this hall of several tortures by Reuben Woolley (Reviewed by Clara B. Jones, 10/2019)

this hall of several tortures
Reuben Woolley
2019
Knives, Forks, and Spoons [KFS] Press, UK
103 pp
10 British Pounds



Reviewed by Clara B. Jones in Entropy, October 2019






“What is the 'right' poetry game to be played today?” Marjorie Perloff



It is 9/26/2019. I am seated at home at my desk, having completed my third reading of a pre-publication document of Reuben Woolley's new poetry collection, this hall of several tortures. Because of the poems' effects on my imagination and thinking, I am compelled to write a review while the compositions are vivid in my memory. Like all of the author's works, these poems can be classified as “innovative” and “experimental,” the latter term notoriously difficult to define. In this review, I follow the Russian Formalist, Viktor Shklovsky, who wrote that experimental poetry “defamiliarizes” common speech or makes it “strange” by way of deploying a variety of “devices” or “techniques” [e.g., collage, erasure, repetition, indeterminance]. In this review, I will reference the poetry critic, Marjorie Perloff's, treatment of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophical project, in part, because, Woolley, an Englishman living in Spain and a highly-regarded poet and editor, has studied linguistics and has recommended Perloff''s wide-ranging examination of Wittgenstein [University of Chicago Press, 1996]. this hall of several tortures is dedicated to poets Fran Lock, Antony Owen, and Jerome Rothenberg, and the stunning cover image by Dean Pasch portends a handsomely-produced volume.

The 68 poems in this book represent a cohesively arranged collection since they constitute a plot in the context of a “multiverse,” an “alternate reality” where we follow a young woman's dystopian experiences. As Woolley stated recently on Facebook, the concept of the “multiverse” has been central to much literature, represented in Science Fiction [e.g., Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling], as well as, “straight lit” [e.g., George Orwell, Aldous Huxley]. In the academic literature, this hall of several tortures would be classified as “impossible worlds” writing, exhibiting, in particular, according to the American critic, Marie Laure Ryan, a “dream-like reality” with “fluid images” and “a general lack of ontological stability.” In Woolley's words, “I do not care if [the “multiverse”] actually exists....This [“parallel”] world...is seen by [the young woman] as [a] dystopian planet.... The first person in the poems is not me, the poet, but her. This is fiction based on a frequently unpleasant reality.”

It is important to point out, however, that many poems in this new collection include commentary by a second party situated on the right-hand side of a given page [e.g., “she said”], commentary directed to him, the author—according to Woolley in an interview in The Wombell Rainbow [UK]—situated in a space that is unspecified. This structure is reminiscent of Greek tragedy whereby a character [in this case, the young woman] speaks to a chorus [in this case, Woolley, the poet, himself]; although, in this hall of several tortures, the poet-receiver of the “I” voice does not, apparently, influence, the young woman. That there may be communication between the young woman and the poet, leads one to suggest, however, that the relationship can be interpreted as a form of “doubling” or “twinning” whereby the persona of each performer is difficult to untangle—signaling a type of symbiosis. Following this idea, the reader might wonder whether there is, in fact, any separation at all between speaker and receiver. Are we, possibly, inhabiting a dream generated by the poet's unconscious? Is the book derived from Surrealism and that movement's promulgation of Freudian theory? Even more interesting, perhaps, is the possibility that the psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan's, concept, “mirroring,” describes the relation [literary, figurative] between young woman-speaker and poet-receiver or that each is “Other” to the “Other.” Further, feminist psychoanalyst critics would explore the implied relationship between older male poet and younger female subject [Father? Mentor? Teacher? Lover?]. However the reader decodes or makes sense of Woolley's new compositions—subjectively, textually, or theoretically—the book will prove to be a rich source of interpretive material—bounded only by the collection's plot.



