CATHERINE
VIDLER Engages
A Long and Hard Night Troubled by Visions by
Tom Jenks
(if p then q, Manchester, U.K., 2018)
Tom Jenks’ A Long and Hard Night Troubled by Visions was published
in 2018 by if p then q. Described by Jenks on his webpage (zshboo.org)
as a ‘New book of prose, short and shorter’, it is his fourth book with if p then q, the previous three being A
Priori, *, and Items.
Jenks’ categorisation of his writing in this book as ‘prose’ is
very interesting to me. When I am not actually reading the book, but rather
reflecting on it, the question whether his writing feels more like prose or
poetry sometimes presents itself. This question might then expand into further thoughts
about the differences between prose and poetry, and how ‘prose poetry’ might be
distinguished from its component genres. However when I am reading A Long and
Hard Night Troubled by Visions, these kinds of theoretical questions drop away.
In fact, I have forgotten they ever existed. Whether prose, poetry or something
else, the text is all there is and all I am is engaged with it. It is, due to
the emotional and physical reactions it stimulates, a primal experience to read
the text. It is, at the same time, an intensely cognitive experience to read it.
This multi-level simultaneity of responsiveness might account for the ‘humming’
sensation I feel inside when I am reading this book.
===
I love the title ‘A Long and Hard Night Troubled by Visions’; its fusion
of generous length with succinctness, what it says and how it sounds. One
particular aspect of the title I greatly enjoy is its inclusion (rather than
exclusion, perhaps in favour of a comma, or of nothing at all) of the word
‘and’. I like the elongating effect which the ‘and’ has on the title’s meaning
and rhythm. Its inclusion also appeals to me as a challenge to, or refutation
of, any idea that effective writing must somehow involve a paring away of words
in a quest for concision.
Saying these things about the title in particular reminds me more
generally of a unique quality of Jenks’ writing throughout the book; namely its
utterly magical combination of a cornucopia of imaginative content with a
spareness of linguistic expression. Jenks’ mode of delivery is beautifully understated,
honed and sleek; a mode which only intensifies the impact of the abundance of
gifts which it is delivering.
===
The book’s cover image is described as a ‘treatment of Richard
Dadd’s The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke by Tom Jenks’. I very much enjoy the way the word
‘treatment’ declines explanatory specifics in favour of evocative generality.
When looking at the image I can discern, amongst the soft articulations of
intense colour and shadow, shapely, ghost-like residues of the original
painting from which it has emerged.
When I first viewed the cover I was reminded of childhood
experiences of peering into a view-finder or a kaleidoscope in which
sharp-edged geometry has dissolved into mellifluous interactivities of shape
and hue. There is also an aquarium-like feel; a sense of motion under the influence of
gentle currents. A density and complexity of objects is apparent, objects both
potently present and strangely unidentifiable as to their specific natures.
The cover image strongly suggests three-dimensionality but feels slightly
shallower than the depth my eyes seem to expect. This results in a tension in my
visual response, one which prolongs the engagement and makes it even more
enjoyable.
===
I have had trouble settling on an approach to sharing my
engagement with the book’s sections and individual pieces. I am not able to
make descriptive remarks or thematic summaries which are capable of conveying
the brilliance of this work or of the staggering imagination from which it has
come. But even if I were able to say something usefully indicative, I would
still feel there was no substitute for experiencing the text directly. I very
much want to share the writing by showing it. Thus I thought I would make some
observations about the book’s structure and then paste in some extracts from
the book.
A Long and
Hard Night Troubled by Visions is 115 pages long. Its list of contents,
which occupies 3 pages, consists of 4 section-titles and 72 piece-titles. The 4
section-titles, which I immediately want to arrange in the form of a list poem,
are:
Shrinks,
The Strawberry Moshi Collection,
Topaz,
and The Dysphoria Suite.
These section-titles drop open, each releasing a sub-list of
piece-titles. All of the piece-titles, except for those contained in The
Strawberry Moshi Collection, consist of
one word. There are 28 pieces in both Shrinks and Topaz, 13 in The Strawberry
Moshi Collection and 3 in The Dysphoria Suite.
The pieces in Shrinks, Topaz and The Strawberry Moshi Collection are
single-paragraphed. The Strawberry Moshi Collection is, in Jenks’ words,
‘assembled from text found in
Moshimoshikawaii: The Strawberry Moshi Collection (Walker Books, 2011)’. The
Dysphoria Suite contains three pieces, ‘cockatiels’ ‘rabbits’ and ‘strikes’,
each of which is longer than the pieces in the other sections. Of ‘cockatiels’
and ‘rabbits’ Jenks writes, again on zshboo.org: ‘both of these pieces result
from an approach to writing I'm using more and more, utilising found material
as I have done before, but less schematically, interweaving it with written
material to create something that is both and neither.’ And of ‘strikes’, he
writes that the piece ‘documents every instance of smoking in season 2 of Mad
Men’.
From Shrinks:
From The Strawberry Moshi
Collection:
From Topaz:
‘cockatiels’ and ‘rabbits’
can be found in the magazines below:
‘cockatiels’ in Disclaimer Mag:
‘rabbits’ in The Wild Hunt:
From ‘strikes’:
I will try to say two things in conclusion: One is that A Long and
Hard Night Troubled by Visions is a treasure chest which I open again and
again. The other is that, for me, reading this book is to be both propelled and
delayed. Countless times, particularly upon reading the concluding line of a
piece, I have found myself lifting my head from the page to stare across the
room, full to the brim, trying to process all that has been communicated in
what feels like an unfathomably disproportionate number of words, and at the
same time revelling in my inability to do so, enjoying so much the experience
of wonder. But I cannot maintain this
state for long. The desire to read the next piece is inevitably irresistible;
it tips the balance and once again I am engaging with the text.
===
if p then q webpage for
A Long and Hard Night Troubled by Visions:
https://ifpthenq.co.uk/books/jenks-tom-a-long-and-hard-night-troubled-by-visions/
if p then q link to sample pages from the book:
Six pieces from Shrinks translated into Swedish by Joakim Norling:
A Long and Hard Night Troubled by Visions reviewed by Steve Spence
in Litter Magazine:
*****
Catherine Vidler lives in Sydney, Australia. Her recent publications
include 78 composite lost sonnets (Hesterglock Prote(s)xt, 2018), Lost Sonnets
(Timglaset, 2018), collected composite lost sonnets (SOd press, 2018), lost
sonnets (Spacecraft Press, 2018), table sets (no press, 2017), lake labyl
(Penteract Press, 2017), table set poems (Penteract Press, 2017), table
set poems (Spacecraft Press, 2017), lake labyl (SOd press, 2017), chaingrass
errata slips (SOd press, 2017), chaingrass night and unresolved chaingrass
tiling (SOd press, 2017), chaingrass (SOd press, 2016) and chaingrass (zimZalla
Object 039, 2016).
