Kerotakis

by Janice Lee

KEROTAKIS is Janice Lee's postmodern exploration of consciousness, form and narrative, as it follows the journey of G.I.L.L. A contemporary reimagining of Frankenstein that takes us forwards, backwards and sideways through time and space, this is a cutting-edge novel for the multimedia age.


With enormous tenderness and craft – - (this writer is a design genius in a way that extends to the wiring of the lines themselves) – Lee asks her readers: What erodes an originating point? Why do people disappear? What brings a body back to the optic and sensate domains, where it thrives, where it has a love, where it had a mother? I am not sure that this book answers these question, but it repeats them until the reader’s blood rises in response. Until the reader, alchemically, becomes – also – “red.”
-Bhanu Kapil, Author of Incubation: A Space For Monsters and A Vertical Interrogation of Strangers

If Frankenstein’s monster was not taken for granted, or was taken as the a priori product of our current mind, it would be named G.I.L.L., and made by Janice Lee. Lee’s is our neurological nightmare and native hope: the act of consciousness grasping towards itself, which is the original act of writing itself.
-Vanessa Place, Co-Director of Les Figues Press & Author of Dies: A Sentence and La Medusa

Kērotakis, by Janice Lee, is a strange and uncanny fissioning operant on exponential levels. It animates through alchemical repartee, elements, which flare across the text, tuning themselves, line by line, phrase by phrase, into an energy of flammable gold.
-Will Alexander, Author of Asia & Haiti and Sunrise in Armageddon

Genres: Poetry

149 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

JANICE LEE (she/they) is a Korean American writer, teacher, spiritual scholar, and shamanic healer. She is the author of 8 books of fiction, creative nonfiction, & poetry: KEROTAKIS (Dog Horn Press, 2010), Daughter (Jaded Ibis, 2011), Damnation (Penny-Ante Editions, 2013), Reconsolidation (Penny-Ante Editions, 2015), The Sky Isn’t Blue (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016), Imagine a Death (Texas Review Press, 2021), Separation Anxiety (CLASH Books, 2022), a finalist for the 2023 Oregon Book Award, and A roundtable, unanimous dreamers chime in, a collaborative novel co-authored with Brenda Iijima (Meekling Press, 2023). An essay (co-authored with Jared Woodland) is featured in the recently released 4K restoration of Sátántangó (dir. Béla Tarr) from Arbelos Films. She writes about interspecies communication, plants & personhood, the filmic long take, slowness, the apocalypse, architectural spaces, inherited trauma, and the Korean concept of han, and asks the question, how do we hold space open while maintaining intimacy? Lee teaches workshops on inherited trauma, healing and writing, and facilitates guided meditations bringing together elements from several different lineages as a mesa-carrying practitioner of the Q’ero tradition of medicine work and as a practitioner of Engaged Buddhism (in the tradition of Plum Village and Thich Nhat Hanh). She also incorporates elements of ancestor work, Korean shamanic ritual (Muism), traditional Korean folk practices, plant medicine & flower essence work, card readings & divination, and interspecies communication. She currently lives in Portland, OR where she is the Operational Creative Director at Corporeal Writing and an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Portland State University.

Reviews

[Kyle Muntz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this on the plane home from AWP. Kerotakis is a fascinating book: part philosophical investigation, part fragmented narrative, part disembodied poetics. Sort of like what might happen if Wittgenstein wrote a novel, Lee refines the philosophical aphorism to the point it becomes poetry, with digressions on alchemy, phenomenology, being. The language is intensely sculpted, with heavy formal invention. There are elements of narrative though I'd guess that anyone who became too fixates on them would sort of be missing the point. I think this book does a good job showing that Lee is a genius, and makes me really look forward to another book of hers I have, "Damnation".

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm impressed how cerebrally challenging this book is without losing me. It's demanding, but it also pulls along. It's definitely a highly unusual work, so multi-layered with the nature of perception, mysticism, science, philosophy, and blendings thereof. It seems to have part of itself on the page and part of itself created in the mind of the reader during the act of reading. And, challenging though it may be, it is also rewarding. Very much so.

[in8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://5cense.com/23/1077.htm

[Jared Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put down this book from the very moment I bought it. It's incredibly imaginative, tells a narrative in the most beautifully fragmented way. It is poetic, yet subdued by the story and the characters. At moments, I was so involved with the character development, that it wasn't until after turning the page when I realized, "that was the most poetic thing I've read in a minute."

This is a book that holds importance with undertones of existentialism, gender politics, and probably more. What I loved about having those deeper ideals in the text, is that they were not heavy handed, and executed gently.

I definitely recommend this book, if you can find it. I had to do a lot of searching to get my hands on a copy.

[Edward Rathke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very quick and dense and spectacular read.

It's been a while since I've read something thoroughly experimental and formally challenging. It's been longer since I've read something that feels like it needs those elements and those elements add to the story. I think the story needs these elements.

It's a book that's maybe too smart for me, and I know Lee's smarter than me, but that doesn't make it any less interesting of a read. I don't know if it's enjoyable, but it's quick enough that it doesn't matter.

But, yeah, I recommend this. I haven't been reading many indie press books this year, but reading these two books by Janice Lee in quick succession reminds me of all the hidden gems out there written by people I know.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I missed this book in 2010 because I was injured and under a narcotic blanket for most of the year -- but it's great! a fun read, too. especially when read in a building that also kind of feels like a robot with mirror skin.