Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Gaga-esque

Here are some reviews I picked off the Internet for the Amazon.com page:

Glenum returns with another grotesque and fantastical orgy of poems. This time they seem to be connected like a weird Richard Foreman play translated into redneck red-light dadaisms. Her words blur and hiss like a radio not quite tuned right but you can't turn it off because they're saying things you've never heard or imagined before. These poems make even your weirdest dreams seem boring. --Kevin Sampsell

I am currently working on a review of Glenum's latest poetry collection, 'Maximum Gaga' and I found myself thinking of it as 'post-apocalyptic porno poetry' and then I thought that it wasn't just post-apocalyptic, it was also post-porno-and kind of post-gender-and maybe even post-HUMAN. None of which is meant to suggest that it's written in some kind of impenetrable, academic postmodern jargon. Not at all. It's more of a visceral fusion of creatures who are hybrids of human and animal and machine. It's not for the squeamish and certainly not for the prim and proper, but if you think you might enjoy some poetic material that plays with conventions of gender and sex in extreme and gut-churning ways, then check out Glenum's new book, as well as her previous collection, 'The Hounds of No'. Glenum is associated with an interesting new poetry movement called 'gurlesque' that fuses the cute and girlie with the grotesque with certain performative aspects of burlesque in a kind of re-appropriated force feeding of voluptuous horror. Both of her books were published by Action Books. --Juliet Cook

Lara Glenum's MAXIMUM GAGA is both a masterwork of the new grotesque, of innovation in lymph-adhering language, and a much needed kick in the lips for even those already in the business of wanting to kick lips without disrupting their own terror coma. --Blake Butler

3 Comments:

Blogger Max said...

It would seem to me that the most important texts for the "squeamish" or the "prim and proper" to be experiencing are those which confront their fears and anxieties head on. And at the same time, the most essential texts for ... I guess, those who are the opposite of "squeamish" or "prim and proper" ... are those which challenge what it is to be not squeamish or not prim and proper.

11:56 PM  
Blogger Johannes said...

I am very squeamish but I am interested in things that squeam me out.

J

7:44 AM  
Blogger Juliet Blood Pudding said...

I finished the review itself; it's in the new issue of Gently Read Literature. Juliet

10:43 AM  

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