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Republics of Reality: 1975–1995
Charles Bernstein
Sun & Moon, $14.95 (paper)
Alternately classical
("Music strays, will's composed / Pleasure strikes when feeling stays"),
techno-code ("autonomous explosions / taste as / blocks, circling / like
(star), fl…m…n…g…") and gonzo ("Who would have
thought Paul McCartney would be / the Perry Como of the 1990s?"), Charles
Bernstein builds perfect little units—as if he were updating Elizabeth
Bishop's "Monument" or re-casting the condensed jewels that are Vasko Popa's
poems for our age. Republics might move readers, then, beyond their
initial reaction to his work once they see he has as much to do with Milton
as the Language movement: there is not a word that doesn't belong in these
tight, crystalline artifacts, in which there are seldom an unoriginal revelation,
joke, or philosophic/aesthetic stance made ("Figment / only blinds / when
care freezes / & flips / over its own / (homely) / recourse"). Because
these poems defy categorization, Bernstein's use of poetry as a political
ground continues stronger than ever, but hopefully the breadth of style
in Republics will remind many that Bernstein's head has never been
buried in the sand—that he's as much a lyric bard, prose poet and
Romantic as he is an "experimentalist," a "renegade." —Ethan Paquin
Republics of Reality: 1975–1995
Charles Bernstein
Sun & Moon, $14.95 (paper)
What was Language
poetry? A farce, a revolution of banality, a savvy marketing effort? Readers
who hold of any of these opinions will find plenty of grist for their respective
mills in Charles Bernstein's Republics of Reality: 1975–1995
. The book offers a peculiar overview of Bernstein's career in that it includes
poems from eight of the poet's previously published chapbooks and a clutch
of previously unpublished new poems. The collection is a dissonant symphony
cobbled together from minor scores, and its herky-jerky mix of comedy, philosophy,
and lyric is a reminder that Bernstein is an avid experimentalist who strikes
out in many directions. Farce: "Take this / split (splint / of sound / mumbling
/ murky dormer / as in" ("Revolutionary Poem"). A revolution of banality:
"here. Forget. / There are simply tones / cloudy, / breezy / birds &
so on. / Sit down with it. / It's time now. / There is no more natural sight"
("Poem"). Branding: The jacket copy reminds readers of Bernstein's central
role in the Language poetry movement, but it also insists that, "as these
poems reveal, Bernstein's allegiance has not been to any one kind of poetry,
but to an 'artificed' writing that refuses simple absorption in the society
around it." Of course, this begs the question of why society would feel
compelled to absorb such writing in the first place, and why such writing
consequently finds its only refuge in the university. Bernstein's language,
it seems, now has just a lower-case "l". Is he running from success or failure?
One thing is certain: Republics of Reality weighs 15.4 ounces. —John
Palattella
Republics of Reality: 1975–1995
Charles Bernstein
Sun & Moon, $14.95 (paper)
"I'm not going to
change my language," Charles Bernstein writes in "Sentences," from
his first book, Parsing. But he did—and, more importantly, he
changed ours. Republics of Reality collects eight early books of perhaps
the most public figure in Language poetry and adds a substantial group of
newer poems. Contemplating the rise of Language writing in the twenty-first
century may be, as the title of Bernstein's selection of new poems
puts it, "Residual Rubbernecking." Yet Republics of Reality
is valuable both as a record of a movement and as an account of a singular
poetic struggle. Bernstein's mature signature style is as recognizable
as any incontemporary poetry—bob-and-weave, pugilistic punning
through multiple discourses, with syntax and line deployed as an endless
series of (often comic) head fakes. But in early books, such as
Parsing, Shade, and Poetic Justice, we find Bernstein fascinated
with the workings of ordinary language, in poems deeply informed by
Bernstein's early training in philosophy. Elements of Bernstein's later
approach appear as early as Shade (in poems such as "Take, then,
these…"), but their later dominance hardly seems inevitable.
Indeed, elements of the early work that were later abandoned seem more intriguing
than the new poems. The philosophical earnestness of these early pieces connect
Bernstein to the total movement of Language writing. By Resistance
(1983), Bernstein has hit his stride, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine
has folded, and Language writing itself has started to become an object
of academic attention. Republics of Reality is a Burgess Shale
of a poetic explosion; we see not only what happened, but what might
have and didn't. —David Kellog
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