La parola da casa, Serena Piccoli

at the beginning of bob marcacci's _excess conceptions meditations rapist_, there is a notice about drug recommendations. appropriate, for moving through this brief chapbook one feels as if one is watching someone under the influence of something. i don't mean that in a negative way. this person (i say this person, for there is no name at all on the chapbook—not even marcacci's) has a head full of interesting images that don't quite feed together, but somehow the images seem to tie into a whole. for instance, there is the constant question of the nature of history. also, repeated is the image of a person lost and trying to find him/herself in the midst of a rapidly moving culture of images. this reminds me of a passage from virilio's _information bomb_ (trans. chris turner) in which he speaks of 'extreme science': "cybernetic, this techno-science becomes, then, as mass techno-culture, the agent not, as in the past, of the acceleration of history, but of the dizzying whirl of the acceleration of reality." note: this quotation is only slightly relevant. the speed of contemporary reality is primarily what emerges in marcacci's chapbook. on another note, the drug notice in the beginning also signals another theme (if i can call it a theme—maybe a recurring fragment would be better) which concerns not overdosing yourself. i get the sense that i am being warned to be aware, but with so many rapid images presented, it is hard to tell what i am to concerned about.

(note: it's july and damn hot, and i'm sitting in a room with no a.c.)