Christian Bok

The friend I was sitting with at Christian Bok's reading HATED his everything. It was funny, while he performed she choked her self with invisible objects, fell asleep, and rushed out without applauding and murmuring, "he's not my style." She noted how pretentious he seemed in a phrase less subtle than "pretentious." I don't agree or disagree, since it was her experience, but it made me wonder what is it about poetry that can make a person sway in their seat? Is it the persona? Her and I have gone to a number of poetry readings just a bizarre and close to experimental as Christian Bok's work and she's more often than not walked out with good vibes jamming between her middle fingers and thumbs. Snap, "I want his autograph." I compared and contrasted the situation to Saul Williams and Urban Vibez (or some name with 'urban' with it the name slips my bill). These are some of the poets that have come to SLU.

These are just some of the things my friend said about the poets:

Saul Williams

Willing to answer questions in the middle of his performance
Did not perform behind a podium or on a stage

Urban Vibes (pending name)

Asked audience members to dance, enjoy
Spoke with the audience

Christian Bok

Talked about his credentials and awards (I would boast too)
Not very inviting (she stressed how "not very inviting" he was)

It seems like, for her at least, a connection between the audience is needed for her to be down with what is going on. But I'm wondering, and I asked her, what if that was the persona he was trying to delve into? She really didn't respond.

I personally like Christian Bok for his newness and screeching. I loved his Ubu. I think he was trying to scratch at the persona, since a) he is a performer, especially if we are thinking about sound b) the man wants to create a poem that will last until the end of time. He has to distance himself from emotion as he said before he doesn't talk about himself, well he means in poetry, and thus I felt some weird sense of 'he's some-type of android.' Not really, but seriously.