Asemic Front 2 Commentary: To Rank or Not to Rank? Kristine Snodgrass in the Garden of Asemic Infrastructures
RANK (glitch infrastructures) by Kristine Snodgrass; Florida, USA; JackLeg Press; 2021; 112 pages
https://www.amazon.com/Rank-Kristine-Snodgrass/dp/1737330776
By De Villo Sloan
I am both sad and beaming to report in my opening disclosure that my collab partner and an Asemic Front mainstay much beloved by readers – Kristine Snodgrass – has dedicated her recent book, RANK, to me!
I am honored and very happy to have such a wonderful memento of our partnership during the pandemic: A once in a lifetime event we shared as writers and documented in our book Whistle (2020).
Unfortunately, my regard and affection for Kristine Snodgrass might cloud – even unconsciously – the most sincere intention of this reviewer to be “fair,” “impartial,” and “objective” (given human failings).
So let us walk together, Camerado, (as Walt Whitman said) and agree this installment of AF2 is a “thought piece” or an “opinion” piece (“commentary”) in which I try to state briefly a convoluted (as always) and abstract “idea” I have been formulating about the place of RANK in the (sometimes) contentious evolution of the asemic writing movement.
First, RANK is beautifully printed and assembled, another gold star for JackLegPress. They also publish books by Snodgrass’s mentor, poet Maureen Seaton. The large-size format and eagle-eye color adjustments in RANK allow us easy access to the asemic realm.
I am beginning to believe the attainment of an “asemic mind” or “asemic state” is essential to all seeking entrance into the asemic process of creation, distribution, reception, interpretation and feedback. As one encountering RANK right now, I feel – as I return to the book frequently – I am entering a renewing garden refuge.
Dispersed among the predominate glitched vispo images in Rank are five prose poems that reveal Snodgrass’s talent (and further potential) as a “printed-word” poet. They also contribute to explorations of written- or spoken-word asemics (the possibility of reaching incoherence and/or the unintelligible via existing language signification). Here is a sample from RANK by Kristine Snodgrass:
Organica – the sea into which fractions are poured and then ripped selling states of repose – of sex. I am not here, cannot portend the infidel. You do not know how much I want to witness this stanza, a towering plow. She has become a saga a thousand eyes shifting and rushing. Toward the structure and its molten color. Just the repetition of a new life - betrayal and ghosts and howling.… (RANK 21)
As for my original theme: A contingent within our asemic community is advancing the notion we are in a Post-Asemic cultural phase.
Asemic writers and artists are a tight group. Collabs and constant sharing of work produce rapid innovations, as they say, “lifting all boats” as well. I can, of course, only point to trends I believe I detect. Sounding inner depths and tracking personal growth must be a topic for another time.
Post-Asemics are represented via Michael Jacobson’s Post-Asemic Press and his various related projects including new sound poetry. I assume many AF2ers are familiar with MJ’s impressive work.
https://postasemicpress.wordpress.com/
Like so many others, Michael Jacobson’s notions of the post-literate have shaped my own work and thinking, profoundly. I have, however, not been quick to embrace a post-asemic condition yet.
We cannot simply resolve cultural tensions and contradictions by creating holding cells for people and art such as Post-Modernism, Post-Colonialism, Post-Fluxus, Post-literate, Post-Structuralism, etc. I am not convinced asemic writing has or will follow any predictable cultural cycle.
The pages of Rank do offer me, for the first time, a glimpse over the threshold of asemics’ birth (or pansemic!) to something beyond. Through the wreckage of deconstructions, decayed alphabets, interrogations and tantrums are fantastic forms & expressions. In this sense, I can read RANK as Post-Asemic.
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