Startle Response

by Heather Fuller

Poetry. "In Fuller's STARTLE RESPONSE, the complex contours, historical density, and transformative potentiality of lived culture, are not given free reign (as that's a coercion of the now-now / status quo) but put to the acid test of genuine democratic impulse: each and every momentary autonomy of the word gives (graceful) way to a more fulsome expression of the radical interdependencies that constitute us"--Rodrigo Toscano. "Heather Fuller's strange beautiful music produces an analogous effect. But more importantly, from "patriot act in five scenes to "bluegrass squalor," Fuller's dark funny book expands the definition of "startle response" beyond mere bodily reflex to... a psychic "circuit breaker," an "interrupter mechanism" which "resets" consciousness and enables a crucial shifting of attention from one thing to another"--Sianne Ngai.

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Author page at EPC: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/fuller/