Across the street from work crouches a vicious corporate bookselling machine. I ventured in there during my lunchtime walk to see if they had any Anne Carson books that I could read while loitering in their cavernous stacks. Their poetry section looked like it had been gleefully ransacked and subsequently rearranged by illiterate trolls. Seriously, there were kids’ books shoved in there, completely randomized alphabetization, and all kinds of other unspeakable chaos. I almost threw up. The only Anne Carson book I found was Nox but it was sealed. Well, that and Antigonick, which I did flip through and find intriguing. Meanwhile, behind me in the video section, two middle-aged guys were tag-team harassing this clerk about obscure psychotronic films. It was totally absurd. They just kept badgering him. I almost heaved Nox in their general direction. The clerk kept his cool, but I’m sure he was seething inside. Then I stood up too fast and felt dizzy so I left.
gather to hear the sound of barrel scraping
Posted by sean on August 28, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/08/28/gather-to-hear-the-sound-of-barrel-scraping/
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s. d. stewart 
ladywrenna
/ August 28, 2012Both Antigonick and Nox would be good choices. Nox is intensely confessional on the right hand side of the page, with a long dictionary translation of a word from a poem by Catullus on the left hand side. It is about the impossibility of reconstructing a lost relationship with a brother. Antigonick is fun, an easy read of a Greek tragedy if ever there was one. The illustrations are metaphorical, if they relate to the text at all. Not like I’d say you must read everything that Anne Carson has ever written (the archives of the New Yorker has free stuff).
taidgh
/ August 28, 2012I like Bianca Stone’s poetry comics. I’m not sure what she adds to Antigonick, though I’m intrigued.
I guess if you felt dizzy you had to get out. And fast!
birds fly
/ August 29, 2012Well, the book looked cool, although I didn’t have much time with it. Seems like more of an art book than anything; I found the arrangement and appearance of the text to be distracting at first glance.
ladywrenna
/ August 29, 2012it’s Anne Carson’s own handwriting!
birds fly
/ August 29, 2012Oh well. I still thought the pages were hard to read. Nice to look at, though. Her handwriting is really cool. She writes in all caps, like me!