You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake (Paperback) - Common

by Anna Moschovakis

A sharp-witted investigation of love, work, and human responsibility in the age of consumption and hyperexposure.

"[Moschovakis'] poems illuminate, amuse, and provoke. Plato would have loved them."—Ann Lauterbach

In a world where we find "everything helping itself / to everything else," Anna Moschovakis incorporates Craigslist ads, technobabble, twentieth-century ethics texts, scientific research, autobiographical detail, and historical anecdote to present an engaging lyric analysis of the way we live now. "It's your life," she tells the reader, "and we have come to celebrate it."

Genres: Poetry

119 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 2011

About the author

Anna Moschovakis is a translator and editor, and the author of several books of poetry, including I Have Not Been Able to Get Through to Everyone (2006) and You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake (2011), which won the James Laughlin Award. She is the recipient of awards and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Fund for Poetry, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, and has completed an apexart residency in Ethiopia. Moschovakis lives in Brooklyn and Delaware County, New York.

Reviews

[Tristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake is a collection of long poems about waste and the industrial, death and conflict, the technological, and questions of money. Each poem is inspired by a book of the same name (as described in the acknowledgements section), although she doesn't give details about the exact relationship of the book to the book from which she takes the title and I don't know any of the books and so can't evaluate what that relationship is. The collection's poems explore their themes is lucid and readable verse. I particularly liked "Death as a Way of Life" and "The Human Machine (Thirty Chances)", which is also where some of the odder moments appeared. One section that was particularly neat in "Death as a Way of Life" reads,

the moon's high silver has fallen to dust, and nobody can help him so nobody tries, and the woman is gone, and her hair is gone, and her porcelain back is gone, and her slender fingers, and even her image is gone, and still he has no regrets, and he welcomes death, invites it, knowing as he's never known anything before that his life wants for nothing
now that is something

heaven
a sliver

This section, the twenty-sixth chance of "The Human Machine" is also particularly effective and emblematic of what I liked, lyrically, about these poems:

those with weak spirits, those with weak inner lips pulling in to converse, always receding, never jutting out, those with nothing to say, never, those not free but who are freed, those walkers, talkers, wailers, travelers without fellows and with, those thinkers, those inventors, those who can't and those who don't, those who recede into conversation, those falling through, those who command and who are commanded, those beginning things and those finishing them--

The other major triumph of the book, which I cannot demonstrate in this review, is the way that Moschovakis uses the structures of her poems to give them additional emotional effectiveness. "The Human Machine" takes advantage of repetition and resonance across its seemingly distinct sections to force a consideration of the line between the human and the mechanical in a productive and interesting way and each poem in the book chooses its techniques and hones them to a similar polish. While perhaps not my favorite collection of poems, well worth the read.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Poet as Investigator

Anna Moschovakis' prize winning book of poetry YOU AND THREE OTHERS ARE APPROACHING A LAKE should not be examined as poetry alone. There is so much dissection so the commodities of capitalism, technology, consumerism, Western philosophy, and religion that at times the poems, beautifully constructed though they are, appear a bit soap boxy. She is a cultural critic and there is much to be learned from her stance, her point of view, and yes, her insight!

The collection is divided as follows: Prologue, The Tragedy of Waste, Death as a Way of Life, The Human Machine, In Search of Wealth, and Epilogue. In her Prologue she addresses the reader in a manner that sets the tone for the book: 'The problem is I don't care whether I convince you or not/ In a perfect world I would be able to convince you of this/ Everybody should always have a position on everything/ We take our positions with us, like folding stools to the beach/ The stools, when we abandon them, fade to the same color/ And I will go on with you to the end of this argument/ As I have gone with you to the beach/ And the man with the cooler will walk by selling streets/ And we will pick a street to carry home/ We'll pick the one with the best-loved name/ A flower or a state or October the 12th/ Because each date must be celebrated somewhere in this world/ Each moment of courage or loss of revolution/ When something push something and something fell down

