Pick Up How To Be A Poet Illustrated By J.M. Farkas EBook
to Be a Poet"
Written by J, M. Farkas
ed by Diana Iozzia
"How to Be a Poet" is the second book written by J, M. Farkas, in the style of blackout, or in this case, whiteout poetry, Farkas draws from Ovid's poem, "Ars Amatoria", an epic poem about love,
Farkas uses seven bottles of white correction fluid to mark out aboutpercent of the poem, leaving words out that help make a cohesive poem for herself.
Her encompassing poem sets out to teach the reader how to be a poet, using the secluded words to create metaphors and personification,
Personally, this is not a type of poetry that I had delved into before, In reading the pages and thinking how many of Ovid's words had been manipulated, I found myself drawing a dislike for this style of poetry.
I think using someone else's poetry in this way is a bit cheap, Although her final poem reads nicely in a style of poetry I would read, I do not like the entire poetry style,
The second half of the book is Ovid's original poem, but Farkas's poem's words typed in a bold font, I personally did not enjoy this section, because I do not enjoy Ovid's poetry, I felt that this book used a certain level of effort that just does not appeal to me, I feel that the creation of this book feels disengenious, taking advantage of the source material,
I would not recommend reading this book, I do not plan to continue reading Farkas's work,
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for reading and reviewing purposes, Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity, I love this collection and trust me, I am sad that I got to read it in digital version first because given the structure the author incorporates, this is best devoured in print.
It's in two parts the first half teases what the second half accomplishes and you certainly cannot help but feel lighter and motivated towards the end.
Thanks netgalley for the eARC, First of all, Id like to thank sitelinkMutiara for giving this book to me as her generous gift! Im not yet a poet, but Im constantly in the process of becoming to borrow a phrase from Bob Dylan.
Poetry is resistance, thats what I first think of as I began reading this book, How to be a Poet comes out of Ovids sitelinkThe Art of Love, The Ancient Romans poem is originally an instructional elegy in the art of love which is comprised of three books, This book actually consists of two parts, The first half is Farkas own modification of Ovids poem by employing the technique of erasure, which she gained through his teachers inspiration.
While the second half contains Ovids original Ars Amatoria with bolded words in each poem so that we could trace the creative process of Farkas in discovering her poem inside Ovids work.
I cant help but drawing a line between Farkas creative process with how Andy Warhol reproduced various silkscreens of famous peoples portraits such as Marilyn Monroe, Mao Zedong, etc to note some.
In a way, it hardly could be said as an original piece of art, But another way to look at it would be that even inside ones art, theres another way to reinterpret it that we could claim it as our own works by putting our own hands on it.
It shows us an alternative, that we dont always have to start working on a piece of art from a blank canvas,
I think of How to be a Poet less as a manual to write a poem, Moreover, the act of erasure itself is more important in itself than the poem that Farkas produced, It reminds me of sitelinkHappening, the kind of performance art that can only be witnessed at a particular moment in a situational way, like what the Dutch artist Wim T.
Schippers did with his sitelinkPindakaasvloer PeanutButter Platform, Hes just literally only covered a floor with peanut butter and nothing else, The act looks simple at first, but it holds deeper meaning as we try to see the situation when he did that act,
TLDR “Dont only think about what the author thinks as you read a book, but also think of what you originally think as you read each passage.
” The Roman poet Ovid's The Book of Love instructed women on the "art" of seduction and men in the "art" of romantic conquest.
It is a "classic" sexist text on men, women, love, and sex,
In her second book of erasures, JM Farkas takes on Ovid's Ars Amatoria, or "The Book of Love, " In her signature feminist, revisionist twist, Farkas speaks to emerging "girl" poets, How to Be a Poet is not only for writers, but for anyone who wants to create beauty in the world, In addition to the erasure, How to Be a Poet includes a second version of the poem in a style that leaves the original text visible for readers who want to read the scandalous source material.
avenge your mother, invent
a girl with a reckless heart,
free her in her tower, be a thief,
snatch time, every time you write, . . this book didnt exceed expectations and it didnt fall flat either, i dont know how i felt about it and how well it was written and this dont know how to rate it.
i do, however, know that its criminally underrated, honestly though, my favorite part was the introduction written by the author, I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, Thanks for the free book,
J. M. Farkas rewrites Ovid's "Ars Armoria" in two ways, In the first part of the book, the author erased everything but their poem, made up from Ovid snippets, the second part of the book is Ovid's Ars Armoria in full with the author's take on it in bold print.
The last part is the newly formed poem only, This technique is not only very interesting from an academic point of view rewriting, but also from what poem can be found hidden in a text.
Ovid's Ars Armoria itself is structured in Three Books, the first two telling men how to woo and behave towards women remember her birthday, lol, and the last one is for women on how to basically become a good wife how to make up.
Ovid is more nuanced than this brief summary, but it's in parts really problematic, Yes, the majority of it might be irony and it might propose a different relation between men and women, but it is certainly possible to read it as problematic.
I found the entire 'business' highly enjoying even though it was a bit hard to go back to Ovid after reading this very feminist and beautiful message.
Visually the new poem is stunning, How much had to be erased to find this feminist message is a message in itself,
,Stars This book gives me a new reading experience, I love how it has three different versions of the poet where the first one covered the source text but the poem, the second one highlighted the poem in bold format with a full source text, and the leaving the last one naked with the poem only.
I feel like I get to know the poem itself when I read throughout each versions,
My favorite line would be:
“Bring a promise like an apple in the hand,”
Wow,
Hold it. Grip it. Dont lose it.
/would recommend this poetry book, “Hide the secret key by the strawberry trees, ”
Wow. This was beautiful even though it was a really quick read, I liked it way more than I could have even expected, I love the concept too, I'm telling bout this one to my therapist tbh how to find me: sitelink www, jmfarkas. comfor any formal inquiries, please contact my literary agent, Kerry Sparks, at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency: ksparkslgrliterary, com how to find me: sitelink www, jmfarkas. comfor any formal inquiries, please contact my literary agent, Kerry Sparks, at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency: ksparkslgrliterary, com sitelink.