Vicki Nemeth’s Reviews > A Breakfast for Barbarians > Status Update

As I could not be bothered to find out how I would have read, "Cartaphilus," wrongly, I had to delay reading it for a couple of days to ensure I was in the right frame of mind. While reading, I had to look up a lot of names.

Pausing for a library return period

I enjoy, "Eyes and Whales," but I'm going to have to turn back and reread, "The Sperm King," tomorrow. For some reason, I apply too much of other people's literary criticism instead of doing my initial reading of, "The Sperm King," at face value. I knew I would regret reading the critical collection, "Invocations," (thankfully, I stopped after one introductory chapter) before reading the poems.

This poem is about the nome, "Modrakhina," but when I try to look it up, I only get very recent information, nothing from what MacEwen would have been referring to. Web users must be cautious of an Internet that lacks pre-Internet information about non-Western cultures. So should AI trainers. MacEwen obviously must have learned the nome from somewhere, and I question Canada's current lack of microfiche digitization.

I think "Black Alchemy" is about Muhammad Ali, although, with this book being published in 1966, the media would already have had to have covered his name change before he made it official on paper. It sounds really cool and I enjoyed reading it. I'm curious as to whether MacEwen's surrounding CanLit critics tried to depoliticize this...

Some of MacEwen's sexual imagery is awkward porn. This one has better symbolic grace.

A turn to a later page and a name I recognized caused me to realize I should be looking up the guy to which this earlier poem is dedicated. After reading his short Wikipedia biography, a reread of the poem is richer and more fun. I'm learning that to not look up names, places or events in poems is to depoliticize them and make them insipid.

Mixed cultures' symbolism into a fun joke. This one is enjoyable.

I'm become more efficient at phasing in and out of reading a work, so covering more poems per day. This one stands out for being conversational and accessible, and not so porny. It reminds me of some of my pre-pandemic poetry work. (Note that don't know whether my poetry writing has changed since my advisable-but-not-required pause that events have prolonged.)