I Cry: The Desire to Be Rejected

by Chris Cheney, Amy Lawless

I The Desire to Be Rejected is a collaborative, hybrid composition by Chris Cheney and Amy part essay, part poem and part social media collage. In the composition of this book, the authors cannibalized traditional research methods for a more personalized, technology-based process. Meditating upon Kurt Schwitters’ notion that "the medium is as unimportant as I am myself," they confront historical traumas through the body of real and virtual environments. Establishing online personas on Myspace, Yelp and Twitter, they explore the feelings that attach themselves to these expressions of self, the real sense of desire, connection, affirmation and friendship, as well as possibilities of destruction and loss. The relationship to the mother, a candlepin bowling league and an online Korean roleplaying group are the social environs through which the authors grapple with their own sense of isolation and otherness in the digital age, the blind energy of desire and the strangeness of tears.

110 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2016

Reviews

[jackson, this is olive · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond the contents, just great binding and design choices. I purchased a copy from this guys storage room, he runs a great little book/paraphernalia store called ‘Better Read Than Dead’, on Koszcuizco (another Z?) and Bedford. I skimmed it as I was leaving, spotted the words ‘Korean’ and ‘Roleplay’ and decided to buy it. I read the first half taking the 2 to meet friends for drinks in LES. After two Kirins, I finished the second half on the 4 back to Prospect Heights. Maybe it was the residual warmth from good commune or the lingering buzz, but the book really sat well in my stomach. I was sorry to find no results for ‘Cannifa’ on Twitter.

[gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is exceptionally tender… did not anticipate to mourn the womb today, but here i am