An excerpt from the section The Human Machine even out of context demonstrates some of the master of language and thoughts that flow so fluently through these poems:
'To teach a child obedience, tell it to do something.
Then, see that that something is done. The same
with the brain. Say to your brain:

'For this half of an hour this morning, you shall dwell upon:'

Then give your brain:

Five icicles in the morning sun
A pound of doubt
Two thorns and a spool of thread
A lovers' quarrel
The short biography of a young woman found upon the Internet
A photograph of a young woman found in the street
A bright, dirty alleyway
The lies in a biography

Then give your brain:

a math test
a memory test
a test of will
a test of insight
a politeness test
a litmus test
a test of compatibility
an attention span test
a taste test

The give your brain:

a tag
a tag
a tag

A chatbot is a program
designed to take string inputs
and return other strings,
producing a "conversation"

And at the end of her Epilogue she leaves us with a simple two line statement: 'Dear Reader, your documentary is prize winning. It's your life and/ we have come to celebrate it.' At times reading the poetry of Anna Moschovakis is a challenge - where is she going and how can I climb inside her thoughts to follow the depth of meaning she shares? But go back to the Prologue and start again and gradually the power of this woman's words shakes you.

Grady Harp

[Jennifer Kabat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I am not a poetry person (I hate admitting that. Makes me feel like one of those who says they don't get art or "I don't know porn but I know it when I see it..."). You get the drift, basically I am saying I am not an educated poetry reader. (Also makes me sad if people were to say that about short stories --and I'm sure they do-- but it would break my heart).

I loved this -- poetry as cultural criticism, but still moving/emotional. Poetry for the kindof gal I am and was growing up --that is the kind that had a crush on John Ruskin as a teen and quoting Das Kapital in unsavory places. It's a book that looks at the economics of the world with a hard and loving eye. It's generous and critical.

To quote from page 19 part of the first poem in the book:

It has been said (following Ruskin) that
"The production of base forms of art in painting, music, the drama, literature, the plastic arts, must necessarily entail the highest human costs, the largest loss of human welfare, individual and social. For such an artist poisons not only his own soul but the social soul, adulterating the food designed to nourish the highest faculties of man."

In other words:

Language: it is fun to watch
but it's even more fun to play


or


More than 2,000 persons have been killed in theater collapses in the past ten years.

or


Adulteration packed the life preservers of the General Slocum
with sawdust instead of cork
as she sank with all on board.



Oh, and the other awesome thing about the book -- inspired by books from the lovely Bibliobarn in South Kortright, NY. Aka the Sticks.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have yet to encounter another writer like Anna Moschovakis. Both challenging and charming, You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake is a poetic treatise that thoughtfully considers fact, fiction, and autobiography. Moschovakis raises questions of social responsibility in an ever-globalizing economy and the micro/macro-technological cultures that are produced as a result. A poetry of belief, doubt and philosophical intimacy.

[David Anthony Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another award winner from the Academy of American Poets that makes you wonder. It is an somewhat interesting attempt, but nothing memorable remains when you are done reading.

OR Leave the book and take the canoe.

[Grace Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book so refreshing. I have gone back to it many times. I particularly like the 'Death as a Way of Life' section.


"I can imagine a situation
in which I would die for atheism,
even if it weren't my own.


Would I die for logic?
If my death would make the world follow?


Things don't follow--
Would I die for that?
--posted Sept. 12, 2006


This book is intelligent and thought-provoking. Every word, every period, question mark feels delightfully intentional. I will definitely read more of Anna Moschovakis.

[Christopher Hendrix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moschovakis' style is distinct and grandios; her poems are riddled with observation and clever parallels.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book of poems. I can honestly say I've never really read anything like it.

[Jeremy Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book.

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrific book of poetry that gets better with each reading. My review is posted at www.bookinwithsunny.com/posts/you-and...

[Kristen Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE. like nothing else.

