Anti-Antioch But Pro-Antioch Review: Ain’t that a shame?
Robert Fogarty had an opinion piece recently in the New York Sun entitled “The Antioch Review Lives, For Now,” which was about how, even though Antioch College will be closing next year, many in the literary community are concerned about the fate of its literary magazine, the Antioch Review. In fact, Fogarty writes, the news of Antioch’s eventual collapse “had our phones ringing off the hook and our e-mail box overflowing with the same question: Would the Antioch Review, an independent literary magazine founded in 1941, be shut down too?” To this I would ask, That’s what people were worried about? No one cared about the college itself, just its magazine? That’s doesn’t speak very highly of the interest in American higher education. After all, it seems slightly ridiculous that people care more about the Antioch Review than they do about Antioch College itself.
As Fogarty writes, “Independent literary magazines are an important element in our literary culture because they are the testing ground for future writers, for material that is shunned by the commercial presses, and for astute cultural criticism. Support them before they disappear.” While I agree with this on a certain level, I would never choose a magazine over a college, nor would I think the tragedy in a school’s closing was because its magazine might go out of business. Because I think that what society needs most is bright, educated young men and women, not casual reading material for already-educated older men and women. So for Fogarty and others to prize printed paper over a leafy quad filled with studying students seems myopic to the point of blindness, not to mention it has the potential of sacrificing the writers of tomorrow for the readers of today.
As an editor of the Antioch Review wrote more than four decades ago, “Television has already taken over vast areas of human communication which were once the province of print and it may be expected to take more: still it is doubtful if it can or should replace reading as a significant exercise. Publication itself appears more and more often as the result of large combinations of men and resources … in this new world can a small magazine of mature outlook but minimal resources sustain itself?” Maybe the answer is that small magazines can’t sustain themselves. And while that’s a shame, it’s nothing next to the idea that colleges can’t sustain themselves. In fact, Antioch’s motto is “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” While supporters of the Antioch Review would think that worrying so much about a magazine is indeed a “victory for humanity,” their efforts would be better served by trying to help, you know, actual humans (who I hear have humanity in spades).
Anyway, in the spirit of all this talk of being anti and Antioch, here’s a link to the video for Snowden’s brilliant song “Anti-Anti.”
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Point taken, but the Antioch Review, and other small lit journals like it, do help the writers of tomorrow by giving them a place to be published. Getting published as a first time-writer - even as a very good first-time writer - is notoriously difficult, so the more quality venues there are, the better. Whether the future of these journals is online or in print (probably online, if only because of cost), they continue to fill an important role in the development of writers.
Anyway, I’m sure if Antioch had a division 1 football team, its loss would would get an even bigger reaction than the loss of the journal. And that would really be something to be cynical about.
I have to disagree with you here, a rare occurrence. It’s the scarcity of the artifact that causes concern. Sure, it’s never good to lose a university but, and apologies for lack of sensitivity here, there are many other great universities around to pick up the slack and cultivate those great and beautiful minds.
Truth is there aren’t all that many truly outstanding literary reviews. And where would be the point in educating and investing in people if we push them out into a world without intellectual stimulation. It would be a cruelty to open somebodies mind to literature and then deprive them in such a way.
A university graduate is not a commodity to be used only to better the world for everyone else. Although, naturally, that’s a pretty useful consequence when it happens.
But don’t be a hater. We love our magazine.
I guess the point I should have stressed is that we don’t need to rely on these written artifacts any longer. Yes, the Antioch Review might go under, but it’s been replaced already with a dozen websites that highlight new talent, and which are a much more interactive experience not only for readers but also for writers. And I just think that relying on quarterly installments of something like Ploughshares or Granta is not the way we will either experience content in the 21st century, nor will it be the way we discover new talent.
For the record since the blogger neglected to mention it the author of the New York Sun op-ed piece taught at Antioch College for thirty-seven years and has edited the Antioch Review for thirty. Read the article in full to get the context and to see for yourself.Literature comes in all sizes and in all media and print journals like the Antioch Review and print reviews serve audience today and will into the future.