Jon Leon’s Tract, *a dusi/e-chap, 2006

Jon Leon’s Tract, *a dusi/e-chap, 2006
by Chris Rizzo

In the sub-cultural world of Tract, no action is taboo, and explanations are nowhere. By the time we reach “Louise Frevert,” the fifteenth prose-poem section presumably named after the Danish porn-star turned politician, the fragmented and often bitingly witty syntax of Tract just continues to speed away: “After two we speed away in my Fairlane. We download a couple of anal flicks and select full-screen. I set up laptop and dj. Jenny does a cut/copy job with the Marquis. Pastes fotos on her singed tits.” What’s ultimately so sharp about Leon’s text is that it’s so consumable to the special kind of poetry addict who reads first and foremost for the rush that comes with the pleasures of unpredictable language. But such pleasures are those that pin and bind and leave you dangling, like Nadia “from a plant hook fastened to the ceiling” in “Klemmer.” The text makes masochistic gluttons of such readers, as though we’re inside some Jamesonian structure, a prison-house, the Bastille of language turned postmodern pleasure-house or funhouse, where sensory overload distorts, dements, and tragically warps an understanding of the world around us. This is dark play, a “couture feast, fierce” and unrelenting in its neo-Sodom dialectic of creation and destruction spinning out of control.
It is “the Marquis” referenced in “Louise Frevert,” i.e. the Marquis de Sade, who infamously stated that “sex without pain is like food without taste.” In her introduction to Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom, Simone de Beauvoir writes that “Sade tried to make of his psycho-physical destiny an ethical choice; and of this act, in which he assumed his ‘separateness’, he attempted to make an example and an appeal. It is thus that his adventure assumes a wide human significance. Can we, without renouncing our individuality, satisfy our aspirations to universality? Or is it only by the sacrifice of our individual differences that we can integrate ourselves into the community? This problem concerns us all.” And it concerns Tract. If I stare into the dark surface of this hyper-sexualized and thoroughly strung-out text, then I’m bound to see a critique of ludic philosophy, i.e., a mentality of desire. “Food without taste” is still food, i.e., it still satisfies a necessity, whereas “taste” satisfies desire. The characters in Tract are relentless in their pursuit of pleasures, no matter how deeply sub-cultural, and no matter the cost. These characters have no “aspirations to universality,” but rather they repetitively—and sometimes literally—fuck one another over to satisfy their individual desires. Leon’s text enacts this, and draws us in, makes of us complicit voyeurs who watch for the next word. This is cogent work.

Brief author/reviewer bios:

Jon Leon lives in Savannah where he edits Live Action Arcade with poet Allyssa Wolf. New poems and articles are forthcoming in Vanitas and Magazine Cypress. Italian translations of his serial epic Diphasic Rumors are forthcoming in GAMMM. Contact him at jonaleon[at]gmail[dot]com.


Originally from Long Island and a long-time resident of Boston, Chris Rizzo currently lives in Albany, New York, where he is working on a Ph.D. in English. His latest chapbooks are Claire Obscure (Katalanché Press, 2005) and Zing (Carve Editions, 2006). His poems have appeared in many magazines over the years, such as Art New England, Carve, Dachshund, Shampoo, and most recently in The Duplications. He is also the editor of Anchorite Press, which he founded in 2003.

Available for Review

If you are interested in adding your work to this list to be reviewed, or in receiving a piece to review, please contact me here: dusieli at yahoo dot com ...thanks! ***this is not only for Dusi/e-chap authors...any author of a chapbook/bookbook or publisher/editor of therein....


Available for Review:

Anthologies: My Spaceship, CyGist Press, 2006 Mark Lamoureux, ed

:e/chapchaps:

: Boxd Transistor : Jon Leon, Coconut 2006 (e-chap)

ghosts spiders_dogs Logan Ryan Smith Detumescence 2005, *an e-chap

amber faint Logan Ryan Smith Detumescence 2006, *an e-chap

:CHAPCHAPS:
(nondusie)

Composition Marble, Joshua Corey Pavement Saw Press 2006

Estrella's Prophecies: III David Baratier, Luna Bizonte Prodz, 2004.

Boxer Rebellion, Sarah Mangold, g o n g, 2004.

VI Fictions, Chris Pusateri, g o n g, 2006.

DUSIE CHAPCHAPS:E/CHAPS&,-
: * dusi/e-chaps, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap) :
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Identity Crisis, by _____ * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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talschlüsse(Deutsch) hartmut abendshein, * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
:
Ishmael Among the Bushes, WIlliam Allegrezza * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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Analfebeto/An Alphabet, Ellen Baxt * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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The Metal Sunset of Tomorrow's Ascending Dissension Jules Boykoff * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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the listening lost, Mackenzie Carignan, * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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Surface Tension, a 10 day tryst by Mackenzie Carignan, &Scott Glassman * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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Bharat jiva, kari edwards * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or broadside)
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rosemary stretch, betsy fagin * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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pieces of the sky, greg fuchs * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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Diverse Speculations Descending Therefrom, K. Lorraine Graham * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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BEEN RAW DICTION, David Goldstein * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (echap)
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RecollecTed, Jared Hayes * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap)
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*laws*, Jen Hofer * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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How Many of You are You?, Philip Jenks * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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The Good Campaign, Amy King * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (pdf or chapchap)
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Signed Even as a Waiting, Paul Klinger * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 ( e-chap or chapchap)
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Night Season, Mark Lamoureux * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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In Fortune, Lauren Levin, Jared Stanley, &Catherine Theis * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (echap or chapchap)
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TRACT, Jon Leon * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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from Compass and Hem, Jill Magi * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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Picture of the Basket, Sarah Mangold * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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Full-Figured Rhapsody, Sheila Murphy * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (pdf or chapchap)
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Insect Country (A), Sawako Nakayasu * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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dispatch, nicole mauro and marci nelligan * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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little poem, cheryl quimba * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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IN THE QUELLS, Christopher Rizzo * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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COAST, John Sakkis * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 ( e-chap)
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paper poem, rick snyder * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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heart on a tripod, Kaia Sand * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 ( e-chap or chapchap)
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2 poems from the bottom of the barrel, Logan Ryan Smith * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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Entropic Liberties, Jane Sprague and Jonathan Skinner * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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Can Arboreal Knotwork Help Blackburn out of Frege's Abyss?, Boyd Spahr * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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The New Couriers, Dana Ward * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap)
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a city_a cloud, Elizabeth Workman * a dusi/e-chap, 2006 (e-chap or chapchap/poster)
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