Items related to Flow Chart: A Poem
Synopsis
"Reticent, shy, unfailingly modern, Ashbery is as unorthodox [as] any of the great twentieth-century creators: Breton, Stravinsky, Picasso," observed Jeremy Reed in Britain's Poetry Review. "We are privileged to be around at a time when he is writing." Flow Chart, a book-length poem that first appeared in 1991, might be Ashbery's greatest creation: a staggering and exuberant "torrent of invention [that] comes as close to an epic poem as our postmodern, nonlinear, deconstructed sensibilities will allow. . . . "
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Reviews
Ashbery invents and reinvents his self in this book-length stream-of-consciousness poem. In manically articulate free verse of long, supple lines, he conjures a secular landscape dotted with shadows of ancient gods, wherein he ferrets out "signs of life in the land of waiting." Bathos sets the mood: Alvin and the Chipmunks, Osiris, Mercury and Argus share common ground. Everyday reality is transmuted by imagination, wish, memory, and by the poet's romantic dialogues with an unnamed significant other. Is the universe a big joke, or is there meaning, perhaps even an organizing principle, behind it? Are free will and predestination reconcilable? How does one move beyond "a lifetime of self-loathing and shallow interests"? Ashbery ( Some Trees ) weaves a haunted, haunting music around these and other big questions, squeezing joy, ennui, despair, hope and a thirst for belonging out of ordinary experience.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ashbery's latest torrent of invention--a book-length meditation-cum-narrative whose true subject may be the process of its own unfolding--comes as close to an epic poem as our postmodern, nonlinear, deconstructed sensibilities will allow. Smoothly and deceptively cast in the syntax of discourse and persuasion, the poem forges on in hot pursuit of the unknowable, challenging us to keep up while simultaneously forcing us to reexamine what we've just read. "We are both part of a living thing now," the poet writes, and to read is to become implicated in the living process of the poem. "The force/ of meaning never extrudes," and Ashbery's sense of play and illusion confounds the scrawny powers of logic. Antecedents are untraceable, created and lost at the moment we are aware of their departures. Flow Chart gives us Ashbery at his most robust and determined.
- Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Search results for Flow Chart: A Poem
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Flow Chart : A Poem
Published by
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1991
ISBN 10: 0679402012
ISBN 13: 9780679402015
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Former library copy. Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 11590951-75
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Flow Chart: A Poem
Seller: More Than Words, Waltham, MA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. A bright, square, and overall a nice copy. Seller Inventory # WAL-R-4c-01451
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Flow Chart: A Poem Ashbery, John
Seller: Twice Sold Tales, Ashfield, MA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Like New. 1st edition 2nd printing - slight stain on page edge - otherwise a fine clean like new collectible with like new dust jacket - enjoy. Seller Inventory # XXB-OJ4-QHT
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FLOW CHART [Signed]
Published by
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1991
ISBN 10: 0679402012
ISBN 13: 9780679402015
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Square Octavo, 216 pages. In Very Good minus condition with a Very Good minus dust jacket. Spine red with white lettering. Dust jacket protected with mylar covering, price uncut: "$20.00". Slight age toning to edges of dust jacket and edges of boards. Minor foxing to edges of text block. Signed by Ashbery on title page. Shelved Case 0. 1399843. Shelved Dupont Bookstore. Seller Inventory # 1399843
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Flow Chart: A Poem
Seller: GoldBooks, Denver, CO, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # 96J42_44_0679402012
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Flow Chart
Published by
Knopf, 1991
ISBN 10: 0679402012
ISBN 13: 9780679402015
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Seller: Plot Twist, Baltimore, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: As New. ** SIGNED, AS NEW, 1ST EDITION ** About this Item Square Octavo, 216 pages. As New condition with an As New dust jacket. Unread crisp pages with sharp corners Spine red with white lettering. Dust jacket protected with mylar covering, price uncut: "$20.00". No age toning to edges of dust jacket and edges or boards. No foxing, best copy out there. Signed by Ashbery on title page. SYNOPSIS Flow Chart: A Poem by American poet John Ashbery. First published in 1991, it is a single, book-length poem, one of the longest ever written by an American poet. Here is a summary of its content and themes: Subject Matter: The poem is a meditation on life, death, and everyday realities, perceived through self-reflection. Ashbery described it as a "continuum, a diary". Style and Structure: It is composed of more than 5,000 lines of free verse in six connected movements. The language uses standard grammar and syntax, but the meaning is often elusive, challenging the reader to keep up with its flow. Themes: The work explores the discontinuity of modern life and human consciousness. It is described as a "torrent of invention" that comes close to an epic poem for the postmodern era. Seller Inventory # 241