Sunday, April 9, 2017

Tom G Reads: Old School Monsters

I told Mr. Charles Joseph that I would review a chapbook that he half-wrote. But I’m a procrastinating prick and simply never got around to it as much as I wanted to. The dull, meaty tentacles of “I really should get that done” have been wrapped around my head ever since. So here it is, my first review of a chapbook.

            To those of you who don’t know what a chapbook is, I’ll explain quickly and to the best of my ability, that chapbooks have their roots in the penny pulp pamphlets sold by peddlers to an increasingly literate public before the dawn of the paperback novel and the newspaper. They were usually political rags or full of poetry, ballads, and parables. They were cheap and easy to read. The literature of the street. And even now, when they’re almost exclusively the territory of poets waiting for a payday, they still retain the quality of their roots. It’s a rough-hewn literary tradition of the none traditional.

            “Old School Monsters” written by Charles Joseph and John Dorsey features an introduction by Adrian Manning and shokushu goukan-esque cover art by Janne Karlsson. As its title might suggest, just about every title and piece within contains refence to the offbeat, eclectic B-films of matinees and midnight features seen in the late movies and seedy, ticket booth theaters of the bad old days.
            
            I’m not about to examine each and every poem –there are twelve– and I’m not prepared to pick-about nouns and sentence structure for the sake of a masturbatory exercise in literary analysis. I am, however, going opine about my own take on the objective item and its themes.

            “Old School Monsters” is a really good piece of work. Especially given the fact that it’s co-authored. The quality of my copy, at least, is fantastic. Published by Indigent Press, the tiny book’s construction is far above rag, and the cover art is luridly sinister and, frankly, top notch.
            
             Each piece in “Old School Monsters” makes reference to the movies mostly forgotten but always at home on Turner Classic Movies where we phony fifth-column snobs watch and analyze them for the sake of sex with the dolls of intellect and “culture”. However, each piece is more than a one-off about “Dracula”, “Angels with Dirty Faces”, “Creature from the Black Lagoon”, and so on. No… instead each piece is about life where the monsters and heroes are the same and the horror is the very real, very creepy banality of the passing year, the bad relationship, the death toll of a mostly forgotten war. The titles are even misleading in the best possible way. “Nosfaratu” leads us to maternal love, “Revenge of the Creature” puts us face-to-face with the most awkward thoughts in the cold heart of some no place in America, “Abbot and Costello Meet Cleopatra” reaffirms the cultural destitution of an Armenian Princess from Los Angeles, “Angels with Dirty Faces” –and I admit my bias for this one– pulls us into the chasm between old lions and young cubs.


            “Old School Monsters” has a disjointed, disorganized arraignment that I just can’t make-up-my-mind about. Is it an inclusion? Or is it perfect? As a sucker for harmony I feel bewildered reading it sequentially form cover-to-cover. But as one who has discovered the calamitous cacophony of life, I feel like it’s perfect. Reflection and ponder is one scattered mess of a mental exercise.

            To conclude, I will summarize my take on “Old School Monsters” by saying that it’s very well executed. It’s an enjoyable and rewarding read, especially when read more than once. A short burn with a long payoff. I would certainly recommend it. 

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