Adjunct: An Undigest

by Peter Manson

Avant garde collection of observances and commentary on artists, musicians and their ilk interspersed with diary entries.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Classics, Literature, Scotland, 21st Century, Modern

87 pages

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Peter Manson (born 1969) is a contemporary Scottish poet. Between 1994 and 1997, he co-edited (with Robin Purves) eight issues of the experimental/modernist poetry journal Object Permanence. In 2001, the imprint was revived as an occasional publisher of pamphlets of innovative poetry, and has so far published work by the poets J.H. Prynne, Keston Sutherland, Fiona Templeton and Andrea Brady. He was the 2005-6 Judith E. Wilson Visiting Fellow in Poetry at Girton College, Cambridge.

Reviews

[Ellinor · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is probably the strangest entry to the 1001 list. I have no idea what the book is supposed to be about, let alone why it is on the list!

[Tera (TheBookishAbyss) · Rating 1 out of 5]

While some may love this type of poetry. I could not stand any of it. It is bits and pieces of verbiage thrown together to make an unintelligible, nonsequential babbling of thought. If you are concrete-sequential like me, skip it. While the author is taking segments of conversations and news around him to create these poems, it makes absolutely no sense to the reader. I suppose someone more intellectual than I will find some redeeming value, but I am only glad to have completed this book and to never glance back.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book. It is a jumble of unconnected sentences. The back cover said it was "a compost of found and appropriated language stirred by a random number table." So it is a bit of nonsense. Any one can enter a bunch of unconnected sentences or thoughts and have a computer program mix it. This is not a novel or a book. I cannot believe this is on the 1001 books to read before you die list.

[Amerynth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never spent so long searching for a copy of something I knew I would absolutely hate. I've been looking for a copy of Peter Manson's "Adjunct: An Undigest" for years because it is on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I have no idea why it is on the list.

This read like a list of poem or story ideas or the ramblings of a person having a mental break. I got nothing out of it, other than a check mark.

[Jayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

All I can say is at least it was relatively short!

I am glad that I found a free online source to read this - if I had gone to the trouble to try and purchase this work, I would have been very annoyed!

This is the kind of writing you can imagine clever young things discussing intensely late into the night. In my more pretentious younger years, I may have been one of them. Now I am afraid, this is not for me!

The following two quotes from the work pretty much sum up my feelings about the whole thing. Or maybe these lines mean the author wasn't even taking himself seriously!

"The world owes the poet nothing and we should not be expected to dig and delve into a rambling discourse searching for some inner meaning."

"My main argument against you is that you are an abomination."

[Maartje · Rating 1 out of 5]

WTF?!

That's all I have to say about this one.

[Sammi · Rating 1 out of 5]

"My first grey nasal hair."

I hate this book.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great things about Adjunct is that there is this kind of faint underlying presence, a bit like distant music or some neighbours arguing behind a wall, and sometimes when you're straining after it you discover you have these weird aptitudes you didn't know about and have difficulty naming.

Walking around after having read Adjunct for a bit can feel like walking around after having spent too long in a gallery. You keep spotting things and hearing things as though they were sentences in Adjunct. It gradually fades so I don't think the book is ultimately dangerous or for that matter beneficial.

While it lasts, though, sometimes you start seeing the funny side of things in a way that is so delicate and slight it implies they must have many, many more sides to them than the ones you saw before (plus this new funny side), a bit like the little crystalline dice they use in RPGs.

I don't think Adjunct is a difficult book because I think it lets you know it's alright to read it in any way you like. Reading every bit, start to finish, is one way. Lots of people will probably sort of browse it like a magazine they never quite throw away for some reason.

But for readers who do find it difficult, two tips would be: (a) try to think of every statement as something that was already there, which the book has just sort of pointed out to you, sort of as a joke; (b) as a default, let each statement exist by itself, as if it wasn't in a book, but written in the centre of an otherwise blank page. But sometimes play around sometimes with letting the statements interact with the statements beside them or near them.

Stem Records released a CD of Peter Manson reading Adjunct a few years ago. Hopefully it's on that cloud and everything now.

[Shaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never read anything quite like this. While reading it, I asked myself what this was for and why it was chosen to be on the 1001 booklist.

“Adjunct” reminded me of short stories I’ve read in Esopus magazine, printed in small font on an A0-sized paper. In other words, the normal rules go out the window, and there’s something creative and artistic that sparks a certain feeling when reading it.

Reading “Adjunct” will make you smile.

Manson references John Cage a lot. “Adjunct” is the written equivalent of a John Cage song.

Still not convinced? Manson alludes to the meaning of “Adjunct” towards the end of the book:

“The reason we write poetry (and almost all of us do) is because we want to communicate: an ideal; an idea; or a specific feeling. Poetry is as essential in communication as a letter; a radio; a telephone, and the main criterion for selecting the poems in this anthology is very simple: they communicate.”

The criticism: many references go over my head due to the time of writing, the context and perhaps even intentionally. Reading Adjunct is like floating through space, not in a good way. It’s not grounded and you don’t walk away with much other than a feeling, but then again that’s what it was designed to do.

[Carol Palmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would not have read this if it had not been on the Boxall list of 1001 books. It was really not worth my time. However, I did it.

The only reason I can see for Boxall to include this "book?" is that it allows all of us to see that we can be authors. All we have to do is write down random thoughts, list all recent deaths, & make various comments related to spending money. Then scramble them up in random order. That's what this "book" is. And if you're famous enough, you can fool some publisher into publishing it for you (or self-publish) and make money off it.

