Girly Man

by Charles Bernstein

Heir to the democratic and poetic sensibilities of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bernstein has always crafted verse that responds to its historical moment, but no previous collection of his poems so specifically addresses the events of its time as Girly Man, which features works written on the evening of September 11, 2001, and in response to the war in Iraq. Here, Bernstein speaks out, combining self-deprecating humor with incisive philosophical and political thinking.
     Composed of works of very different forms and moods—etchings from moments of acute crisis, comic excursions, formal excavations, confrontations with the cultural illogics of contemporary political consciousness—the poems work as an ensemble, each part contributing something necessary to an unrealizable and unrepresentable whole.  
      A passionate defense of contingency, resistance, and multiplicity, Girly Man is a provocative and aesthetically challenging collection of radical verse from one of America’s most controversial poets.
      “A major achievement. . . . Anyone interested in contemporary poetry should seek out the collection, if only to read one of our most provocative poet-critics writing his most engaging poems to date.”—Thomas Devaney, Philadelphia Inquirer


      “Charles Bernstein writes both prose and poetry about poetry, sometimes brilliantly, in ways calculated to upset the middlebrow and thwart the bland. The more you like the poetic equivalent of a nice tune, easy to hum, the more Bernstein means to disrupt your complacency.”—Robert Pinsky, Washington Post

Genres: Poetry, American

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Charles Bernstein is an American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar. Bernstein holds the Donald T. Regan Chair in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the most prominent members of the Language poets (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets). In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2005, Bernstein was awarded the Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University, Brown University, and Princeton University.

Bernstein's highly anticipated new work, All the Whisky in Heaven, will be published in Spring 2010 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Also to be released in the upcoming year is a Companion to Charles Bernstein, which will be published by Salt Publishing, the winner of the prestigious 2008 Nielsen Innovation of the Year award.

Reviews

[Uroš Đurković · Rating 4 out of 5]

Čini se se svima pomalo smučila autopoetika, ali ovde kod Bernstajna ona je začuđujuće sveža i žilava. Čovek se ne da i neusiljeno družbuje sa paradoksima, inspirišući na stvaralaštvo.

Teško je izdvojiti o čemu je ova zbirka, ne zato što je samodopadljiva i autoautoreferencijalna, već naprotiv jer je krcata temama. Ideje kipe u Bernstinovom kazančetu, a čitalac skuplja dolazeću penu, a forma njenih mehurića izuzetno je šarolika. Pesme kao: spiskovi, pisma, fragmenti, (pseudo)prevodi, uroborosi-razbrajalice, komentari slika, aforizmi, testovi. (Ponegde čak ima i rime, mada rima u takvom ukruženju deluje uvek otužno autoironično.) U njihovim okvirima najupečatljivija su mi tri momenta: Amerika nakon bombardovanja 9/11 (zanimljivo je što se spominje prepiska sa prijateljima iz Beograda vezane za bombardovanje 99’ – kako posredovano iskustvo postaje neposredno – gola koža kao ograda utisaka), L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E jezičke igrarije i odnos prema sinu kao skrivenoj pesničkoj figuri. (Kad sam već kod sina (Feliks se zove), odavno nisam gledao nešto tako uznemirjuće na Jutjubu kao njegove kratke umetničke forme, koje postaju jedno od „drevnih” snimaka ovog sajta – najstariji je objavljen pre 12 godina.)

I ako bih morao kratko, najkraće da objasnim Bernstina, rekao bih – Vitgenštajn osnovnoškolac u poseti Pertiniju.

+ Neki fini momenti:

Sve što postoji, postoji da bi se završilo kao opera.
Poezija je opera bez priče, kostima

Da jezik može da govori, odbili bismo da ga razumemo.

Avangarda nije predstraža već komšiluk.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Girly Man is the kind of poetry the world still needs. In this anthology of collected works, Bernstein captures the conundrum of masculinity in the age of terror, the quandary of avant-garde literature without a direction, and the seemingly unnecessary value of art and poetry. In one poignant section, he writes prose-poems about living in Manhattan in September 2001 with grace, immediacy, and honesty that transports you to the most influential week of this century. He makes the case for taking pleasure in life's beauty, in having honor in appreciating that beauty, and persevering even when it seems like there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. It's an illuminating, inspirational, disciplined attempt to give some music and meaning to times that seem so utterly meaningless. Not to be missed for anyone with an interest in contemporary American poetry.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

His best in a long time. While Bernstein's most public statements of poetics and politics haven't changed much since about 1980, his writing has again managed to exceed itself here, actualizing the dizzying variety only suggested in his criticism. The direct and the opaque, the moving and the hilarious, all coexist here in an urgent unsettledness. It may also be the first book I've read of his that contains explicitly political poetry. In any case, Bernstein's refusal to settle on a style was always one of my favorite things about him, and I'd been disappointed by his previous two collections, feeling like they read as rote reiterations of some favorite sour/comic tropes. Here he's back in full swing. Reading Girly Man reminded me of why I love Charles Bernstein.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Bernstein is a badass. Girly Man is the funniest poetry I've read in a while, and when I finished the collection I found myself asking and answering some interesting questions:

1. What is the point of poetry? Is it really just pretentious crap?
2. What exactly is a L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poet?
3. What is Bernstein trying to say about the media?

When I woke up the next morning after reading this, I was like, "damn. I feel hungover. I guess I had too much to think last night." BAM.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a lot to say about this collection, but for now I'll just copy two of my favorite lines from the poem "Sign Under Test": "If language could talk we would refuse to understand it. / Hue is a property of optics not objects." I'll also drop a few of the book's key topics: modern/postmodernism, post-9/11 America, the role of art in society, the value of perspective, irony and sincerity, stylistic repetition, and authorship and interpretation. A real good read.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bernstein is in top form. The influence of revolutionary poetics is apparent now across the internet, film, television and literature. Bernstein is without a doubt a fundamental contributor to these evolutions, and this book should not be missed.

[Mikael · Rating 4 out of 5]

actually downloaded a pdf version from gigapedia, seems to have got a lot of the poems in all the whiskey in heaven, the new selected from FSG. love how sincere and childlike it is. boyish man.