Page 24 RAIN June/July 1983 ACCESS: Periodical Reviews The Tarrytown Letter The Tarrytown Group The Tarrytown House Executive Conference Center East Sunnyside Lane Tarrytown, NY 10591 Monthly, $30/yr. The Tarrytown Group came to life with the guidance of a somewhat surprising duo, anthropologist Margaret Mead and journalist Robert Schwartz, former New York bureau chief of Time magazine and ex-editor of Harper’s. They created a membership organization, a conference center, and, in February 1981, began publishing the Tarrytown Letter for "those who are at ease with the unexpected discontinuities common during a time of major change." Self-described as "a forum for new ideas," the Letter concerns itself with the news of new paradigms—fundamental shifts in perspective, such as realizing our school system engages only one of many levels of consciousness. Despite the unfamiliar subject matter, it's very readable. In reporting on remarkable work such as The Institute of Noetic Sciences research (2820 Union St., San Francisco, CA 99123), just eight pages are used to clearly describe brain resonance, extraordinary body changes of Tibetan yogis, Soviet-American astronaut dialogues, and several other studies. Past themes included social decentralization, men and women, general systems theory, Soviet human potential research, and medical insights. As newsletters go, this one promises a rare mix of authoritative reporting and comprehensible insights into human potential and social innovation. —KN Southern Exposure Institute for Southern Studies PO Box 531 Durham, NC 27702 Bimonthly, $16 individual, $20 inst. Southern Exposure creatively illuminates ecological and social-political issues specific to the South. Each edihon, usually exceeding 100 pages, focuses on a particular topic. Past issues spotlighted toxic dumping and how to solve it (The Future is Now), urban decay and rural development (Building the South), and a 225-page issue on land use, which includes a nine-state evaluation of food, fuel, and fiber (Our Promised Land). What caught my interest in this journal, however, was their November/December 1982 issue: Waging Peace. The South's economy, more than any other region in the U.S., suckles from the Pentagon's purses. As the many contributors clearly show, the milk is poison: a Southern state-by-state analysis exposes how military spending is crippling local economies and creating unemployment among laborers. Each state's report is concluded by a list of organizations active in waging peace. Coastal Affairs, the May/June 1982 issue, examines the conflicts between habitat—whole ecosystems and land- based settlements—and recreation, industrial, mineral, and subdivision interests. Few publications so brilliantly convey the threatened integrity of a bioregion's environment and boldly sound its calls for a more sustainable culture. —KN Harbinger: The Journal of Social Ecology 211E 10th St. New York, NY 10003 Quarterly, $10/yr. The premier issue of Harbinger has recently appeared. The Harbinger Publishing cooperative, associated with the Institute for Social Ecology, gives the following self-description: "We are activists and academics who work on issues of urban, rural, and natural ecology; feminism and other liberatory movements; and community political and cultural projects. Our decision to publish a journal grew from our desire—and the desire expressed by many others with whom we spoke—to see a publication that expressed in an integrative way the political and moral perspectives, and their practical applications, that we have found most compelling and useful for advancing radical change in our times." The journal will serve as a vehicle for developing ideas in the emerging field of social ecology, but the cooperative will be publishing "fiction, art, humor, and journalism as well as scholarly and technical essays." The first issue contains a study by the Center for Studies in Food Self-Sufficiency of the prospects for bioregional food systems in Vermont, a critique of sociobiology by Murray Book- chin, an essay on the history of utopian thought and activity, an article on the MX missile, some poetry, and two pieces of fiction. Harbinger promises future articles on feminism and ecology, the politics of health, urban ecology, appropriate technology, art and popular culture, community governance, and philosophies of nature. Due to its limited budget. Harbinger currently plans to publish just one more issue this year (in the summer) and expects to go on a quarterly schedule in 1984. —Lance Regan Trivia, A Journal of Ideas PO Box 606 N. Amherst, MA 01059 3 times a year, $10/individual, $16 libraries and institutions. Sample copy, $4.50 The premiere issue. Fall 1982, contains six essays and a regular feature, "Trivial Lives." These sensitive and thought-provoking essays continue the dialogue on critical feminist issues. Subject matter includes female friendship, women and writing, feminist humor, parthenogenesis, women in technology, and most important, an analysis of the postures taken by various factions of the women's movement on sado-masochism. If issue #1 is an example of what is to come, I for one, will be a reader. —NC North Country Anvil PO BOX 402 Winona, MN 55987 5 yearly, $8.50 Like few other periodicals, the Anvil has given voice to the entire spectrum of cultural inventors, focusing on those of the Upper Midwest bioregion: artists, poets, fiction writers, dramatists, entrepreneurs, appropriate technologists, spiritualists, and ecological farmers. There's reason to believe the Anvil will become even more exciting. With the Winter '83 issue, the largely new staff announced that the Anvil would be primarily a regional forum, making urban-rural connections, relating the history and struggles of the region's inhabitants, and showing how individuals and groups are confronting crisis and expressing their hopes and successes. Two issues deserve parHcular mention. The August/September 1982 issue, marking the Anvil's tenth anniversary; and the following issue (#41), a special issue focused entirely on women. The purists will find delight in knowing that the Anvil is genuinely "home grown." It is printed on their own Anvil Press, where the staff also print books, flyers, etc. as a way of making ends meet. —KN
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