE, a short story from Rafael Rayna is a powerful tale of Thaqib and Mujaahid learning to make bombs in the desert and imagining using them against the American military checkpoint. The story is sobering and moving, giving real insight into the young men's minds.

The poetry in this issue is powerful and lyrical, a combination often not found in political poetry, for example, this extract from John Berger's BORN: 5/11/26:

	Redder every day
	the leaves of the pear trees.
	Tell me what is bleeding.

	See the shade of red
	reflected into purple,
	the space we draw
	but do not see,
	where we live
	behind the focal point,
	a white body in light
	with all its history
	draped behind