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He's so MASC
This is my blood oath with myself: the only
dead Chinese person I’ll write about from now on
is me.
‘Punctum’
In How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, Chris Tse took readers back to a shocking 1905 murder. Now he brings the reader much closer to home. He’s So MASC confronts a contemporary world of self-loathing poets and compulsive liars, of youth and sexual identity, and of the author as character — pop star, actor, hitman, and much more. These are poems that delve into worlds of hyper-masculine romanticism and dancing alone in night clubs.
With its many modes and influences, He’s So MASC is an acerbic, acid-bright, yet unapologetically sentimental and personal reflection on what it means to perform and dissect identity, as a poet and a person.
dead Chinese person I’ll write about from now on
is me.
‘Punctum’
In How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, Chris Tse took readers back to a shocking 1905 murder. Now he brings the reader much closer to home. He’s So MASC confronts a contemporary world of self-loathing poets and compulsive liars, of youth and sexual identity, and of the author as character — pop star, actor, hitman, and much more. These are poems that delve into worlds of hyper-masculine romanticism and dancing alone in night clubs.
With its many modes and influences, He’s So MASC is an acerbic, acid-bright, yet unapologetically sentimental and personal reflection on what it means to perform and dissect identity, as a poet and a person.
- GenresPoetryNonfictionLGBT
84 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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102 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 12, 2018
simply exquisite poetry. Urgent and animal; a form of living in vibrating darkness
March 8, 2018
Chris Tse’s new collection of 43 pieces is a real gem of sparkling verse. I was struck by the variety and interplay of amusing observations and sometimes sad laments. The everyday and the ordinary alongside the extraordinary and the beautifully phrased. One quote that I loved was:
“like placing my optimism
into the path of oncoming traffic.”
There are some beautiful lyrics about emotions between two people, there are hurtful ones too, but in 'Release' I was moved at the song for a lover who has left the bed that morning, about clinging to a pillow on which their scent will linger, but knowing they are gone forever. Often poems of togetherness tell of brief, fleeting moments followed by mornings of regret. Some of the most poignant words came in 'Still – the boys':
“and the rest fall into beds with each other
without the right words to use the morning after
in rooms too small for silence.”
The line “rooms too small for silence”, perfectly captures that awkward time when no one knows what to say or how to act, whether to say to little or too much, and just how hurtful no words at all can be.
Chris Tse obviously has a great sense of humour and I particularly loved his poem called 'I was a self-loathing poet'. He treats the confession of being a poet rather like you would if confessing to being gay, becoming involved with another poet who instructs him that he needs to tell his parents. In the closet world of poets his new friend “impressed me with gossip about acclaimed novelists who were secretly writing poems on the down-low”. His mother suspects, “She would ask me if I was reading any good novels and I would respond with something vague.”
When talking about houses from our past, the phrase “growth spurts set in door jambs” had me remembering the way children’s lives are charted up the door frames. In 'Next year’s colours' I was struck how true it is that we always return from holidays with more pictures that we will ever need, but if it is a place we have visited before, then it is like correcting the photos taken on previous visits. The habit tourists have of taking the same pictures, “public forgeries without a definitive original”. That strong recollection about your picture, “It meant something to me at the time.”
Part way through reading the collection, I decided to Google ‘MASC’ in case there was a nuance that I had missed. I assumed that it stood for masculine in a gay context, but I wondered if there was more. Once I got past the South Korean boy band (K-pop) of the same name, the Master of Applied Science and the Maryland Association of School Councils, I saw that there was MASC and FEM, but then encountered words like ‘homonormativity’ which were unexpected. The wolf was a theme that reoccurred several times, not just in 'Lupine' and 'Boy meets wolf', perhaps an unsettling metaphor for the predatory side of gay encounters.
I like the humour reflected in some of the poems, such as ‘Punctum’, which pokes fun at many New Zealand Chinese stereotypes, and has a young woman “…bullied into saying ‘fried rice’” and considers whether the offspring of a Chinese marriage might result only in prodigy who ‘though pleasant looking enough’ will only fill in as background extras:
“But in all likelihood my children will have only
moderately humble acting careers playing
accountants, taxi drivers and restauranteurs
to supplement their primary incomes as
accountants, taxi drivers and restauranteurs.”
