Mamajuana is a popular drink in the Dominican Republic as well as the name of approximately 5000 samba/salsa bands, porn stars and other assorted internet losers. So it’s beyond me why the guys behind this new literary website would adopt it as a name.
I’m an optimist. I like to believe that even if you give your blog the dumbest name imaginable, if the content is good people will read it. Mamajuana only launched this week (after 8 months of talk) so we’re yet to see if they can escape the curse.
The idea behind MJ is to unite what they call ‘the blogspot generation’, all the writers journalists and literary critics born after 1980, in one place. What remains to be seen is exactly how interesting what this generation has got to say is, seeing as it can be summed up as 20 something kids who update insertstupidname.blogspot.comwith a reblogged photo and a line of text from whatever tortured writer is cool these days. Or failing that, Robert Bolaño.
From what I’ve seen of it, their star feature is a portfolio of Alvaró Pombo, a writer born in 1939 and celebrated by the far right. So, either this is a great practical joke, or they’re entirely missing the point of their own website. Which makes me think, wouldn’t they be better off going out getting drunk on Mamajuana or whatever and experiencing life for themselves rather than starting ANOTHER blog, I mean magazine of course.