zine review:
Culture Slut #20
Forrester writes about her recent move to Montreal, learning French and settling into a new city. She talks about taking up education again after dropping out of school years ago, and describes feeling a certain frustration with trying to comply with traditional forms of learning like rote memorization. I appreciated Forrester’s frankness about her academic frustrations, and her alternating timidity and confidence with her new language skills. Her description of encounters with French in her neighbourhood, as well as the earmarking of particular linguistic tics that she enjoys really convey both the novelty and challenge of living in a new language. CS 20 also includes her worst trip to the gynecologist, first period memories and love letters to the alternative menstrual product the Diva Cup and the word “cunt.” She addresses queerness while reminiscing on a preteen crush on Twiggy Ramirez and talks about her initial forays into the Montreal queer scenes, while addressing the invisibility of people who don’t fit with social norms of queer appearance. This zine really is packed–there’s a lot of text, and Forrester’s narration throughout is consistent and self-aware, always making connections between present interests and where she has come from. Her closing of the zine with both four pages of zine reviews and a plea to online buyers to actually say hello or send her physical mail, beyond clicking on a PayPal link to make a swift zine purchase, also speaks to her community-building ethic. CS 20is rich with story. Dive in, answer back, share. (Sarah Pinder)
Perzine, Amber Forrester, [email protected], 10124 Ave Hebert, #8, Montreal, QC, H1H 3W6, $2