Folding Ruler Star - Softcover

Kunin, Aaron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0974090980 ISBN 13: 9780974090986

Publisher: Fence Books, 2005

Synopsis

These poems are conceived as a value-neutral Paradise Lost. In other words, someone who is not god tells you to avoid a certain tree, and you disobey the instruction; the result is shame. Two characters agree that one of them is supposed to worship and obey the other without actually believing that the other possesses any special qualities that would enforce obedience; the first one disobeys the second one and has to be punished. A body has five parts; each part is alarmed. Descriptions of the parts set off the alarms. Affect lives in the face and is measured with a ruler. The measure is a five-syllable line arranged in three-line units. Each poem is mirrored by another poem with the same title.

About this title

About the Author

Aaron Kunin is the author of FOLDING RULER STAR (Fence, 2005), a collection of small poems about shame; THE MANDARIN (Fence, 2008), a novel; and THE SORE THROAT & OTHER POEMS (Fence Books, 2010). He lives in Los Angeles and is an assistant professor of negative anthropology at Pomona College.

Reviews

In 1986, Noam Chomsky published a book called Barriers, elaborating a theory of what kinds of grammatical elements can combine, what kinds can't and how it happens. Kunin's debut treats language in precisely that way, and also sees it as in a completely synecdochic relationship with its users: language's parts stand for our wholes and are every bit as mechanical, modelable, automatic, desirous, thwarted, blocked and explosive as people are when they try to approach one another. And there are major constraints here: the entire book is composed in five syllable lines comprising three-line stanzas; every poem is "mirrored by another poem with the same title," as Kunin notes in a preface. The dual-poem format, coupled with violent, sexualized content (deft but definitely disturbing) gives the impression of very fraught attachments indeed. The book is certainly about having feelings like shame, disgust and grief, but it is also about how they get produced—and registered within a system that may be human in seat, but not in origin: it may be divine. To that end, there are references to Paradise Lost and to Renaissance body part love poetry (the senses here represented by "Five Security Zones"). This is beautiful, complicated poetry from a poet exploring "the device in the/ assumed direction/ of its mouth." (Sept.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Fence Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0974090980
• ISBN 13: 9780974090986
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 62