The Daily Glance: Robbins
Michael Robbins' Alien vs. Predator is filled with pop references, allusions to English language literature, and satire. At moments it feels like he is both critiquing our consumer culture and buying into it. I'm reminded of the lines from Don Hertzfeldt's Rejected: "I am a consumer whore," "And how!" The poetry also reminds me of Nick Demske's; in fact, Robbins' work has that same type of manic energy that Demske manages. Also the same as Demske, Robbins uses standard forms as vessels for his critiques, which then makes the forms seem like parodies.
The references range all over pop culture and English language literature. Often I found myself trying to recall a quotation, wondering whether it was something from a classic writer like Marvell or from a group like Guns N' Roses.
You shouldn't drink diarrhea
unless you bring enough for everybody.
Turn it into a teaching moment.
Asian American Students for Christ
have the room until two-thirty.
Rumi says no donkey is a virgin,
no, nor any beast that bites the grass.
Maybe it sounds better in Persian.
Perhaps lines like this one jump out at me because of personal experience. As an academic, I hear the "teaching moment" line so often that it has lost meaning. And I have been told to read Rumi by many other academics (who don't usually ask me if I have already read Rumi).
I enjoyed reading this book, but I wonder if it will pass Pound's "news that stays news" test in ten years, twenty years. Does it matter? Probably not.
Robbins, Michael. Alien vs. Predator. New York: Penguin, 2012.
The references range all over pop culture and English language literature. Often I found myself trying to recall a quotation, wondering whether it was something from a classic writer like Marvell or from a group like Guns N' Roses.
You shouldn't drink diarrhea
unless you bring enough for everybody.
Turn it into a teaching moment.
Asian American Students for Christ
have the room until two-thirty.
Rumi says no donkey is a virgin,
no, nor any beast that bites the grass.
Maybe it sounds better in Persian.
Perhaps lines like this one jump out at me because of personal experience. As an academic, I hear the "teaching moment" line so often that it has lost meaning. And I have been told to read Rumi by many other academics (who don't usually ask me if I have already read Rumi).
I enjoyed reading this book, but I wonder if it will pass Pound's "news that stays news" test in ten years, twenty years. Does it matter? Probably not.
Robbins, Michael. Alien vs. Predator. New York: Penguin, 2012.
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