We are taking simple pleasure in the object. In this case, Jen Bervin's book NETS, found at the Ugly Duckling Presse table in Texas. Less emergent poetry than Hollywood, it's what you'd call high concept: an idea that can be pitched in the time it takes an elevator to go from the lobby to the mezzanine at the Chateau Marmont, a pitch that moreover follows the time-honored scheme of "It's [popular form X] meets [popular form Y with somewhat different demographic appeal]!" (cheerfully accepting and suppressing the knowledge that X and Y were both produced by similar device).
It's Shakespeare's Sonnets meets Tom Phillips' A Humument! And it is: laid out inside spare 6.5" x 5" space, name on spine and simple design on tan cover, one encounters nothing more than all the sonnets, with most of the text grayed down to what looks like about 20 percent; in each, a few words here and there at 100 percent black form, more or less, a single contingent phrase, both a derivative and variable of the source poem. Not earth-shaking, but pleasing, strangely immediate and calm.
One can probably imagine what it looks like. No need: the web arm of the Conjunctions empire has done a swell job of laying a few online, though the rollover effect — as equivalently obvious as it seems — perhaps takes a little from the soothing simplicity. Nonetheless, here it is; scroll down a ways, and click on "From Nets."
Posted by jane at March 16, 2006 08:22 AM | TrackBack