Jason Holt (2)Besprekingen

See full review: https://irenaioannou.com/?page_id=92

Experimental poetry with absence of titles—though the poet smartly addresses this peculiarity of his in page 119—punctuation and capitalization makes the navigation rather tenuous, but the playfulness in the syntax and the linguistic awareness compensates the reader.

His poems about writing are interesting, and so is his evolution into shorter forms. I recommend the anthology for thoughtful reading. The title of the anthology came from the poem:

the only place to go
is up against beyond
what other challenge worthy
what other meaning
less than war
more than game
between covers of book or bed

Interesting. I am not well-educated in poetry, so when I read it, I depend entirely on personal response (feeling, seeing clearly), not technical knowledge or comparison with other poets. Holt's poems are obscure, lack titles and punctuation, and feature too many made-up words that are often more irritating than evocative, but some of them work for me. Here's the start of one I re-read several times with great interest:

listen pig
and write the words I whisper thee
I am your best muse
formed by all you imagine
and mastering it
as the whip for your continuance
your struggle at the slipperied rest
of gainful sloth employment...

I enjoyed this book for the most part. The layout was nice but would have liked titles to the poems on the pages. I couldn't find the rhythms to the poems at all in the first part. The second part picked up, and I enjoyed it quite a bit more. It is a collection of poems over many years.

(1994) Poems selected from Fine in Kafka’s Burrow
(1999) from Memos to No One
(2003) from A Hair’s Breadth of Abandon
(2005) from Relics from an Open Vault
(2009) from Longstern Poems
(2012) from “A Brace of Sonnets”
(2014) from Inversed
New Poems

I will re-read in the future and see if my opinion changes.

Not kindle unlimited, not showing ebook at all though sent with selection of pdf or the other not mobi, but got it through librarything for possible review back in April, and because of finding this buried in email have spent all day clearing out my email. My apologies and then some for the delay.

This is a compilation or anthology or collection or whatever. The use of / to separate parts was distracting, not sure if that was because of the format or what, and couldn't find the rhythms to the poems at all in the first part. The second part {it all is somewhat divided in a way} was a bit better, more 'regular' style and no / so was easier to find some kind of rhythm, not any could live without but interesting even though some of the words weren't really quite in context of how normally used, and again the page format threw me off when the page ended but the poem hadn't. Assume that is not an issue in a non ebook format. The rhythmic 'difference' the writer is noted for definitely throws me off. The 3 stars is to match amazon's 3.

Suggestion: Buy in non ebook format, like poetry, really like poetry, not mind if there are totally made up words or actual words put together that don't normally go together. Be okay with 'rhythmically different', it kept throwing me off.

Up Against Beyond:Selected Poems 1994-2017 by Jason Holt is a good free form poetry selection. He is a dark wordsmith that pokes at ones imagination, ones emotions, and does not mince words or opinions.

This collection of essays by philosophers on The Daily Show and, to a slightly lesser extent, The Colbert Report is actually a revised, extended, and updated edition of a volume originally published in 2006, hence the rather grandiose title.

The essays mostly fit into a few particular categories. Some talk about The Daily Show's place within and commentary on the news media of today's entertainment-oriented era, and about Jon Stewart as a sort of journalistic watchdog. Some compare Stewart's approach to that of specific philosophers, or situate the show within a long history of political satire. Some examine issues that the show is fond of talking about, although, for some reason, most of these seem to involve religion, including creationism, the "War on Christmas," and the tendency of political candidates in the US to claim that God wants them to win. There are a few on other random topics, too, however, including a discussion of neologisms (that is, newly coined words) and a look at some ideas about what irony is and whether Colbert qualifies as an ironist.

The style of the essays varies, with some having a more academic feel, while others attempt to take on some of the humorous tone of the The Daily Show itself. They're all quite readable, though, clearly written by fans of the show, and generally at least moderately interesting. (The one befuddling exception is Kimberly Blessing and Joseph Marren's "On Bullshit: Political Spin and the PR-ization of Media," which, weirdly seems to just keep repeating the same point over and over again in different words for fifteen pages.)

I don't, however, feel like I've gained any stunning new insights into the show, or its subject matter. I think most of the pieces here are making points that seem fairly obvious to me, or that have already been made in the show itself. There's also, especially in the first couple of sections, an unfortunate tendency for a lot of the essays to cover some of the same ground, and many of them use the exact same quotes and examples from the show. (I mean, I fully understand why everybody wants to talk about Stewart's Crossfire appearance, but reading the same quotes from it in essay after essay does get a bit old.)

On balance, I'd say it's worth a look for philosophically-inclined Daily Show fans, especially ones who, like me, are desperately missing both Stewart and Colbert and might appreciate a thoughtful look back. Just don't necessarily expect the book to open up lots of exciting new perspectives on it all.½

An interesting view of flash entertainment news. It would have nice to have had more input from John Stewart himself. Still it was an interesting read.

In truthiness, this should have been called "The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and Philosophy", since Colbert and his show are the main subjects of several of the essays. Topics include the Media and the DS's critique and effect on it, political rhetoric, Bullshit, religion, evolution, irony, and wordplay and neologizing. Philosophically, Stewart is most often compared to Socrates and the Cynics of ancient Greece.

I've read six or seven of these "popular culture and philosophy" books now, and this is the best so far. Aside from the inevitable repetitiveness that results from having 19 different authors treat the same subject (Stewart's Crossfire appearance was addressed many times), there were no bad essays in this collection - all were engaging and interesting.½