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Detailing Trauma: A Poetic Anatomy

Arianne Zwartjes

3.93 · Rating details · 46 ratings · 9 reviews

In a series of linked lyric essays, Detailing Trauma explores in vivid, sometimes graphic detail the many types of wounds from which the human body and spirit may suffer—and heal. Mapping the diseases and injuries that can afflict the body, the author asks how we can continue to live and love in the face of the great potential for suffering and loss.

She names each section ...more

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Paperback, 102 pages

Published September 15th 2012 by University Of Iowa Press (first published January 1st 2012)

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Aug 31, 2019 El rated it liked it

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, library-borrow, mfa, science-and-medicine, poetry

Here's one of those hybrid nonfiction books I love to find so much! It reminds me that what I want to do with my own writing can be done, there's a home and an audience for it, even if people tell me there isn't. So while now might not be the time to do it the way I want to, I continue to read other people doing it so I can stay inspired.

These linked lyric essays specifically talk about the different times of wounds and experiences a body can go through, and how they can heal. It's a lovely Here's one of those hybrid nonfiction books I love to find so much! It reminds me that what I want to do with my own writing can be done, there's a home and an audience for it, even if people tell me there isn't. So while now might not be the time to do it the way I want to, I continue to read other people doing it so I can stay inspired.

These linked lyric essays specifically talk about the different times of wounds and experiences a body can go through, and how they can heal. It's a lovely book, filled with medical conditions (swoon!) and their relationship with our emotions.

As with many lyric essays, these pieces are short. They flow in and out. They read, smell, and sometimes look like poetry. But the stories behind the words are deeper than that. Normally. Unfortunately in this collection, I missed some of the stories, though that's not to say that Zwartjes doesn't know how to fucking write, cause she does. These are more meditations upon the body and emotional states than an actual story of any sort of the author's life, at least on the surface.

After each fracture we create anew our vision of self: like the falcon eye of Horus, swallowed by Osiris as Isis brought him back to life, making the first step of his new life the act of seeing himself. Nishta asks, "What is missing, the presence of which would make a difference?"
(p70, "II. Joints")

The thing about lyric essays (and I know this on a personal level) is that through the poetic storytelling, it's so easy to get wrapped up in the language and actually forget to tell the story. I'm totally guilty of this myself, and I think that might be why a lot of writers are not quite on board yet with this whole hybrid nonfiction thing.

Still, Zwartjes manages, on occasion in this slim collection, to really use her words in a very effective way:

The idea of safety. Both bodily and otherwise.

We want to believe in it. Invent guns, and then gun laws; ambulances, padlocks, helmets, marriage. Things to keep us safe. And then do our best to turn our eyes, fingers in our ears, from the world which keeps telling us we're still not safe.

Or we obsess over our own fear: watch just one night of the local news. Build more walls. The haste of it, the ashen triage.
(p58, "III. Scar Tissue")

What might excite me the most about this is the discussion of the human body. I didn't realize it, but I love when essayists write about the complexities of the body as well as people have done for thousands of years about the complexities of the human heart. The back cover bio tells me that Zwartjes has also written disem body : a tracing, Surfacing of Excess, and (Stitched) A Surface Opens, all of which sound perfect for what I like to read. Kudos to authors who talk about their bodies with honesty and encourage us to think about our own.

...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Wendy Ortiz rated it it was ok

I wanted to like this book more--for what it's attempting in form and in language--and yet I felt less than engaged throughout. It took me way too long to read (and it's compact!) and I rushed through just to have a sense of closure. There are strong spots in the book but I can't say I felt the same about it as a whole.

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Jan 29, 2013 Gloria Bonnell rated it it was amazing

The opening of Detailing Trauma is this:

Detailing trauma. Things that can go wrong. So many sites on the body map.

With a flowing narrative that examines the suffering and healing of the human body and soul, Detailing Trauma weaves a thoughtful and heartfelt discovering of the connection of the physical and psychical self. Arianne Zwartjes writes seeking meaning from this intangible life using the trauma experienced by the very tactile and tangible human body. As she weaves, she asks the reader The opening of Detailing Trauma is this:

Detailing trauma. Things that can go wrong. So many sites on the body map.

With a flowing narrative that examines the suffering and healing of the human body and soul, Detailing Trauma weaves a thoughtful and heartfelt discovering of the connection of the physical and psychical self. Arianne Zwartjes writes seeking meaning from this intangible life using the trauma experienced by the very tactile and tangible human body. As she weaves, she asks the reader to consider both the trauma and the healing experiences of life. She ultimately sees that this life is given in order to learn to remain tender and to cultivate joy. Detailing Trauma, in a way, is an adventure novel with a protagonist of thought traveling through the jungle and awe of the human body. The world of trauma and disease are mapped and analyzed for psychical meaning.

Not only are we led through the journey of psychical awareness, though, we are also delightfully introduced to the beauty and complexity of the human biology. Zwartjes takes the reader from skin to cell, bone to brain and escorts us into the details of the workings of the body. It is an amazing and awesome journey that she artfully and accurately unfolds.

Even more than mapping, though, as the subtitle outlines, Detailing Trauma is about poetry. The words Zwartjes uses are pure and have the effect of a scalpel, cutting into the illusions of our physical selves and our relationships. We find ourselves scrubbed into awareness. In her own words “perhaps this scouring can shed what isn’t needed, sloughing off the dead skin built up over years of living, in fear of breaking, our faces turned away.” Zwartjes quotes Pierre Tielhard de Chardin: throughout my whole life, during every minute of it, the world has been gradually lighting up and blazing before my eyes until it has come to surround me, entirely lit from within. This is the power of Zwartjes’ writing, that as we read Detailing Trauma, we are steeped in its burning layers and gradually come to understand our own lives in a whole new light. ...more

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Jul 27, 2014 Razan Idris rated it really liked it

A beautiful, methodically written, slow musing over the relationship between physical and emotional trauma and loss. I really enjoyed reading this book - the carefully drawn out and described metaphors for each part of the body are thoughtful and relateable. What I liked the most about 'Detailing Trauma' was how it explored how close we are to trauma - health and good times are usually taken for granted, and the deliberately carefully drawn out medical descriptions truly strike close to the ...more

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Dec 30, 2013 Melanie Madden rated it liked it

Brainy and beautiful. I learned a lot about anatomy, which is rich with delicious vocabulary, and there are profound lyric meditations on love and loss, vulnerability and protection, and the inevitability of rupture. At times a little too clinical, too think-y for my taste. I want more character and story, and these are a little too slant for me to be fully engaged throughout.

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Oct 08, 2012 Frank Jude rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-biology, poetry, philosophy, medicine, essays

Okay, full disclosure: I know Arianne as a student, a sangha sister, and as a friend, so I will be willing to cop to perhaps some bias, so, feel free to take away one star. It still is awesome and "I really liked it."

This is a book to be read slowly and savored; sometimes a paragraph or two will just stop me cold and I've got to 'chew on it,' before reading on. Sometimes, a full essay leaves me breathless and even though I'd like to keep reading, I must stop and let it work on me -- and it does. ...more

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