Version One: Inside these rarefied chapbook covers we are told that TTbpN2 applies to the theories of language Canadian poet bpNichol explored in his book, Translating Translating Apollinaire: A Preliminary Report, which creates a “metatext on poetry and structure.” I must have slept through that one in Contemporary Canadian poetry class. Sort of like language exploring itself deconstructed out of any semblance of sensibility. Poetry for would-be anarchists who delight in the Dadaesque destruction of any links between audience expectation and artistic coherence, intending to call attention to the utter bankruptcy of traditional modes of artistic representation. Version Two: “Translating Translating bpNichol” presents to a quizzical audience blown up letters revealing the grain of type, repeated numerical algorithms, pencil designs and pages that are strewn with letters and various words–an utter patina for the mind. We are either treated to an irresistible play of the basic components of language, or are tortured by poets who have waded through theoretical waters for far too long and are now thoroughly waterlogged far far away from shore. (RT)
Part 2 chapbook, $12, Derek Beaulieu (ed), House Press, # 603-323, 13th Ave. SW, Calgary, AB T2R 0K3,