Just wondering what everyone else was making of this book... I
have this theory that if Nicholson Baker and the Mezzanine are
the Talking Heads (More Songs About Buildings and Food) then
Dark Decade is Royal Trux... scuzzy blotto rock for the
eighties and nineties... or maybe Sonic Youth's Daydream
Nation...
Obviously, Drucker's project here has something to do with
reclaiming language (an Ackeresque idea), and Drucker does work
a bit against cliches and wornout language in DD...
for example, on page 23 Drucker tells us
Out of respect for His ancient past He muttered cries designed
to recall His own uncertain origin...
And later on page 43...
The blows to the boy were as music to the frightened masses in
the soil out behind the kitchen, but in their hearts they knew
enough to figure out he was on his way to a form of wisdom...
These aren't really cliches; the language there is not
cliched. The idea behind these passages is cliched, though,
overused. Drucker seems to be able to bend these ideas, kind
of sullying them in the process and adapting them to her use,
which is pretty subversive when ya think about it...
Early in the book (the first 25% of it or so), Drucker uses
these words a great deal:
body politic
birds
sky
heat
sidewalk
freeway
What does this mean? What is she doing? The first thing that
struck me about the characters in this book is that they seem
almost Brechtian, not characters so much as ideas.
No wonder her hero seems to be a dissident poet who works for
a political campaign. The power of language is pretty
significant in DD.
I had trouble with the book until Work, the poet was
introduced. Now I've gotta backtrack and figure out who
everyone is.
Later
T. Pontius
tap6u@virginia.edu