In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy

by Daniel Borzutzky

Daniel Borzutzky, whose work Eileen Myles calls “violent, perverse, tender,” offers a bracing new book that confronts violent action, from state sponsored torture and the bombing of civilians and other “non-essential personnel” to the collapse of the global economy, the barbarism of corporate greed, data fascism, and the deaths of immigrants attempting to cross borders. His book confronts the various horrors of our contemporary landscape through a poetry that literalizes violence, that seeks to find emotional connection and personal meaning in a world that is always exploding.

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2015

About the author

Daniel Borzutzky is a Chicago-based poet and translator. His collection The Performance of Becoming Human won the 2016 National Book Award.

The son of Chilean immigrants, Borzutzky's work often addresses immigration, worker exploitation, political corruption, and economic disparity. He teaches at Wright College.

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

But we could really use some organizing principles, say the economists, because the lower classes, stuck eternally in their ugly lives, cannot make ethical decisions when they are starving.

I used this quote because this should have been the focus, instead of 150 pages of degradation and decomposition . Organic life is being reabsorbed human life is being reduced plastic reality and predatory practices.

The book opens with a measured look at Juan Rulfo and Marguerite Duras, each lending images to lingering, ghostly presence. The narrative then links images of internment camps and shopping malls; foreclosure looks pogrom in the eye. The themes bristle but the language used failed miserably, sitting in the shade along the highway, days from the destination.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

To day, this one, a day, and dear god please tell me not many others on the way, I begged in the limpid and sickening sweat of admin language for a drop of grant money so I can be the gracious owner of a personal laptop and buy some books. I wanted these things to write more. No one needs these things to write. You can write on a song and a dream with a bic if you really want. Now they are screaming it with Jericho trumpets and garlands a, ‘Women’s Career Pathway’. I can only see careers in bombs or being the body someone bombs. No fanfare just quantifiable analytic data. That’s the rub. That’s it. Blown bodies blow and blown up more more more and a little to the right but make it look like a mistake. Violence is the little treat, an extra me-time, that keeps on taking me to the bank, an excuse for figuring out impossible sides. Sure there is a little death here and there or how else would we know it was worth it? Thousands upon thousands in little light up data points that rain in oil. Suddenly I sit upright and start pretending I know what I’m doing till they give me money for shit that doesn’t even matter. Absolutely you are correct I need a therapist not a laptop and poetry books. Fantastic idea! Only wish I could have thought of that one myself.

[Joey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Borzutzky's In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy rips through the heart of what it means to be a person. It made me feel sad, happy, amazed, bewildered, and like I needed to hide my head in the sand and be a singing choir member as well. I really like this book.

[S P · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel things growing in the orifices of my data.
I do not have a lover but if I had one I would tell him that I would like to bury my head in the data inside his body.
It is impossible to give voice to my data.
My data is an endless word that will never be spoken.
My data is an endless word that contaminates every inch of every data body and carcass on the harbour.
Carcass, my love, your data is a kind of solution.

—Data Harbor, p73

[Raino Isto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be my favorite Borzutzky so far. The prose structure to the individual poems (or are they essays? Short fictions?) works really well for his style, and this one felt less repetitive than his more formally "poetry" works that I've read. This language somehow captures both outrage and the feeling that the exploitation of capitalism is part of an epic narrative that we could fight against.

[Ashur]

wtf did i just read