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Showing posts from March, 2013

Holly Anderson's THE NIGHT SHE SLEPT WITH A BEAR is like visiting an alien country you think you remember

THE NIGHT SHE SLEPT WITH A BEAR by Holly Anderson (Publication Studio, Portland, OR) is like visiting an alien country, you think you remember--from dreams you might have forgotten.  It’s a novel-like fiction made up of mesostics and flash fiction. I checked Wikipedia:   A   mesostic   is a   poem   or other   typography   such that a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text. It is similar to an   acrostic , but with the vertical phrase intersecting the middle of the line, as opposed to beginning each new line. The practice of using index words to select pieces from a preexisting text was developed by   Jackson Mac Low   as "diastics". It was used extensively by the experimental composer   John Cage   (Walsh 2001). The Night She Slept with a Bear also comes with music by Chris Brokaw on itunes.  And since the fiction resembles a musical composition, with themes repeated and intersected, it’s probably  a great addition.  Here’s the beginning, which gives yo