BLAST and its Content

        I chose to look at the content of BLAST. The first thing I did was go through each issue and tally up the various types of work in them. I has seven categories; the introduction,poetry, plays, short fiction, opinion pieces, art, and advertisements. Then I totaled up the number of pages for each section and the total number of pages and found the percent that each category took up.
            In BLAST issue one the introduction, in this case the manifesto was 31 pages and made up 19% of the entire issue. Only 6 pages have poems on them for a total of 12 pages, only 3.5% of the issue. Advertisements also make up only 3.5% of the issue. The one play in the first issue is 27 pages and is 16%  of the issue. There are only two short stories in the issue, making up 18% of the issue. There are 23 art pieces in the first issue, making up 13%of the issue. the category that has the most space is the opinion pieces  at 46%. Most of these pieces were short papers about various topics the authors felt strongly about. 
          The second issue of BLAST is similar to the first in terms of composition even though it is much shorter than the first issue, but there are some major differences as well.The opinion pieces make up 57% of the second issue. Unlike the first issue the introduction in issue two is just a three page editorial. Poetry makes up more of the second issue- 16%, but there are no plays and only one two page short story.  Both issues clearly show the political and artistic beliefs of those involved in the making of BLAST. Each has many pieces that are just give the author's opinion on a certain topic or place. They are critical and unapologetic. The fact that these pieces make up so much of each issue shows the strong political opinions of those in charge of BLAST, opinions that they clearly want their readers to know about. This aggressiveness in their opinions being the right ones could be why BLAST only lasted two issues.