IS THE TOPICAL POLITICAL?

(“Guernica” by Pablo Picasso.)

CAN a story, essay, or poem be political without being topical? Of the now, the moment, addressing today’s dark dilemmas and hectic happenings? Can an art form truly be meaningful or important if it never does? After all, literature is supposed to be “news that stays news,” but people forget the first part of the equation: becoming news to begin with.

Which serves as Introduction to our new feature, “Stormtroopers” by New Pop Lit Editor Karl Wenclas. Prodded by his co-editor to run it as a feature, rather than at one of our soon-to-be-jump-started blogs. A story submitted first to a two-week-response-time, relatively prominent literary journal for the heck of it. (Their loss.) A two-week delay! When being topical– “news”– a two-week delay might be crucial. But way better than dinosaur The New Yorker’s six month response time!

State of the moment and state of the art? That’s for you to judge.

From the first day, for Stewart it was go-go-go, like being pushed through a tunnel. Beginning with the Academy, which crammed four months of training into 47 days. A hiring blitz was on. 120 were in his class, which was one of more than a dozen classes at the facility. New agents ranged in age from 18 to 60. If you were an adult, willing, and breathing.