If you flick quickly through the book, the eye is caught by the variety of white space on the pages. There is no standard size or verse shape, lines are both wide and narrow, alternating between left and right-hand margins, gaps appear mid line. Two pieces appear more like paragraphs of prose than actual verse.
A great collection and well worth reading.
“like placing my optimism
into the path of oncoming traffic.”
There are some beautiful lyrics about emotions between two people, there are hurtful ones too, but in 'Release' I was moved at the song for a lover who has left the bed that morning, about clinging to a pillow on which their scent will linger, but knowing they are gone forever. Often poems of togetherness tell of brief, fleeting moments followed by mornings of regret. Some of the most poignant words came in 'Still – the boys':
“and the rest fall into beds with each other
without the right words to use the morning after
in rooms too small for silence.”
The line “rooms too small for silence”, perfectly captures that awkward time when no one knows what to say or how to act, whether to say to little or too much, and just how hurtful no words at all can be.
Chris Tse obviously has a great sense of humour and I particularly loved his poem called 'I was a self-loathing poet'. He treats the confession of being a poet rather like you would if confessing to being gay, becoming involved with another poet who instructs him that he needs to tell his parents. In the closet world of poets his new friend “impressed me with gossip about acclaimed novelists who were secretly writing poems on the down-low”. His mother suspects, “She would ask me if I was reading any good novels and I would respond with something vague.”
When talking about houses from our past, the phrase “growth spurts set in door jambs” had me remembering the way children’s lives are charted up the door frames. In 'Next year’s colours' I was struck how true it is that we always return from holidays with more pictures that we will ever need, but if it is a place we have visited before, then it is like correcting the photos taken on previous visits. The habit tourists have of taking the same pictures, “public forgeries without a definitive original”. That strong recollection about your picture, “It meant something to me at the time.”
Part way through reading the collection, I decided to Google ‘MASC’ in case there was a nuance that I had missed. I assumed that it stood for masculine in a gay context, but I wondered if there was more. Once I got past the South Korean boy band (K-pop) of the same name, the Master of Applied Science and the Maryland Association of School Councils, I saw that there was MASC and FEM, but then encountered words like ‘homonormativity’ which were unexpected. The wolf was a theme that reoccurred several times, not just in 'Lupine' and 'Boy meets wolf', perhaps an unsettling metaphor for the predatory side of gay encounters.
I like the humour reflected in some of the poems, such as ‘Punctum’, which pokes fun at many New Zealand Chinese stereotypes, and has a young woman “…bullied into saying ‘fried rice’” and considers whether the offspring of a Chinese marriage might result only in prodigy who ‘though pleasant looking enough’ will only fill in as background extras:
“But in all likelihood my children will have only
moderately humble acting careers playing
accountants, taxi drivers and restauranteurs
to supplement their primary incomes as
accountants, taxi drivers and restauranteurs.”
If you flick quickly through the book, the eye is caught by the variety of white space on the pages. There is no standard size or verse shape, lines are both wide and narrow, alternating between left and right-hand margins, gaps appear mid line. Two pieces appear more like paragraphs of prose than actual verse.
A great collection and well worth reading.
October 21, 2018
I have so many questions.
May 16, 2018
Amazing book - I even understood most of it!
September 13, 2022
Always love the authors theme of longing, have enjoyed reading each collection and experiencing the different phases or vibes that are tied to a central point, Chris Tse has ao much versatility each book is like an adventure, I enjoyed this one, how there was a lotta datey stuff and longing, honestly really relate to the specific kind of melancholy in all his writing that I can't put my finger on but it's a gentle, calm forlorn vibe in parts
March 11, 2024
Looks like I have a newfound favorite for whenever I'm in need of a high I don't want to come down from. The earnestness in providing a more complex understanding (done with particular sharp wit) rather than just a mere chronicle of his identity... I really don't see myself moving on anytime soon. Punctum, I was a self-loathing poet, and Present tension are my top three picks.
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June 30, 2021Tse creates some compelling images with his writing, and asks interesting questions about otherness and queer culture. I most enjoyed the parts that were more prose than poetry, I felt these were the strongest in the book.
Read
May 24, 2021faves: I was a self-loathing poet, Fast track, Release
January 2, 2019
re-read this for the first time and am even more in love with it than before. chris is such a wonderful human i feel honoured to have met & know someone who has such a way with words
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews