The Cry at Zero

by Andrew Joron

Poetry. Essays. In THE CRY AT ZERO, Andrew Joron ranges through literature, science, and philosophy as he maps a poetics, and gripping poetic ontology, that responds to the disturbing politics of our time. Confronting postmodern skepticism, Joron begins from the premise that poets are "chained to the impossible," and that the poetic "cry" exceeds specific social crises. Joron teaches us that more than ever before there us a distinct and obvious place for the unsayable, the abysmal, in our poetic practice. Joron's prose works, interwoven here with a series of soaringly lyrical prose poems, are indispensable in our attempts to embrace a creative space that encompasses human experience.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Andrew Joron was raised in Stuttgart, Germany, Lowell, MA, and Missoula, MT. He studied under anarchist philosopher Paul Feyerabend at UC Berkeley, obtaining a BA in philosophy of science. Joron began writing science-fiction poetry before turning to surrealist-influenced lyric, reflecting his association with Philip Lamantia. His translations from German include philosopher Ernst Bloch's Literary Essays.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a link to Andrew Joron reading his work:
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsoun...

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of Andrew Joron's selection of analytic lyrics suggests in its mixed lexical sets some of the challenge and provocation of this at times frustrating book. "Cry" is the cry of crisis -- the crisis modality, within the American poetic tradition perhaps the most significant revision of Emersonian romanticism. "Zero" is the operative innovation in mathematics, and the title phrase itself will of course suggest the wound inflicted in the events of 9/11/01.

Joron is quite right to connect Robert Duncan to the autopoesis of Maturana and Varela and to "swarming." Part of my limitation as a reader has to do with the theory being the appropriate "order" Joron reads, rather than Duncan's poetry. There are three nicely reasoned arguments in this volume; the rest would better be described as "poetics."

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joron powerfully resurrects the spirit of Romanticism out of recognition that a poetics not driven by the Aeolian winds is necessarily lost at sea. Joron comes perhaps the closest of any writer I have encountered to really setting the idea of poetry firmly on a foundation of purpose. Poetry is not the strange and rare creature dancing on the auroras above but is fundamentally rooted in the practice of human being. For Joron, the poem should not be the word on the page, but the very thought process of the human mind. The essence of Romanticism for Joron arrives finally at a neo-surrealist practice within which the symbols and relations are not interpretable by empire and so the human mind exists beyond the control of late capital. If you want to understand where poetry can begin to unravel capital by producing minds invested by their own fundamental and immutable human logic, read Joron.

[Steve]

http://atonalistdoc.blogspot.com/2007...

[Marcella · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this six stars, I would! Turn the amp up to 11, dude!