Bad Bad moves the unabashedly juvenile persona elliptically constructed in Zirconia into a seriously amusing, un-blushing womanhood. The poems are equally clownish and f*ck-offish, taking on with equivocal weightlessness the lexicons and trimmings of fashion, as it applies to the Self and the garments that clothe the Self, and self-obliteration, as experienced through immersion in the delights and disgust of the Other. "come on the revulsion//the revulsion//// when ////you bring it home////like seafoam//when you bring it home....," she writes, in an ecstasy of encounter. Minnis addresses the inner needs of the poet "the purpose of poetry is to seem as lifelike as possible so that you actually exist" and is everywhere concerned with the denotation of that which is true and necessary to the true and necessary poet. "it is a poem//which is a trough////where you can make your reputation////as a stiff///anyway, I am not trying to be human anymore//////I am trying to be smart....in the head....like a pissant......."
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Juvenile mockery of poetry and the American poetry establishment, as well as excited reverence for both, are the themes of Minnis's second collection. Sixty-eight prose Prefaces open the book, chastising career-minded poets (You should not think of getting a job with your poetry.../ .../ Poetry careers are a bad business) while spelling out her own manifesto: I want to write a poem because I don't feel very boring! In the middle are nine extended examples of the kind of lyric that filled Minnis's debut, Zirconia, in which dots, periods or ellipses sprawl across the page, interrupted by lyric outbursts: if you will promise....... to be a young girl.../ ......... I will give you a moustache. Many, most even, may find these dots distracting or annoying, though it's interesting to ponder their meaning. The book closes with alternately compelling and silly prose and verse pieces, including an anti-résumé: 1996/ No car.// Apply for no teaching jobs. Don't publish book. Petulant, clever, sometimes funny, sometimes irritatingly flippant, Minnis's poems will inspire questions as to whether this work qualifies as poetry at all, though some readers—fans of, say, Bill Knott, at his silliest—may find much to like. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"[I]ndulgent and melancholy....[M]oments of extreme morbidity and anger." --Arielle Greenberg
"[H]er poems take some getting used to." --Robert Strong
"[M]any won't find her...acceptable at all." --Cole Swensen
"[H]er poems take some getting used to." --Robert Strong
"[M]any won't find her...acceptable at all." --Cole Swensen
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
. . . though you wouldn't think so by reading the Publishers Weekly squib above---- Their last comment is the coup de grace: there is no worse insult in contemporary poetry than to be compared to the ignominious Bill Knott!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
