All these things are stackable
A review of Simina Banu's new book I will get up off of
Since the mid-20th century, millions of monoblocs have been produced. Sadly for the alleged creator, Henry Massonnet did not patent his invention. Since then the monobloc has spread throughout most regions of the world.
Henry Massonnet does not have an English-language Wikipedia article. Some might attribute that to his unpatented design.
While reading Simina Banu's I will get up off of, I had to look up monobloc. In my suburban vernacular, I often refer to them as white plastic patio chairs. The collection stacks each problem
please whisper something demonic to me as you devour my thumb
- likely said by a youtuber after they read an ARC of this poetry collection
Banu's collection — I will get up off of — opens with an invocation to the memes. The memes that understand debt, SSRIs, and other information about the speaker. The memes that feed on this information like baby birds, mouths agape around a barbecue pit. In the following monobloc prose poems, the reader will be cannibalized, most times in a good way, but really it’s more of a malaise.
Most of the book’s poems are monoblocs. Easily stackable yet floundering as the reader is given a stark contrast between healthy people and the speaker sitting early in a monobloc. This contrast establishes a reference later in the book to wellness coaches. I found the wellness coach @awakenwithkris on Instagram, a self-proclaimed wellpreneur. I don’t think @awakenwithkris knows that that portmanteau is shit to pronounce or that it’s an affront to all serious minded wellness gurus smearing their shit. That carrot cake looks good though.
The reader is presented with a phone in the second monobloc. The monoblocs in addition to their modularity are often times mediated through YouTube videos, Goya paintings, Zoom calls that appear as windows or windows that appear as Zoom calls. Either way it’s a computer screen. Even the monobloc’s form resembles a phone screen.
The collection excels in it’s dizzying descent into diagramming past events; mind-mapping exercises to do with hammers in an attempt to self-medicate; and attempts at blind contours of monoblocs only for the speaker to come to the realization that they can’t fucking draw it. The preceding page offers a list poem, that’s not really a list poem, but rather a list of muscle groups necessary to stand up. Despite having this knowledge, the speaker remains enthroned on their monobloc.
I don’t think healthy people know their meaning looks like shit smeared around and around, all around.
The same is true for the book's format. A couple times in the the book the speaker mentions that they lose feeling in their thumb, presumably from scrolling, or watching a YouTuber offer daily devotions as they count out 28,835 jellybeans. A good early point in the collection that really highlights the levity of the soulcrushing weight of sitting with 28,835 jelly beans. Sitting with Quora as someone performs an exorcism on the speaker’s phone, whereupon completion of said exorcism a demon emerges and whispers something demonic before finally devouring my thumb.
Scrolling through the wellness-entrepreneur’s Instagram page, the wellpreneur has posted many examples of cake and cake recipes. The fact that it’s a carrot cake with beet infusion is only an affront to all serious people out there. The carrot-beet cake recipe is the shit smeared around and around in a cake tin. Midway through the book, the speaker has renovated themselves or their house. Likely as a result of following these wellness coaches, investing in a suit, and performing daily devotions found on YouTube. But they baked a cake, then dropped it on the floor. Only to plop down in the monobloc and watch the cake rot.
I will get up off of excels at establishing a gag only to surgically deliver the punchline later in the book. The book loops and returns back, maybe not even returning back because the speaker seems stuck on the monobloc. Each poem an attempt to get off of the monobloc.
Early versions of monobloc in antiquity utilize the monobloc as a throne. In some instances the speaker might enjoy their regal state.
On the 36th monobloc, plus or minus one, the monobloc’s polypropylene structure of stackable problems is finally clarified by Lysol, a daily affirmation of love yourself sent in the daily push notification to take your bergamot shot and remember to go PREMIUM.
In the preceding monobloc, a couplet in my chest causes damage in the form of coronary vandalism, irreparable damage that blossoms and reverberates from a bluetooth speaker stacked on top of a laundry detergent box that is now residence to a brood of squatting spiders.
Another callback late in the book as the speaker attempts to extinguish the flames. The taps only spew McNuggets and as the speaker grabs their phone to tweet out an SOS, their hands are trembling. This is the first time the speaker has to actively reach out to someone IRL — to actively get up off of for the first time in the book.
Other times, the reader absorbs content from the monobloc: a dachsund with a raincover of its eyes; advertisements for Bell Canada raising awareness about the stigma of mental illness (in the editor’s opinion, just as shitty as wellpreneurs); sham psychics that cannot find the crystals. Passive methods to mitigate the crushing comfort of boredom.
Moving away from the monobloc’s imagery and the stackable problems recurrent throughout the collection. The poems work as modular structures as concrete poetry once through the stackable form of the monobloc and finally through mediation of the screen. Even reading the list poems of beverage brands La Fin Du Monde, La Fin Du Monde, Mill Street, Maudite, La Fin Du Monde, Maudite and so on gives the reader a nice chance to relish in the sonic qualities of the empty beverage containers and an imposed social exile.
I will get up off of is the second book by Simina Banu. I will get up off of was published on May 21, 2024 by Coach House Books. Link to purchase Simina Banu’s collection.
To join in the conversation aboout Banu’s collection
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