Customer Reviews

The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
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A must for anyone interested in 1 of the 3 greatest poets [writing in english] circa 1950 to present. Gizzi's essay is illuminating and steers clear of obfuscating what Spicer meant by "dictation" and the "outside".

Hey, Jack Spicer is still the hidden force and westcoast "genisu loci" of US poetics, and Peter Gizzi has done a yeoman's job of putting these probing and lost lectures together to do new work. The poesy game will not be disturbed however, and putting J Spicer on cover of American Poetry Review will not alter the pastoral fact and fate of downfall and lost aura. Still, this is must reading.

The House That Jack Built is a must have for any serious poet or reader of poetry and poetics. Spicer's lectures on dictation, the serial poem, and the practice of reading lay a foundation for the art of writing poetry that is without default. His ideas are instrumental in poetry's process. Peter Gizzi's afterword enlivens the spirit of Spicer's practice and makes it available to the reader. Exhibiting a close relationship with Spicer's work and method, Gizzi both completes and opens the material discussed in the lectures. A stellar accomplishment.

This book is simply amazing as Jack Spicer had amazing martian forces driving him. The lectures are excellently transcribed and annotated. This part of the book holds amazing inspiration. Where the book fails is that Gizzi decided to start writing about Jack. I could hardly begin to read his tacked on essay before putting the book down in disgust. Jack spoke for himself just fine. The essay belongs somewhere else.