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A review by unabridgedchick
Radial Symmetry by Katherine Larson
2.0
Just not my taste. This was a slim book full of poems that reminded me why I grew up thinking I didn't like poetry. A few lines of luminous clarity (Shops fill and empty like lungs) but otherwise, words strung together into pictures that felt purposefully obscure.
The intersection of science and art always interests me but Larson's volume didn't satisfy. It wasn't deeply scientific in any meaningful way and it felt art-y-for-art's-sake. Larson globe trots but location isn't really relevant beyond a title, and it felt like Larson used it for shorthand to make the reader do a little more work in evoking place. I felt like I was flicking through a tourist's Instagram feed rather than a field researcher's notes.
Gluck's rapturous foreword just emphasized for me how much I didn't 'get' this volume.
Read this for Read Harder 2021, Task 20: Read a book of nature poems.
The intersection of science and art always interests me but Larson's volume didn't satisfy. It wasn't deeply scientific in any meaningful way and it felt art-y-for-art's-sake. Larson globe trots but location isn't really relevant beyond a title, and it felt like Larson used it for shorthand to make the reader do a little more work in evoking place. I felt like I was flicking through a tourist's Instagram feed rather than a field researcher's notes.
Gluck's rapturous foreword just emphasized for me how much I didn't 'get' this volume.
Read this for Read Harder 2021, Task 20: Read a book of nature poems.