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.

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