Thus Spake the Corpse : An Exquisite Corpse Reader 1988-1998 : Volume 1, Poetry Essays

The feisty, informal journal Exquisite Corpse gathered a remarkably loyal bohemian following over its 15 years of existence, ceasing paper publication in 1998. (It's now a frequently updated Web site). Founder, poet and NPR commentator Codrescu and co-conspirator Rosenthal offer up a large inventory of their favorite essays, diatribes, letters, responses and poems from the Corpse's last decade. Thus Spake opens with 142 pages of essays on political and literary topics: writers assail predictable targets (Ronald Reagan, Puritans, Wendell Berry), or else meditate on androgyny, sex before Clinton or poetic activism after Ginsberg. Along with the sometimes-ranting essays, the editors do well to include the often more reasonable letters of response. Objectivist poet Carl Rakosi reflects on the heyday of American Communism as he answers Eliot Weinberger's program-piece; Murat Nemet-Nejat, Clayton Eshleman and Ben Friedlander engage in vigorous debate about Edmond Jab?s. The Corpse was well-feared among poets for its "Body Bag" section, comprising the editors' comments on submissions they had rejected. Thirty pages here reprint the Body Bag's famously sarcastic, sometimes elevated, remarks. The volume's weakest part is the poetry itself, 200 pages clogged with talky mediocrity. Strong work does turn up from Anselm Hollo, Hayden Carruth, Edmund Berrigan and Alice Notley (separately and in collaboration), and from the late Jim Gustafson and Elio Schneeman. But much of the rest of the verse here is neither sexy nor accomplished, a slapdash, too-generous roundup of popular styles from post-Beat to pre-slam eras. But the many diehard Corpse fans may not mind; thrill-seekers might even like it. (Oct.)
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