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Part deconstruction, part love letter, these captivating poems are both a keenly-observed distillation of a belovedTV show, and a piquant commentary on the language, values, and delights inherent in iconic American television.While it will be of particular interest to fans, one doesn't need to know Gilmore Girls to enjoy this volume; Choate'spoems take the source material to uncharted territory, and it's a wonderful ride.
—J. Ryan Stradal, New York Times bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Poor TV, never entering our brains whole, always fractured by scrolling, folding laundry, children, spouses, worries,fantasies and other intrusions. In A Rational Arrangement of All the Senses, Andrew Choate has harvested hisattention span in a singular way, guided by love and the destructive impulse that only a true fan can wield. Choatebreaks Gilmore Girls into alluring and elliptical shards, organized by their chronological appearance in the show,but also by what catches in the author's sensate, pattern-attuned mind. What pleasure it is to see this belovedshow turned inside out, with isolated lines of dialogue ("I'm having Satan's baby"), the breakfast of busy teens("cold Pop Tarts"), Rory's voracious reading habits ("Emily Dickinson," The Bell Jar), and interstitial sounds (grunting,doorbell ringing), all free to bump up against each other. It all begs the question: What would Rory think about acluster of lines like "lower your expectations / a milk whore / a Girl Scout / a Brownie / your tongue"??
—Margaret Wappler, author of the novel Neon Green and A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry How a Generation Grew Up
You are what you eat, the old saying goes. This is true for our cultural diets as well as Andrew Choate’s new book,A Rational Arrangement of All the Senses, which makes this adage abundantly clear. A playful yet obsessive set ofpoems derived from watching and rewatching Gilmore Girls, this collection draws our attention to the world ofmedia, where we find ourselves embroiled. At once readable and experimental, the book asks readers to look anewat what they consume and how it shapes our worldview.
—C. Francis Fisher, author of I Called Metropolis and translator of Joyce Mansour's In the Glittering Maw: Selected Poems
Andrew Choate’s poetry is a celebration of language and voice and their enduring, lingering power to conveymeaning from one generation to the next - both for the characters of Gilmore Girls and for those who watch andlove the show.
Choate’s quest began with food words, which expanded to bodily sensations and, ultimately, whatever heconsidered good lines. I approached his poetry as a newcomer to Gilmore Girls. I hadn’t seen the show. Yet, afterreading each insightful and entertaining poem, I felt as though I’d binged the whole first season. So, I did. But youdon’t need to watch the show to appreciate his poetic work of art. Choate’s study of each episode, meticulouslyselecting words and themes the way one might select the ripest fruit, brings us the essence of the show inlanguage form without the need to see it with our own eyes. We see each episode in our mind’s eye and feel it inour bodies because Choate feeds us the raw ingredients.
Choate points out the elements of our senses found in the buffet of season one episodes of Gilmore Girls, reducingthe dialogue to its purest and most decadent form so that one may read each poem and come away with the samesensations as watching the corresponding episode. Satiated. Though not quite sure how he did it, how he chosethe most poignant words and phrases that now—when you watch —become as obvious and essential to the storyas a bollard in front of a building.
Bravo! A masterful celebration of the essence of a beloved classic show!
—Kristen Ness, author of the novel At Loggerheads
Andrew Choate is the author of Language Makes Plastic of the Body (Palm Press), Stingray Clapping (Insert Blanc), Too Many Times I See Every Thing Just the Way It Is (Poetics Research Bureau), Learning (Civil Coping Mechanisms), and Must Have Jazz(The Residual Press).
A passionate admirer of bollards—the concrete and steel posts that protect buildings, equipment, and people from vehicles—Choate performs and photographs them as Saint Bollard (IG: @saintbollard), earning praise from Slate as “the world’s foremost bollard photographer.” His work has received awards including Best Newcomer, Best Visual/Performance Art, and the Warwick Broadhead Memorial Award at the Dunedin and Auckland Fringe Festivals.
He produces The Unwrinkled Ear concert series and radio show in Los Angeles.
Book Information:
· Paperback: 194 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-507-6
$22
