28
by Ralph Bonchance
(Special to the A ustinSun)
Someone, probably a person of no
importance with a lot of time on his,
hands, once postulated that if an
infinite (or large -- versions of the story
vary widely) number of monkeys were
waggish, whimsical, jocose and droll. In
fact, it is sometimes funny, in a peculiar
sort of way. Its lively Rabelaisian
ribaldry japes puckishly at such
revered institutions as electric toas-
ters, rape, colleges, universities,
drugs, revolution, concrete, seeing-eye
speak of. 'Fag gags a drag,' that's our
motto."
Printed in what its publishers
seraphically describe as "limited
editions" of 500 copies per issue, the
Dogmahas never borne a cover price as
high as a dime, though stiff bidding or
lack of change among customers has
forced the priceof individual copies as
high as a quarter. In regarding a
magazine with a circulation as pitiful as
that of the Dogma, it is difficult to
assess what impact, if any, it may have
had on the- Austin cultural scene. But
recently released figures make it
perhaps a certainty that that impact
D.K. Sheer, age unknown, has even
suggested that the issue "Serves as a
sort of legitimation for the fledgling
Austin poetry scene and it should act as
a promotion of the very work that the
Dogma lampoons."
Perhaps. But the fact remains that
the Loosell issue of The Burning
Dogma also celebrates -- albeit
mockingly --the magazine's own
recognition as "literature" by its
selection for inclusion in the premiere
volume of the prestigious National
Index of Literary Periodicals. And,
according to Informed Sources, the
set to banging away at an infinite (or [ ]
large) number of typewriters, they ] CHAleT SHOWS . ClliN'nFICaU.V [
would eventually produce all of I 6Rowl"X OF iDiocY IN AUSTIN / 951'
/
Shakespeare s works, if not a large i (.lloss vECT iN XUN.I ..a, .$,1 1 I /
body of original literature.
Perhaps. But a group of young ! /
Austinites, while retaining the barrel- I / |
of-monkeys flavor of the original __. I -"
conception, believe they may have [ / / I
found a shortcut. I • .... "iii; I /
"Weealli 'thinkiog.'"saysAetress
Margaret 0 Donalduck, one of many " ..... "
international celebrities who have
donated their names and fame to I [ /
this allegedly talented group, whosePr°m°tingthemultifari°usactivities°f IIz, | / J l' | |tt/
Enterprises.Umbrella name is Twisted Drome I I,I Rcx, AY, I, v$ sLPI"., L YF.IT OUTRA=[ /
"Thinking (rhymes with stinking)
has yet to be shown to have any dogs and, most recently, poetry has indeed been very great indeed,next ssue bears the working title
practical military or industrial applica- magazines (See CHART.) Strange Fiction. ,
tion. But the'Dogma is not all ridiculeA case in point is the latest effort, Indeed, with a dewy, unpreposses-
But it may nevertheless have some. Under the staff's facade-like veneer of Loosell, a picaresque plunge into the sing freshness which manages to teach
In any case, the Twisted Drome mordant irony there lie deep hidden demi-monde of local literature. As its a lesson without being didactic, the
consortium has rushed into print with,
of all things, a magazine, The Burning
"Dogma (subtitled: "-or-The Longhorn
Journal of Dada.")
At its best, the Dogma is by turns
satiric, comic, parodic, idiotic, witty,
pools ofrealtalent. And beyond them, title insinuates, within the pages of TwistedDromegangandtheirBurning
in a metaphoric valley reminiscentof LooseU are burlesques of such ogma just may well be heading
some felicitous Shangri-La, are mainstays of the Austin Artistic itoward the deepest incursion into
mountains of ironic mordancy, iRenaissance as the GAR, Wood Ibis, {Austin literature since Roy Butler's
Or, as one facile staffer put it, "We Analecta and, of course, Lucg2e. One tatement of full financial disclosure.
haven't done any homosexual jokes to Dogma staffer, ringletted, bespeckled perhaps. Or maybe not.
S~: ~ake you~ kid to this T iii:]
:guyshre the Govemment; t he Armyland