[giuseppe manley · Rating 4 out of 5]

couldn't tell if it was a bizarre moment or entirely appropriate moment when I turned to the colophon and saw Target's corporate logo, thanks

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this more the more that I read. My margins are littered with little sad frowning faces — Moschovakis has a way of stating things in a normal, plain way that make clear just how heartbreaking they really are. This was a good way to write about technology, waste, capitalism, class privilege, and the loneliness of capitalism.

[Caitlin Conlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so phenomenal that I really...can't even review it? Or describe it? Just know that you should read it if you're interested in learning things, or good writing, or poems that bleed into one another and bleed onto your hands. Fantastic.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the intelligence, wit, and almost suspense of this volume: I felt wholly engaged trying to see where the train of Moschovakis's thought was going.

[Shira · Rating 4 out of 5]

incredibly interesting and unique book

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis, which was awarded the James Laughlin Award by the Academy of American Poets, is a collection of four long poems with a prologue and epilogue poem that discusses and assesses four books — The Tragedy of Waste by Stuart Chase, Death as a Way of Life by Roger A. Caras, The Human Machine by Arnold Bennett, and In Search of Wealth by Cyril S. Belshaw — from the twentieth century that the poet discovered in a used bookshop in South Kortright, New York. The poems share the same titles as the books, and the title of the collection makes its appearance in the first poem.

Moschovakis makes a great many assumptions about the readers knowledge of the industrial revolution and their understanding of economics. First she compares the lake to supply and the men and women entering the wood and approaching the lake as demand, but later, the lake becomes more ambiguous. From the cycles of supply and demand in the markets and the growth of the workforce to the incessant bombardment of advertising, the narrator of the poem is questioning the capitalistic ways of society and whether those are not wasteful in terms of time and energy spent. She also postulates that we are no different from nature in how we react to available resources, which begs the question just how civilized are we when we succumb to our basest instincts to use everything around us?

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/04/y...

[J.D. Steens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moschovakis weaves miscellaneous events and thoughts together in standalone pieces that pop up elsewhere, throughout. So much of this, I didn’t understand what she was up to or where she was going. She’s in a zone, her zone. I struggled with the “approaching a lake” analogy, the title of this collection, and the right sided or upside down canoe theme. But a reader can just move on (life is short). We appreciate what we can and there’s plenty of that. Her poem on how a conversation went (p. 63) is perfection. “Shall we call it ‘binary intelligence?” is followed by a next line, “Yes/No.” Here and there she ends a statement with “Stop,” as, for example, “Compensation was to be distributed in the afterlife. Stop”. I like that but I don’t know why. Overall and somehow, her seemingly random thoughts and style (what is poetry?) work and her acknowledgments section is, in a way, a work of art.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moschovakis makes it obvious from the beginning there is a decision to make- maybe not now, maybe not even soon, but at some point- do you need a canoe or a lake?

She balances the beauty and ugliness of life quite matter of factly. She switches constantly between tiny couplets of free verse to giant chunks of prose. I found the entire book confusing. While her ideas were good and she painted amazing imagry, ultimately, it felt like she didn't have the skill to actually write a philosophical book questioning life and instead claimed poetry so her thoughts and words didn't have to be 'complete'.

[John Pappas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange. sprawling poems about our strange, sprawling American landscape. Riffing on topics like waste, technology, death and the media, Moschovakis critiques and celebrates the Freudian death-project of American society. While a bit more focus and clarity would be nice, Moschovakis's point in these four long poems is that individuals in our contemporary society skitter across the surface of reality like water-striders, always looking for home, whatever that might be.

[Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the accompanying review calls this book " sharp- witted" I found it somewhat less impressive. It does some things I like including
using other identified sources for inspiration, and also uses a variety of poetic "approaches"to communicate what the poet wants us
to hear. However I'm not sure it's entirely successful. I probably won't read it again, but will consider reading other works by the same poet.

[Emily Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite possibly my favorite poetry collection. I recommend listening to Moschovakis reading her work aloud: https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x...

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

the first part/poem was amazing. some moments where I was a bit worries--comments about five towns and Schindler's list and other. hmm...