Extratransmission

by Andrea Abi-Karam

EXTRATRANSMISSION is a poetic critique of nationalism, patriarchy & gender embedded in an explosive & unapologetic trauma narrative. It begins with an exhaustive loud, & unapologetic section on killing bros, the perpetrators of patriarchy, before entering a narrative of how traumatic brain injury occurs to bodies in modern warfare. The text labors over how memory constructs our identity, our constant experience, and how that can be destroyed in one of many empty military moments. The language pushes beyond conventional lyric and incorporates angry letters, prose pieces, a love poem, & intimate conversation while maintaining both an intense energy and constant movement. In resistance to how patriarchy and U.S. militarism produce the hypergendered subject, the text generates a genderqueer cyborg whose language comes together to form EXTRATRANSMISSION, a book that explicates how patriarchy, capitalism, & nationalism form the high rising global city that will tear your heart out.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, Transgender, LGBT

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2019

Reviews

[Roxane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a provocative collection about war and PTSD and TBIs and bros and cyborgs. Lots of experimenting with form. A line of anger runs through the book that sharpens each section of prose in interesting ways. I like the way the book challenges the reader. I wanted to have a stronger sense of the book as a whole. The parts don’t cohere as well as they could. But still, excellent prose/poetry and an utterly original voice.

[Jasmine]

this is my SHIT. hit me with that queer traumatized cyborg future.

this collection of poetry was interesting because there was at least one character, a war veteran. a significant amount of the trauma discussion stems from combat-induced PTSD, which is not what i was expecting from a self-described queer, anti-capitalist work. there was a lot of focus on the aftermath of the veteran's time abroad, and i wish there had been more characterization of their life before enlisting. they talked about forgetting, and memory, but those didn't cut as deep because it was unclear what the stakes were.

i read a few interviews with the author after finishing the book. i'm not sure they accomplished their literary goals with the characters they embodied. i am definitely interested in their work and am excited to read more in the future.

[Ellie Botoman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“which came first / the injury or the tech? / the injury / it’s always the injury”

[Beatrice Cesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

i was expecting more from this one. i liked the premises, yet while reading the message did not always get across for me. some poems are exquisite and thought-provoking, you can easily perceive the author's bitter critique of modern society, for instance when they ask 'is this what u signed up for' or 'at what point did u realize there was something very very wrong?' but some others have been personally hard to grasp, to the point of becoming almost disturbing. this collection raises some interesting reflections on trauma, systematic injustice, death of the soul. still, my taste would prefer a more explicit voicing :(

[Ai Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the parts of these poems were hit or miss for me, but when it hit it REALLY TRULY HIT. Everything about the overlap of TBIs, trauma, and ghosting, was so good and so powerful, and the extratransmission stuff was fascinating. Really disruptive and thoughtful at the same time.

The "hello [x] man i will kill you in [y] way" poems weren't for me, but if you need that kind of catharsis you probably would like them too!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, I love reading so much but I'm really bad at reviews. If i read something, it usually means I like it and I can't always articulate why.

Anyways! Its always a joy to encounter a poet who can say so much with a single line on a page. I love all the work in this collection, but two pages I have bookmarked are--

"At what point did u realize there was something very very wrong?" (p. 36)

and

"How to become a new glitch, a new disruption?" (p. 51)

[Natalie D.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An emotional collection of poems that explore PTSD, capitalism, and the American military industrial complex. I love the fire that fuels each and every piece in this book, even if they seem disconnected from one another while reading. Abi-Karam has an excellent sense of rhythm and rhyme that I'm excited to see in their other works.

[Amanda Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love Andrea's poetry. There are lines that will keep me up at night for my inability to stop pondering and trying them on. They demand that we look at the world in a new way. See the world. Forget about being a silent passenger.

[Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the experimentation with form/spelling/font. I loved the exploration of technology, transhumanism, and trauma. I especially loved the final poem about the deer. I think I would have liked to see a little bit more of a through line in the book as a whole, but I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys experimental poetry, trans histories, and cyborgs as a motif.

[Oz Paszkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abi-Karam's Extratransmission is a brutal and powerful poetic journey through internalized violence, PTSD, brain injury, and our relationship to the body. Abi-Karam's experience is told through calloused detail and violent imagery. Certainly not for the weak-willed, but an incredible read.

[Sapphire · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good, but it wasn’t very coherent—it’s difficult to understand and there are lines of thought that appear and disappear.