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Sites, 'Zines, Books, and Guides for [fierce] Women in General
Reviewed by Lisa Okey
The Sub, a novel by Jimmy Jazz, Incommunicado Press
This is the story of a 26-year-old substitute teacher in California who was raised on punk rock and brings this stark sensibility to his classroom. Jazz
writes in a rhythmic spoken word style that carries the reader along in a
lyrical flow through his trials as the lowest "sub-human" on the academic ladder. The kids yell "A sub, a sub!" when he enters the classroom and when
they aren't ignoring him, they ask personal questions, which he tries to
answer honestly: Hands go up, "When was the last time you had sex? Did you lick her bean this morning before work? What kind of drugs have you used?" I never smoked pot. "Why not?" Because the Sex Pistols said, "Don't believe the newspapers and stop smoking pot." "Do you drink and drive?" I have friends who have gone to jail. I am becoming uncomfortably evasive politician manueverizing of bold face change the subject answerprepared safe pabulum answers swerve and curve...If I answer these questions I will never become fully human (I'll be fired). Yet, the answers are a straight path to becoming Human, more than being liked, being understood." The sub is a balloon of free-floating angst. The reader follows him as he lands in one class assignment after another, feeling his frustrating disassociation as he tries to connect with the students. In one class, a student suffers a traumatic epileptic attack and the sub feels his potential power for a brief instant: "What do I say to the crowd? The anxious mob, suddenly become one ear. Unified. I can say anything about epilepsy and they will remember it. They want to know. They want there to be talk about it. Even a voice pretending to know something. . . . I have missed my opportunity." Just when he can reach them, they slip from his grasp. The students and the teacher face the meaningless-ness of life and move on to their next class isolated and unenlightened. Jazz writes with his heart on his sleeve and he gives the reader his own cool, slinkster insight into the fragmented world of being a substitute teacher.
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