I keep asking myself if I would like this zine better if I didn’t already know about such canonical zines from the ’90s like i’m so fucking beautiful or others steeped in a riot grrrl aesthetic, preaching radical self-love and pro-queer social criticism. Sarah Arrr’s work is definitely channeling that same energy, and while I’m always pleased to see queer folks addressing the isolation they feel in hetero spaces, or the annoyance they feel at the commodification of queer culture, Arrr’s work just evokes these things in a rote set of predictable images. Arrr’s memorial to her friend Chuck is the one element of the zine where I feel like I can really *hear* her. Her outlining of her friend’s life and death and the surrounding complicated circumstances is where she manages to be political without being didactic, and beautiful without being clichéd. (Sarah Pinder)
Perzine, #8, Sarah Arrr, PO Box 235, N. Tazewell, VA, USA 24630, US$2, CAN $3, $4 Intl