Reviews

Barf Manifesto by Dodie Bellamy

lifeinpoetry's review

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5.0

I'd lost hope of ever getting my hands on this but Ugly Duckling Presse has added quite a few more of their out of print chapbooks on their Online Chapbook Archive since I'd last checked:

https://uglyducklingpresse.org/archive/online-chapbook-archive/

So with my recent battle with concentration and will this was a perfect read.

The portrayal of friendship with that image of Eileen Myles ordering Bellamy to pump and pump the plunger long after Bellamy has tired, a brief cloud that causes much embarrassment on Bellamy's part and causes her to remove Myles' name from her acknowledgements in a book she published at the time. Bellamy removing embarrassing sentences from essays to appear more like a Serious Writer and then later regretting it. The desire to cut all that is embarrassing and human as writers create their public image seems especially relevant today with many writers, especially younger writers, cultivating their 'brand'.

meganmilks's review

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5.0

two essays/lectures on eileen myles' "everyday barf". singular, fascinating, funny, weird. favorite part: when dodie bellamy relates the time when she clogged eileen myles's toilet and eileen myles has no mercy in making dodie bellamy pump and pump with the plunger while she stands there barking orders. blech!
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