A single poem [p 13], below, serves to illustrate additional “devices” employed by Woolley—conventions readily recognizable throughout his oeuvre:

turn the page over she said

the holes the holes do not come
empty.i dig through a time
a matter coincides

& we occupy the room together.who said
she could not fold a world
away & bring another
skin / another tired foundling
in our dark shells &
never speaking.oh the shit
of it all on both our sides

we scratch a putrid sore
in our reflections
& bleed a waiting speech
on the earths of undelight

Several critics have labeled Gertrude Stein's writing, “impressionistic,” a term befitting the poems in the hall of several tortures. Also, similar to Stein and many other “experimental” works, Woolley's poems are, for the most part, “indeterminate” [e.g., imprecise, unfinished, non-committal, “undecidable”] as to meaning, particularly, in their “associative” or “collage” [fractured, assembled, “cut up”] components whereby words or phrases do not necessarily follow grammatically, or logically, from others. Woolley, also, uses frequent hard and soft “stops,” as seen in the poem above—periods or backslashes between words, phrases. In many other poems, “white spaces” are employed. According to Woolley, “The white space is the same as for music: silence. The greater the space, the longer the silence. They also give the reader/listener time to think, rethink and participate creatively.” This explanation applies, as well, to the aforementioned “stops.” Woolley frequently uses words or phrases that are ambiguous and difficult to interpret, possibly, intentionally, and Perloff, following Wittgenstein, suggests that “senselessness” [see, for example, “& bleed a waiting speech” in Woolley's poem above] represents a “combination of words...excluded from the language...” Here, words “excluded from the language” may be understood as words having been erased by the poet, effected, according to Perloff, for a variety of reasons, such as, obfuscation, play, or, possibly, resistance to mainstream literary norms.

Perloff goes on to point out that Wittgenstein was “obsessed not only with the 'power of ordinary words,' but with their strangeness.” One might say the same of Woolley. Throughout the hall of several tortures, the poet frequently begins common words with, “un,” as in “undelight,” in the poem above. Perloff states that Wittgenstein saw no fundamental difference between “ordinary and literary language,” a viewpoint consistent with Woolley's straightforward and unpretentious, though, not simplistic, use of syntax, including, word usage. Perloff , also, discusses Wittgenstein's perspective that “certain things cannot be said, they can only be shown: There is indeed the inexpressible.” Like Woolley's use of the word, “shit” in “turn the page over she said,” the poet often uses taboo words to express emotion in place of using literal language—rather than attempt to describe a state of being or events in the world . These taboo words may, also, symbolize or take the place of thoughts [in the present case, possibly, “I understand.” or “Yes.” or “Really?” or “OK”], in addition to a range of emotions [possibly, contentment, acceptance, protectiveness, or awe]. Importantly, Wittgenstein pointed out that, where words are repeated [repetition characterizing many experimental poems—see, especially, Stein], they must be evaluated in context; thus, the “function” of words is expected to change from location to location in a text.

Like the recently deceased, Steve Dalachinsky, Reuben Woolley might be called a “jazz poet”—influenced by the “free jazz” musical movement, and he has sometimes discussed his poetics in interviews and online. In the online literary journal, The Wombell Rainbow [UK], for example, Woolley stated, “I like to think I write Free Poetry. Any word or image can go anywhere, but only the really good poet can recognise that place and allow the word or image to go there....” Because of this poet's literary, intentional, and contextual skills, this hall of several tortures is a book that will be valuable, not only for its literary and artistic import, but, also, as a text amenable to “close reading” by academics, critics, and other readers valuing music and image combined with rich texture, as well as, innovative, “impressionistic” language and plot. As well, the collection can be entered solely for the pleasure of experiencing compelling “abstract” art —one of Woolley's major influences. His new collection is certain to attract a wide audience—well-deserved attention for a noteworthy practitioner of avant garde poetry.

BlogPost in progress: my developing Aesthetics/Poetics (Clara B. Jones-3/2019)

"Works of art that achieve 'masterpiece' status share several characteristics: they convey a special type of originality that captures the imagination; they stand the test of time; and, they change the way artists or readers-observers think about their genre or sub-genre." based on/after Goldstein JL (9/20/2018) What makes a piece of Art or Science a 'masterpiece'? Cell 175: 1-5.


