Disclosure

by Dana Teen Lomax

Poetry. In the age of data mining and identity theft, Dana Teen Lomax's DISCLOSURE has been called "the new memoir." Recently anthologized in Against An Anthology of Cultural Writing (Northwestern University Press, 2011), this work offers a critical interrogation of 21st century American society that will challenge and amuse. Compose solely of the found documents of everyday life, DISCLOSURE is documentary poetics as never seen before.

Genres: Poetry

10 pages

First published May 1, 2009

Reviews

[J.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

So strange to be let in on someone's life in this way. Is it literature? Not sure. Is it interesting? Definitely.

[bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

heartbreaking and painfully vulnerable. i will probably be thinking of this for years to come.

i can see why someone would hate it though; i think this is the kind of work that has a very specific audience it will resonate with and most other people won't either like or get it at all.

[Daymian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A view on how the world sees the individual, rather than an individual's view on the world, Disclosure defies being placed in any genre. Dana opens herself up to the reader using documents and papers about her, but doesn't address herself... herself. Unlike many authors, Dana does not seek to unburden herself, or tell a story, or create a narrative, etc. with her own words, but instead uses seemingly unrelated documents that only do one thing: they disclose (roll credits) information about the author.

Where I might have expected another few pages of poetry wherein the author presented their pain as prose, instead I was given a chapbook that stripped the author naked more than simple words. The book opens with an epigraph from Robin Blaser:

'you’re not allowed to say
"kiss my ass" to anyone unless
you mean it sincerely and drop
your pants quickly to show what
you know exactly of this nakedness'

Which, I think, sums up the book perfectly in the final word: nakedness. Dana opens herself (drops her pants, if we want to take the epigraph to heart) to the reader, relying on empathy and shared experiences. It is my opinion that what the reader comes away with it going to be very different from person to person: I immediately focused on the documents presenting her earnings, while also stressing out about the medical diagnoses she was receiving, wondering if she could afford them at her wages. This says much more about me than the author. This isn't the same reaction I've heard from others, and I think the personal shaping (and really, the creation of) a narrative in this short book of images will disclose (roll credits) more about you the reader than it will about Dana. Give it a shot.

[kevin eckhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

it makes me of my tradition in poetry like confession and vulnerability of being the question of self. see Credit Credit by Mathew Timmons. watch Soliloquy by Kenneth Goldsmith. feel My Life by Lyn Hejinian.

Dana Teen Lomax is makes writing a voyeurism of truth in an age of too much easy truth already available outside the collective brain. honesty and excess become her. open disclosure. her aperture is now yours.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So genius! One of those - why didn't I think of this - kinds of things...

[Alisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didnt get it... it was just 10 pages of her awards, her bills, and her drivers lisence.. maybe I missed something... but I dont think I did.. Strange

[Natalie Pietro · Rating 1 out of 5]

10 Pages of pure bull shit. Nothing more then pictures, bills, and awards. Anyone could have wrote this peice of shit. Dumb Dumb Dumb!