Machine

by James Knight

Machine is an exercise in ludic polyphony, juxtaposing surrealised voices of scientific rationalism, advertising, social media and lyric poetry. Employing a range of fonts and symbols, the poem explores human identity and the forces that shape it. However, Machine is a game: none of this is to be taken too seriously.

"I have never encountered a pamphlet with an honest tinder bio in the first page (’A catalogue of single-use oneiric objects available for your pleasure’); a pamphlet with the audacity to mime the generously scatty 21st-century mind, looking at the world in cursed tweets, tracing macros in wingdings and disappearing one-liners, fonts and formatting flickering, persisting, one big Rorschach test running through a whole scrolling menu of moods."
- Denise Bonetti, SPAM Press

44 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2020

Reviews

[Alex]

This poem will process you. Reading James Knight's 'Machine' is like trying to find your reflection in an electric billboard, or like falling asleep in a pile of newspapers and waking up in an underground factory. A perfect manufacturer's guide to humans.

[Alex George]

Reading this is like seeing where bowling pins go once they're knocked down, but instead of pins it's BONES!!!!

Superb piece of work here from a v exciting artist and an equally exciting new press!