Shelly Rich, "Conquering Paradise"

The sisters want to bolt but they end up living in the car in the driveway.

(from Opium #1)

Cool, funny little story. Seemed sort of fearless in its thought processes, if you know what I mean. It let its morals and plausibility get bent and stretched in ridiculous ways, and the language was appealing in its modernity and casualness. Well, I know what I’m trying to say anway.

Here
‘s a link to Opium magazine, an online literature site that has put out this, its first print edition. All the cartoons and photos and stories and poems come with an “estimated reading time” at the top. Which I dig. “Conquering Paradise” was estimated to take 3:26 to read. I decided to use the stopwatch function on my cell phone and time my own reading experience. Took me 3:36.13. So I’m a little slow. But basically, the Opium people got it right. Very impressive and useful. It’s strange, but sometimes you’re reading under the gun.

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