June 4, 2006

• It was a letter to the editor that did it.

  I had picked up this magazine headlined
  GOING TO SCHOOL set below a sepia tinted photo of a Jinjang dump yard. Across
  the top, its nameplate spelled out phases.
  Its lower case type seemed a few sizes too small I thought, as if embarrassed
  by its own appearance. I was intrigued.

  Inside, an editorial by Biscuit-Eating Guy
  proclaimed it was the “new,
  transmogrified and completely refurbished issue of Phases magazine.” I did
  not know much about its previous incarnation, but the new phases (vol.5 no.1) certainly looked cool. There were barely
  disguised gripes against schools, compelling interviews, and rather angsty
  scribbling (the kind that passes for creative writing) that invariably ended on
  a positive note. Hmm. Besides, a lot of the writers were between 14 and 21.
  Nice, a magazine for teens, written mainly by teens. I was sold.

  A brief mention about homeschool caught my
  eye; I wrote a letter to the editor (which led to my contributing an article on
  entertainment a couple of issues later). Ends up, I’m making amends by hosting
  a dinner for the conspirators Alvin, Huey Fern, and Pang. Six years later I’m
  still paying.

  You see, there’s nothing quite like phases
  in Malaysia.  The magazine hoped to
  encourage a passion for the written word, develop the ‘habit of art’ and a
  facility to articulate stories and ideas that reflect the drama of our
  God-haunted world. Its dream was to turn out thinking young writers who could
  change words into salt and light. Yet like Flannery O’Connor, writing
  competence was not all we were after. As she put it, competence alone is
  deadly. “What is needed is the vision to go with it, and you do not get this
  from a writing class,” she said. Which explains why from the beginning part
  of the plan was to build a community of like-minded teens who would help one
  another find his or her personal vision.

  And for a while they came, teens caught in
  an awkward limbo between idealism and cynicism, young writers in search of
  light, who end up finding a voice of their own along the way. We had good fun,
  great writing, and authentic community - online and off.

  Several issues later phases had,
  well, phased (again). Should that surprise when a magazine is named after
  cycles of change and passages of time? 
  But don’t write us off because we think there’s life in phases
  yet. As the moon waxes and wanes, so dreams do emerge unscathed from the
  shadows.

  Enter PHASES ONLINE.

  
  

  So here we are in the wild woolly web, and
  bye-bye to phases the dead tree edition. We think being online is simply
  another step forward in realising our vision. It’s as much a spiritual quest as
  it’s a literary one, inspired by a God who was himself the Word made flesh.

  Somewhere out there is a young person with
  words blazing like fire in the bones, that he or she cannot hold in. Welcome to
  phases online. You’re just the sort of person we’d love to hear from.

  • 11:52 pm
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