An Algebra by Don Bogen
2010; University of Oklahoma; Volume: 84; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wlt.2010.0221
ISSN1945-8134
Autores Tópico(s)Japanese History and Culture
Resumo^?I^P^//lk\^^ clockedinjust undertwo hundred pages)and re-envisioning itfor thetimes = HHMI Bw?rlL. ?H|utt\ about whichthe original story was speculating.= H^Hj Urasawa would have been about fiveyears old when The GreatestRobot = H^SlH^^^^^BI^^^P onFart h was beingserialized (andlater adaptedfor the Astro Boy animeseries, | m^K?????I^^m seen both in Japan and America). In an endnote that appears in each of the = m?English-language editions of Pluto,Urasawa describes the story as "the first| jj^^ manga Iever read that reallymoved me and inspiredme tobecome amanga = ^^L'Tf^^^w Vv^pp artist."His respect forTezuka is too profound tobetray the latter's commit- = ^k^l *Jra ^ mentto restless creative exploration toallowhimself or thereader amere = ^\ J? 'P\ retread of the source material. Instead,Urasawa is able todraw Pluto into the = vL * contextualmatrix ofhis own recentwork and utilize itnot justas a vehicle for = ^j^? homage but also for the same kind of social criticism thatTezuka's work as a = ::: !:: l^BOKL Pluto's genius balances on the fulcrumbetween what the twoworks share = HUfUi?KOS?U?I???^^^ and how theydiffer.Urasawa plays tohis own strengths as he reorients the = storyabout aGerman-made robotdetective named Gesicht who is investigat- = ing the robotmurders as theybegin tounfold.Whereas Tezuka envisioned ? thisrobotbattle royal as emanating fromthecapricious whims of a vaguely Middle Eastern supervillain type,Urasawa = nests theconflict within thepolitically complicated aftermathof a world war foughtby robots.The super robots inPluto = are, in fact, weapons ofmass destruction thathave been repurposed in theuneasy peace that follows thewar's end. In = almost every case, these supposedly unfeelingweapons ofwar bear heavy emotional wounds thattheyoften sublimate = through their lavish service to thegood of humanity. = As with many ofUrasawa's works, thereare shadows of other cultural landmarks thathaunt thecorridors of his = story. Inorder to trackdown the murderer, Gesicht initiatesa relationshipwith thebarely animated remains of a robot = found guilty ofmurdering a human out of an excess of emotion and in fulldefiance of universal robotprogranuning. = These chilling scenes of Gesicht confronting an unmoving pile of wreckage intentionally evoke Hannibal Lecter's = character inThe Silence of theLambs* Moreover, Urasawa's fascinationwith mapping the continuum between human = and robotic consciousness draws upon a cultural awareness of themovie Blade Runner. These homages never threaten = tooverrun theprincipal influence of Tezuka's original story,but theydo tacitlyacknowledge thatotherworks have = explored thematically similar territory and, at least for Urasawa, enrich his interpretationof it. = What makes Pluto different from Astro Boy (and the innumerable robot stories that litterthehistory ofmanga in = thewake of itssuccess) is thatUrasawa's stories derive thebulk of theirpower from theall-too-recognizable dynamic = of human frailty. Ultimately, the veneer of genre all but falls away under the immense stresses thathis reimagined = plot twistsplace on thecharacters. By far theshortestofUrasawa's works available inEnglish, Pluto is an outstanding = introduction toone ofmanga's contemporarymasters as well as a fittingtribute to the mind of Tezuka Osamu, who = made itall possible. = Rob Vollmar = Norman, Oklahoma = VERSE Don Bogen. An Algebra. Chicago. Uni versityof Chicago Press. 2009. ix+ 75 pages. $18. isbn978-0-226-06313-3 Reading Don Bogen's latest verse col lection, An Algebra, is likediscovering shards of a shatteredglobe and grad ually recognizing how the fragments form an elusive whole. A longing for connection haunts this collection, disjunctions of imageryand repeated verbal motifs providing moments of startlingclarity. With thissymphonic arrangement, it is no surprise that sec tionsof thecollectionhave been set to music by composer Allen Otte. In settings ranging from the streets of American cities to the south of France, from childhood to old age, these poems are linked by repetition of resonant passages. For example, the lines "A frame makes a window / you can't see out" occur in a poem early in the collection, "The Cage," a portrait of a young child, only to reappear later in "A World," a portrayal of a woman confronting the contemporary flood May- June 201 UJ > m & Z m es D H < w H Q & O of media images on her television screen. As we encounter the lines again, we perceive