In his bold second book, Ben Lerner molds philosophical insight,
political outrage, and personal experience into a devastating critique
of mass society. Angle of Yaw investigates the fate of public space,
public speech, and how the technologies of viewing--aerial photography
in particular--feed our culture an image of itself. And it's a
spectacular view.
The man observes the action on the field with the tiny television he
brought to the stadium. He is topless, painted gold, bewigged. His
exaggerated foam index finger indicates the giant screen upon which his
own image is now displayed, a model of fanaticism. He watches the image
of his watching the image on his portable TV on his portable TV. He
suddenly stands with arms upraised and initiates the wave that will
consume him.
Haunted by our current "war on terror," much of the book was written
while Lerner was living in Madrid (at the time of the Atocha bombings
and their political aftermath), as the author steeped himself in the
history of Franco and fascism. Regardless of when or where it was
written, Angle of Yaw will further establish Ben Lerner as one of our
most intriguing and least predictable poets.