Other criteria based upon Modernist and Russian Formalists--especially as they may pertain to poetry [in no particular order at this point]:

Overview: THEME, FORM, PLOT, MOTIF, NARRATORS, CHARACTERIZATION, IMAGERY, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

--interpretive power
--changes the way we look at things
--stands the test of time
--stimulates the imagination
-- form [including, in most cases, strong beginning and ending]/style
----arrangement/visual-textual/title[s]
--technique/devices [especially, Shklovsky's "strangeness,"&  "de-famiarization;" also, see Wittengein's "language games"]; "transrational poetry/experiments" [Shklovsky & other Russian Cubo-Futurists]; zaum;[Khlebnikov, Kruchenykh--Russian Cubo-Futurists] 
--theory[ies] behind work
--music/rhythm [meter?]
--rhyme 
--color
--content/theme/subject [still mulling this one]
--integrity in the sense of part-whole and/or part-part coherence
--image
--intentionality [?]
--"anti-automatism" [?; see Surrealism]
--non-didactic
--non-literal ["literal" usually related to "didactic"]
--beauty [how to define?]
--"psychological transformations" [effects upon motivation, emotions/feelings, sensations, perceptions (e.g., Gestalt effects)], cognition, ideations; effects on unconscious [Surrealism] by way of "defense mechanisms;" effects on "self" [e.g., self-image, self-concept] 
--include "spiritual" effects? [what would this mean?]

Review of les echiquiers effrontes by Mark Young (by Clara B. Jones)

les échiquiers effrontés

Mark Young

2018

Luna Bisonte Prods

$16.00

27 pp

Review by Clara B. Jones*

“Derrida, of course is the primary proponent of bricolage which, more than anything else, is the term I would use to best describe my poetry.” Mark Young

Mark Young's new collection is an experimental work. Many articles and books have attempted to answer the question, “What does 'experimental literature' mean?” The Russian Formalist, Viktor Shklovsky, proposed that experimental art is a technical “device for making strange” and that experimental writing draws “attention to the use of common language in such a way as to alter one's [sensation and] perception of an easily understandable object or concept.” I hesitate to categorize les échiquiers effrontés out of respect for the subjective and improvisational process employed in its creation. Here, I intend to share my own reading of the text rather than attempt to decipher any intent or message on the author's part.

Mark Young is a highly-regarded writer living in Australia who has produced dozens of books. He has been featured in jacket 2 and other venues, as well as, by the Poetry Foundation. Editor of the online journal, Otoliths, Young promotes innovative poetry, visual poetry [“vispo”], and artwork. The improvisational meters and rhythms of jazz characterize Young's work, and William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Ursula Le Guin, and Jorge Luis Borges are among his literary influences. On the back cover of les échiquiers effrontés, the author provides a prose poem about his inspiration for the book: “[Marcel] Duchamp's Nude came eddying down the staircase carrying a chessboard and some sort of dictionary. 'Your move,' she said.”...“I never won again. A readymade Mark, he called me.” The book has been summarized as “conceptual and surrealist visual poetry constructed on chessboard grids,” and, by highlighting Duchamp's Surrealism, Young makes clear that his collection is a product of unconscious processes.

Chessboards constitute the dominant element of the book, providing coherence and unification of 24 visual texts, in addition to, one erased quote (by the military officer [cum strategist] and writer, François de La Rochefoucauld) and two visual devices—one based on a poem by artist-poet-sculptor, Hans Arp (p 15) and, the other, a reworking of one detail of the painting, “Mona Lisa” (p 27). A chessboard is an 8 x 8 grid of squares upon which two persons play a game of strategy to “checkmate” an opponent's King. In the abstract, the board may be viewed as a map or table and the squares as fields or cells, respectively. Young positions words, images, memes, photographs, or other visuals in cells that can stand alone or in relation to one another. Similarly, each chessboard can relate to others—or, not—enhancing imagination, playfulness, and complexity. The chessboard, also, can be divided into strips or diagonals, permitting additional visual, interpretive, or other, permutations. Individual images may repeat in one or another way. Nelson Mandela, for instance, is mentioned in Young's prose poem, and the politician's photograph appears in a cell on page 16. Repetition, most notably associated with Gertrude Stein's writing, is a common hallmark of experimental literature.

Close “reading” of les échiquiers effrontés reveals multiple layers and scales. One might view each chessboard as a table with mathematical qualities since each cell [square] has a numerical identity. Thus, the upper left-hand square can be quantified as, Row 1, Column 1, and so on. Also, cells surrounding images may be viewed as frames, just as the chessboard, itself, frames the complete composition which is, in effect, a construction of pictures within pictures. Variation and flexibility characterize the text, surrendering freedom of interpretation to the reader, as all Postmodern creations do.

