Katharyn presents us with Part One of a fictional tale which is both unbelievable and unreadable. The story takes place in Blue Ridge, Louisiana, where a reverend named Willkes “made and conditioned the people [of Blue Ridge] to be part of a Christian army”. In order to do this, Willkes gains the trust of the citizens, takes control of the entire town (how is never really explained) and wields his ultimate power in the schools, where he segregates boys and girls into different classes. Boys being taught math and science; girls homemaking, cooking etc. She tells us to “Remember that his happened a long time ago. When people did not acknowledge equal rights to everyone” (sic). The year? 1974. Hmm…Katharyn clearly wants us to hate Willkes and the incredible terror he is bringing to Blue Ridge and power he commands over it’s citizens. We are never really given a clear reason to be disgusted with Willkes and frankly, seems no more harmless than a common shyster who happened to stumble upon some very gullible people. The entire story (thus far) seems to be clearly aimed at criticizing any sort of religious (especially Christian) organization, however, the criticism never goes further than a disliking of sermons and a hatred of religious dogma. Despite the incredulous plot, “Sacred and Profane” is littered with awkward sentence fragments, spelling errors, and incorrect grammar. The characters are one-dimensional and we are never given any sort of description of Blue Ridge. Straight text with a couple of upside down photographed images that seem to have no relation with the story whatsoever. (KJ)
zine / main creator: Katharyn / $? / 221 Tresane St., Oshawa, Ontario, L1J 2T9