Harold Goldstein
“Direction”, Pierce College’s fiction magazine, dished out its newest issue for the year 2008, “Food for Thought,” which blends emotional topics that connect to one simple metaphorical desire: hunger.
With more than 120 pages, “Food for Thought” is split into four topics: politics, self-discovery, fantasy and love. Each topic lays the groundwork behind the issue’s food-based title. Behind each topic, there is a slew of content, such as art, poetry, short stories and essays, serving as the “meat and vegetables” that correspond to the specific topic’s meaning.
The content is great with catchy poems and interesting short stories. There is even a mention of the Roundup within an essay that deals with the casualness of smoking on Pierce’s campus and how the sheriff’s office is getting out of hand by giving tickets to smoking students (pg. 13).
One short story I found to be intriguing was “The Runner” by Angeline Olliff (pg. 45), which deals with a teenage girl who tried to run away from being forced into a residential treatment center. The imagery of the girl trying to escape from her pursuers kept me on the edge of my seat.
The content of the magazine is organized well, as it gives the reader time to breathe by giving him or her some art to gaze upon before getting through the next row of literature.
My only real complaint with this magazine was the sloppy use of its Table of Contents. The stories were listed down alphabetically by author, which was confusing since the page numbers seemed discombobulated. It should have been that the content was categorized by topic and then by page number.
Overall, “Food for Thought” is a well-organized magazine with surreal and philosophical content, despite a little sloppy organization.
Published once a year and funded by the Associated Students Organization, Direction is produced by students enrolled in English 32. Cordell Crimson is the current editor in chief and more than 40 Pierce students contributed to the magazine.
With this issue published, the Direction magazine staff is already hard at work with this semester’s issue, ripe with some new content to freshen up the magazine.
“(We’re) heading toward the pop culture,” said Dr. Maria Bates, professor of English and faculty adviser for the magazine. “It’s going to be pretty contemporary, but I think very colorful.
“We might do a multimedia component, so we’re really trying to get people to turn in short films, media clips,” she added.
“Food for Thought” is $5 and can be bought at the Pierce Bookstore next to the Freudian Sip.
More information, including instructions for submitting your own work to the magazine, is available at http://207.62.63.167/departments/english/direction.asp.