No Problematics

by Viola Chen

No Problematics takes interest in the moral panic around contemporary ideas of good political character. In decentering expected narratives surrounding identity, No Problematics creates a new world for us to consider in the process. Exploring how phenomena with extremely complex geopolitical histories are abstracted and reduced to flattened articulations of identity and relationality, Viola Chen questions: to what ends and for the benefit of whom? Chen attempts an alternative method through hardship, refusing to pay its constellations of intimacy due respect, and instead embodies a language of resistance that spreads like fire across the page.

Genres: Poetry

76 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2020

Reviews

[b · Rating 5 out of 5]

A special kind of buoyancy and flow, wary of the commodification of marginalized experiences for the sake of it (“What happens when you have already / told every story about your family / so that there are only ones that are not / —left” p.19), peppered with clever little rhetorical gags (“Surely I am not the first to / think about what is / left, next to what is right” p.24), and pursues a kind of dm-interiority strangeness that might otherwise be suppressed in more overtly trauma-aping or careering poetry: “The punchline is a Chinese left unwilling / by a strangeness” (p.28). The elliptical diversions and silliness are ever-tempered (“I guess it’s still hard for me to discern between / lying down and lying to you. / When was I finally going to own up / to feeling some repercussions of my own?” p.38). Chen teaches us a little of how to read this poem—though it’s already so immanently approachable, a kind of universal Velcro Mount for an even remotely willing reader to adhere to—in turns like this: “He waits to say something else. / / In what I believe is called the dramatics personae, he is / me trying to make a point and I am my complicated / feelings at night” (59).

Definitely a great read. Would be happy to read more from VC, whether it was a more straitjacketed lyric, or even sillier breathless heartbreak zoomies.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I happened across this book at a local gift store and I’m not disappointed.

This was exquisite. I dogeared a number of poems to revisit when I am feeling some type of way.

“What’s over-compensating or undercompensating when the ways in which we are compensated make no sense anyway?”

[Sam - Spines in a Line · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read that I think I'll have to reread to fully appreciate. Thanks to Metatron Press for a copy to review!

[Mochi · Rating 5 out of 5]

i missed reading poetry, this is so short but what's there hits hard. hope the author is doing well ❤️