Actual Reviews

Well, I'm sitting here in our new house, surrounded by boxes in various states of unpackededness (?), putting aside everything to bring new nuggets of insight to you, dear readers. I am now on my fourth blog post, and, given the presence of the word "review" in the title, I was thinking there might be a reasonable expectation of literary analysis on your part. I have actually written a handful in recent months, after some communication with Antigravity editor Leo McGovern regarding the writing of reviews for that publication. But Mr. McGovern has proven completely unreliable in returning emails and phone calls, so I have no clue as to whether anything I submitted will be published. Is that a New Orleans thing, or what? The New Orleans Levee, the Colton Studio School and NOMA are among the other institutions that just don't seem to feel an obligation to return basic inquiries. No matter, they will eventually rue the day they crossed the Abomunistic Review of Books! I will crush them like overripe grapes! (note to self: edit last two sentences)

Oh, well, God bless them, one and all. On with the review--

The Posthuman Dada Guide
by Andrei Codrescu
Princeton University Press, 2009
16.95

The jumping-off point for this ambitious work of literary criticism/cultural analysis/historical revisionism is the photographically-documented chess match between Romanian Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara and Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in Zurich in October 1916. Switzerland’s neutral status during World War I made it a haven for artistic and political radicals of all stripes, and many of the movements midwifed there would resonate, and often compete, over the course of the century.
Codrescu argues that Dada, founded in Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire by a polyglot crew of European writers, dancers, musicians and visual artists as a conscious repudiation of the entire culture that spawned the war, Shakespeare and Beethoven as well as the Kaiser and the Czar, has retained its vitality because it has never become “historical”: while Andre Breton and Jean-Paul Sartre, for example, tried to force the square pegs of Surrealism and Existentialism into doctrinaire Communist round holes, “The stem cell of Dada (‘the virgin microbe’) contains every possibility of revolt, destruction, and self-destruction;… Dada has causes, all of them, and is against them all, including itself,” (p.46).
The tone, format and even physical design of the book are all playful and intellectually rich. Discussions of Surrealism, Modernism, Kabbalah as a tool of Jewish emancipation (including seamless Battlestar Galactica references), the early Romanian avant-garde and café culture are exhilarating, relevant and completely free from academic jargon, despite Codrescu’s frequent forays into academia and the blessing of an Ivy League university press. Incidentally, it was rather surprising to find some editing lapses from dear old Princeton (misspelling of Charles Henri Ford’s middle name, incorrect copyright dates for The Name of the Rose and The Da Vinci Code [note: since the original writing, I have come to the conclusion that the dates refer to the movie adaptations, although that is not specified in the text]). But perhaps they were simply feeling liberated from such linear concepts as correct spelling and chronological accuracy. It’s easy to imagine while reading this tour de force.


In bookselling news, be sure to look for Deep South Samizdat at the Freret Market in New Orleans on Saturday, Sept. 5. Check out freretmarket.org for further details. And you can always shop online at amazon.com/shops/deepsouthsamizdatbooks.

The Abomunistic Review of Books is always interested in hearing from you, at mpbookfreak@hotmail.com. If you don't want your email published on the blog, just let me know. Take care.