About
THE ELECTRIC REVIEW is an online book and music broadside dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts and academia. The magazine will offer monthly critiques of recent book and music releases, offering readers a broad sampling of material while presenting writers and musicians of all genres a more equitable chance for publicity.
In pursuit of this, reviews are written not so much in a formula style, but rather in a manner meant to stress the underlying themes of the material: our goal is simply to make the reader excited about the possibilities these books and records hold.
The need for The Electric Review is obvious and long overdue.
Artists, no matter how big the name, are at the mercy of the devious corporate politics that drive our mainstream media. Those writers with small publishers, or those whose work bears a “non-commercial” label, often receive no attention at all — their efforts wholly undiscovered, their books wallowing in waste in putrid obscurity.
But the immorality of this system pierces still deeper: An artist held back from public view has, in reality, been intentionally silenced. His tongue’s been cut out. It’s a crime levied against our collective soul against our collective conscience. And this, then, brings us to the relevant mission of The Electric Review – to allow writers and musicians a platform through which to reclaim their voices, presenting them with the opportunity to be heard.
The Electric Review focuses on all aspects of book publishing, and each “issue” of the Review contains critical analysis on books from various subject areas (including textbooks in all academic fields). In addition, new authors and works of fiction are given special consideration as a means to promote books and writers who otherwise would be ignored by the conventional print media. The same approach is taken when reviewing music, as we attempt to expand the things you see and hear.
The goal of The Electric Review is, simply, to further literacy and compel the world at large to read – encouraging you to immerse the echoes of your breath in the salty beauty of language in her ripe sweet ever-changing essence. And going a step further, The Electric Review strives to resuscitate the mind, spotlighting the best in academic and general trade titles, pointing you to worthwhile books in your area of interest. What you’ll find here are honest and probing assessments addressing myriad subjects of deep social importance, the pages devoid of slap-in-the face graphics and flash imagery; instead, the intent is to forego the flash so that the writing might command your complete attention. The magazine is designed this way (without commercial motive) so that the review-capsules exist as mere moments in time: This single pebble of thought this intellectual pool of knives meant to enlighten all true sides of heart & soul.
In sum, this is a non-commercial site: Existing like the poetry of Kenneth Patchen or Robert Duncan, its sole objective to scale the naked mountains of pure intellectual enlightenment (my sole and complete purpose to inspire the bloom of eternal imagination while helping to shed light on the sacred paths of both Nation and Self.
Publishers submit materials of their own volition and understand that the submission of material for consideration by the Editor is not to be construed as to be in ‘exchange’ for a review. The Electric Review does not serve as a ‘for-hire’ advertising vehicle and the submission of material for review creates no agreement – either express or implicit – requiring us to provide comment on a book, record, film, product or event.
Instead, The Electric Review exists as a literary advocate following a path forged in part by Edgar Allan Poe, T.S. Eliot, Arthur Rimbaud, William Everson and Allen Ginsberg (striving to enlighten, writing for the sacred sake of it). Accordingly, commentary is published as a free public service with reviews based solely on merit and the lasting classroom or cultural value of a given work – this compendium of essays meant to serve as an electronic ‘library’ and on-going teaching resource surveying the 21st-century landscape.
In the end, our collective mission is one of education, literacy and the freedom of expression as we aspire to examine the written record of the world in which we live.
FROM RAT’S NOTEBOOK is a column from the desk of the Editor, and content here will evolve naturally, according to the natural progression of the mind. In some issues, subject matter will parallel a general interest topic of the day: news items, music, literature, art; in other issues, perhaps a poem or a story whereby upon conclusion you rise up stark from your numb bed — thinking.
All clip-art used as link-cues on Reference, Product Reviews, and Industry News pages courtesy of the Florida Center for Instructional Technology.
Electric Review 