each poem as a tentative arrangement of percep tions that deepens when another association takes its place. Individual poems, too, exhibit this collage-like composition, as in the award-winning poem at the cen ter of the collection, "Variations on an Elegiac Theme," composed of phrases from the poems of Emily Dickinson rearranged to form an elegy to the poet. A tribute in the voice of the one mourned, the poem's fragmentation also drama tizes the impossibility of knowing history directly. As in our vision of the ancient poet Sappho, our ver sions of Dickinson remain imagina tive constructions of the brilliant shards of her life and work that remain. A different kind of fragmen tation, the fragmenting of syntax, occurs in the collection's opening and closing poems. Two speakers, one a contemporary man running through the streets of a city, the other a craftsman of an earlier time, narrate their actions in a terse style thatomits the subject, "Wanted soli tude, feared it/ Wanted torun," and "Could not speak but only arrange." Neither speaker takes the stage as subject but only as a series of ges tures, arranging rather than fully inhabiting theirlives. In spite of its signature tech nique of fragmentation, this collec tion is personal and intimate,with a strong narrative drive. From the opening poem, "Run," when the col lection's speaker is introduced, his impulse to encounter a larger loop, to "take more in," thrusts him into the poems that follow, encounters with children, a wife, friends,with the past and the present, so that we can see the need to understand [an (?)lgebra] and articulate as a forcedriving all the poems. One of the most beau tiful and poignant is "Vaporizer/' a father's attempt to arrange his fragmentary memories of a son's childhood, to view thosememories from the child's point of view, to rearrange them and find the child who grew up and away from his father's comprehension. But in our postmodern culture, where "any thing thathappens is too fasttosee," as these poems observe, we learn to sift flickering images formoments of brilliant conjunction. Don Bogen's poignant poems engage thatprocess and help us to mourn its limitations, too. Maty Kaiser Jefferson StateCommunityCollege Annamar?a Ferramosca. Other Signs, Other Circles: A Selection of Poems, 1990-2009. Anamaria Crowe Serrano, tr.New York. Chelsea. 2009. 225 pages. $20. IS8N 978-0-9823849-2-3 I almost did not read beyond Anamaria Crowe Serrano's intro duction toOther Signs,Other Circles, for it seemed a bit offputting. She Ill remarks that, in Annamaria Fer ramosea's poetry, "meaning is the primary focus," as ifshewere some- :ftSS?S how unique in that respect; with J^fij trite sentimentality, she refers to a l?iSBS putative "negative impact on soci- fc/Si!^ ety ifwe ignore the poetic psyche that connects us to the universe"; '%$33$& and she states that Ferramosca's poetry is the "closest Italian ver- W?m sion of ethnopoetic that I've come SS^Ii across," without defining the term "ethnopoetic," and ignoring poets ^i?ffi?S like Lucio Mariani, Giovanni Ce cchetti, Mich?le So vente, and others. SpftSf However, Iwill not hold thatagainst Ferramosca's poetic works or Crowe V'??Sz Serrano's highly competent facing jfSS| translations,which render in Eng- ??ff^f lish selections from thepoet's three major collections, plus some previ- S?Jji ously unpublished poems. ??fSI Amid the poet's "vivid fairy- W*S? tales," the translator demonstrates 8*l?Jf her talent, deftly tackling the dif- SllSlij ficulties of Romance syntax, never &?Mi shying from using themost ob vi- Wi??-^ ous translation (as some translators :SfS?S opt to show personal prowess over S^iftil direct rendering). Avoiding lazi ness, she chooses a more accurate word, even when a perfectly good liSSl near-cognate is available in Eng- ?Slilt lish?as we see in her choice of "distress" for "angoscia" instead of "anguish." Often, her challeng- iS^S es are Ferramosca's combinatory iS|;8 neologisms, such as "confondesalta" SSK ("confusexcites"). The highlight of f?f?l bilingual wordplay is themise-en- |?SjR| ab?me effect when thepoet's original IjBlBl includes alternating hemistichs of Sflll English andItalian that areinversely iS?lfli rendered on the facingpage. ??|8?i From the Pugliese tradition of||||f||| tarantella to the fishing peers of E18|tf Istanbul, Ferramosca's poetry inter mingles topics from lullabies to itSfl physical science to original sin. The I8?111 work is replete with folklore, local iSSlfll j??? iiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiM 74 t World Literature Today IBB!! ...
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