Titles may or may not relate to particular grids. Often, a title repeats words in corner squares. In a few cases, titles appear to have no relation to the compositions to which they refer. Young's inclination to uncouple titles and works is a convention that seems designed to give each component singularity or authority on its own, without interdependence. An interesting feature of the elements superimposed (seemingly at random) upon squares is that, in addition to the colors themselves, many have multiple meanings. For example, “Persephone” is both Queen of the Underworld, as well as, an analogue synthesizer. Similarly, “sigil,” a word used in Young's prose poem, is a symbol, sign, or seal and an e-book editor. “SMURF” is a comic character, as well as, a symbol of freedom. Duchamp is a chess player and an artist. The symbolic importance of Duchamp to les échiquiers effrontés cannot be overestimated since the Surrealist-as-chess player is a strategist as was La Rochefoucauld, and, like Young, an artist who minimized the boundaries between art and life.

Young joins a long tradition of artists employing the chessboard in visual, or, in this case, vispo, works, generally, in depictions of opponents playing the game. Used as an avant garde device, however, the chessboard has a Cubist quality seen most famously in the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky (e.g., Compositions X and XIII, “Decisive Pink,” “Continuous Line,” and “Small Dream in Red”). Young's inventiveness is apparent in each component of les échiquiers effrontés, as well as, throughout the book as a whole. This collection is a tour de force demonstrating that his reputation as a noteworthy innovator is well deserved. I am eager to experience where Young's imagination and compositional abilities take us next.

*Published January 2019 in Entropy

Review of At Your Feet by Ana Cristina Cesar (Review by Clara B. Jones)

At Your Feet

Ana Cristina César

Katrina Dodson, Ed.

Brenda Hillman, Helen Hillman, & Sebastião Edson Macedo (translators)

2018

Parlor Press

$14.00

103 pp

Reviewed by Clara B. Jones experimenting with book review form...*

“In literature, it is only the wild that attracts us.” Henry David Thoreau

Who is the author? Ana Cristina César (1952-1983, suicide*) was active in Brazil during the 1970s. Her work has been categorized as avant garde, a term usually reserved for visual artists and writers who are active politically, usually, in leftist groups or movements. According to Brenda Hillman, César was born and raised in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, in a religious, middle-class family. Conducting research on “Ana C,” as the poet was called in her circle and among her followers, I did not discover that her formative years were marked by trauma or dysfunction. However, in an academic paper, Lúcia Villares (1997, Portuguese Studies 13, pp 108-123) reported that the 1970s in Brazil were preceded by military coups (in 1964 & 1968), leading to the isolation, exclusion, and suppression of radicals, activists, intellectuals, and the middle-class.

In response to these measures, strikes and demonstrations were carried out against the military regime which countered the actions with increased repression—especially of the middle-class, including, censorship, seizure of books, attacks on left-wing publishers, among other interventions. César and her circle of poets formed a group, “geração Marginal” (“the marginal generation”) that published and sold chapbooks and books independent of commercial publishing houses and distributors. The marginal (marginalized) poets advanced a view of a fragmented world in which the power of language was reduced. These oppositional writers expressed their sense of impotence, in part, by emphasizing their communal efforts and by asserting themselves as survivors in a hostile environment.

Through her writing, “Ana C” identified with the “poesia feminina” movement in Brazil, part of the opposition supporting women's search for identity and voice. This group held that to be a woman was to be “desdobráve”—a woman capable of transforming herself. Consistent with this background, César's poetry is in general, fragmented and written in collage style, mostly, dispensing with meter, rhythm, music, and lyric, though her pieces are infused with vivid image and color. The reader of At Your Feet may find that poems seem to increase in complexity, self-confidence, and clarity from beginning to end; though, according to Hillman, there is no evidence that César's poems were arranged chronologically. Though I am not qualified to say, the translations appear to be excellent; at least, I found them rich with artful language. After a tour of the continent, César returned to Rio, jumping out of a window in her parents' home not long after.

What is At Your Feet about? The book is a collection of intense poems, mostly about bad or failed relationships with men, as well as their associated emotions and feelings. Also, the book's title suggests subservience. Thus, for example, “I went on the attack: it's now, sweet-/heart, in a car going up in flames,...in the early dawn, because of you and furious: it's now, against this traffic....” (p 19). The author seems driven to make sense of things—with men, with herself; though, there is no mention of political unrest except in the sense that the poems, themselves, may be viewed as oppositional—against the military regime, against traditional mores, and against conventional literary practices and criteria. The primary subject-matter seems contradictory to her reputation as a feminist and her documented identification with women and feminism. For example, she relies upon many female stereotypes (e.g., lovestruck, hysterical, silly) and expresses negative emotions toward other females (e.g., they arouse jealousy or are viewed as intruders: “that total bitch/of a woman”, p 77).

Nevertheless, one of César's stated goals was to become assertive, authentic, and outspoken, rather than, a passive and suppressed woman. Thus, her bold expressions of emotional vulnerability may be viewed as attempts to be radically, unabashedly honest (“Let's have afternoon tea and I'll tell you my big passionate story, which I've kept under lock and key, and my heart beats out of sync while we eat gaufrettes...I'm touched by fire.” (p 11); “Call again tomorrow/no matter what.” (p 17); “Without you, I'm really a lake, a mountain./I think of a man named Herberto./...And without bravado, sweetheart, I raise the price.” (p 33). On the other hand, a few of the poems demonstrate moments of assertion and agency (see, for instance, “Final Fire,” p 89), but the intention seems never to be sustained. Ultimately, this collection is about a young woman searching for her own voice, her own agency, and her own will, as well as, the ability to resist socialization and circumstance.

Formal Structure: As mentioned, the poems in At Your Feet, are fragmented, like the political landscape within which César found herself and like her own psychological makeup. Thus, her classification with the avant garde is warranted by the innovative nature of her forms, matching her content. As well, many of her poems appear without titles (a type of erasure?; a silent, “Untitled”?), a convention sometimes used by the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poet, Susan Howe.

César's work seems to align with the movement, Surrealism, since many of her poems exhibit “automatism,” sometimes, by way of, impulsiveness (but, “My boy. It's not automatism. I swear. It's jazz from the heart.”, p 41) and the mining of unconscious processes (“Poetry doesn't—telegraphic—occasional—/leave me solo—loose—/at the mercy of the impossible—/—of the real.”, p 47). The collection includes prose poems and an interesting list poem (“Onomastic Index,” p 93) that includes the names of at least two famous females who died tragically. Structurally, many of the poems might be classified as “fragments”—a single or a few lines. In keeping with a fragmented identity, voice, and form (Post-modernism?), most of these poems are cynical, self-absorbed, emotional, or detached, or are about “boredom” (p 85) or “illness” (81) or victimization (p 83) or hysteria (p 19). Thus, as a whole, the poems' forms are consistent with their meanings and themes—as defined and expressed by the author.

Conclusion: In the final analysis, César's collection shows the work of a young poet without the ability to see herself through an objective lens. As Marjorie Perloff has stated, a mature poet has the ability to see the humor in themselves [sic], something lacking from At Your Feet. It is a cliché to point out that one would like to see how this writer might have developed over a long, productive career. Without this option, one must view the collection's value primarily in relation to the socio-political atmosphere in which it was written. In addition, the poet's work is interesting as an example of a “young adult” sub-genre, and critics could mine the volume for what it tells us about the challenges of early adulthood, particularly, about the development and maturation of females who succumb to suicide when relatively young. Hopefully, César's complete body of work will become available in translation at a future date. Combined with At Your Feet, the poet's writings could become a valuable resource for those interested in avant garde beyond the United States and Europe. I recommend this book because it is a very interesting and enjoyable read. Indeed, despite its limitations, I was unable to put the book down once I began to read it because César took me, and will take you, on an intense “joy- ride”—on an emotional roller-coaster that you will enjoy (see Epigram).

*Note: César's fate brings to mind two other young female artists who jumped out of windows to end their lives: photographer, Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) and poet, Elise Cowen (1933-1962), both Americans. One of my motivations for writing this review is the hope that a reader who is an academic or critic will conduct research on these cases—or, pass the possible project on to someone. Based upon my own limited knowledge, there appear to be some similarities among the women's trajectories. For instance, both César and Cowen jumped out of windows at the homes of their parents, and César and Woodman both traveled in Europe before they took their own lives. Further, all three of these women may have experienced an increased measure of popularity—as well as, disillusionment?—before they killed themselves. I think, though I am not certain, that this apparently contradictory pattern is common among suicides. (My contact: foucault03@gmail.com)

*Published January 2019 in i am not a silent poet