How many stars do I give it? That's a problem for me. A book or subject of a book has to be seriously BAD for me to give only one star. The pedantry of de Sade, editing that is so bad or nonexistent that the book is virtually unreadable, a nauseating subject such as necrophilia -- these are my previous one-star reviews. Now I must add another reason -- there is no plot in this book at all. So ---- one star it is.

[Ashley Husemoller · Rating 2 out of 5]

All right, here's the deal: I get it & I appreciated this random form of writing, pushing the envelope on what is considered the traditional novel...I just didn't enjoy it. I had some moments where I literally LOL'd, but mostly I just wanted it all to end.

[Kurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Peter Manson's Adjunct: An Undigest is a journal of observed phrases and sentences, arranged and perhaps selected by Cage-ian aleatoric means. Some lines are found objects and some are crystallized thought moments. The fragmented flow of the text makes it feel like modern-day social media - slices of culture, personal life and commerce are presented in truncated, disassociated fragments that shift perspective with each sentence or phrase, herky-jerkily disorienting to assemble a false and gravelly impression of gestalt as one scrolls and scrolls and scrolls. I actually read the book as a pdf on a tablet, which added to that effect.

I'm pretty close to Manson's age and I lived through the time journaled, so I find it interesting to see where his cultural lens was focused in relation to mine. Avant-garde literature, music, art and film are at the center of his world. If that's the way you are, then you might enjoy reading this. Otherwise, it's likely to seem pretty pointless. I latched onto his musical interests because that's my bag. He referenced a lot of art pop and avant-garde contemporary music with references to Brian Eno, The Fall, John Cage (lots of Cage), Stockhausen and others. And maybe a fascination/ridicule hybrid thing with (my beloved) progrock that was conventional for the time.

He also has a pop-math interest in fractals and random numbers, which seemed real cool in the era covered here, the 1990s. But to say it's dated would be silly, presuming the book is meant to reflect a mindset during a phase of a life.

Listings of the deaths of public figures are scattered through, anchoring everything around them. On the personal level, you get to hear about his or somebody’s medical prescriptions, unfortunate food encounters and other curious things he's taken note of. There are many bite-sized accounts to the joys and frustrations of publishing (with Robin Purves) the poetry journal Object Permanence (OP) during the era.

Manson seems to revel in unintended puns and innuendoes, and serendipitously quippish typos, some of which apparently caused one reviewer on the back cover to laugh out loud. I cracked a grin a few times.

I proceeded at about four minutes per page, about 5 or 6 pages a day (larger doses didn't seem right, and interest flags after a bit) and read it over a couple of weeks. I felt like I got to know Peter Manson a bit. Seems a decent bloke, just sharing stuff in a way he finds interesting, which is enough to ask of a poet.

He generously provides an index to all the referenced personalities at the end, so you can go back and find that bit about Captain Beefheart or Mandy Patinkin if you're so inclined.

Parental suggestion: Age 15+

[Grada (BoekenTrol) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Apparently this book has done its utmost to be avoided by me. I had no idea it was on the 1001-list, before a fellow bookcrossers gave it to me.
As it is such a small book, it disappeared in my large stack of unread books.

But... I didn't want to finish the year without having read 1 book from THE list, so I thought I'd grab a thinner one. And yes, I know what they say about thin books...
But this one made me drop my jaw. At first I thought I needed to blink, then I shook my head. Neither helped, when I continued reading, it was still a bunch of sentences that were all over the place. Making no sense at all together. As individual ones, okay they can mean sometimes, but put behind one another, it is total chaos. And put them in any other order, you still get the same. My brain short circuited.
Like many others, I gave no idea whatsoever why this was put on the 1001-list.
A waste of time.

[Tej · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I'm too old for a book like this. I feel like my dad looking at abstract art and saying, "I could do that." The fact is, I really like abstract art. But, I don't need four hours to look at a Pollock or a Rothko. Therein lies the problem with this book. Sure, I had a few laughs. Yes, I felt a tiny bit of the frustration that is his life. But, so what? The whole time I read this I just kept thinking, "How did this get published?" Maybe his poetry is really good. But, I really just want my four hours back.

[Elspeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yet another in the "1001 Books You Must Read ..." list that makes no sense and who knows why it's even included. This list is a bit sketchy, IMHO.

This "book" is a collection of words and sentences clumped together in a newspaper article style. Since the author and I are the same age I do recognize a lot of the references, which is something I guess, but it's more of a free flow of ideas ("poem"?) than a novella or book.

Unless you're a completist, you can skip this in the 1001 Books challenge and you won't be missing much.

[Paula Silvonen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Outo ja sekava kokoelma hajanaisia huomioita, jonka luin koska se on Boxallin 1001 kirjaa -listalla. Tämä oli lyhyt, mutta silti lukiessa ehti vähän tylsistyä. Toinen tähti siitä, että muutama huomio sentään nauratti ääneen. Tämä lainaus tekstistä tiivistää tunnelmat aika hyvin:
The world owes the poet nothing and we should not be expected to dig and delve into a rambling discourse searching for some inner meaning.

[Kim Dodson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm thinking that it was April Fools' Day and the editors of 1001 Books needed just one more title to complete their list. They said, "Let's see if readers fall for this one." ... This book was not worth the effort it took to get my hands on it; nor, the time taken to turn a few of its pages. I'm so glad I didn't spend money on it.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know when you open you computer, ostensibly to start working, but first you need to check your email, which leads to some sort of get this now deal site, and restaurant reviews, and facebook, and buying a wedding gift, and somehow three hundred clicks later you’ve been on a Wikipedia (or Goodreads) binge with no recollection of the previous half hour? Such is the age of endless, instantaneous information. And the waste that comes from its indiscriminate consumption was all I could think about as I read these 100 pages of discombobulation.

This Undigest contains many useful tidbits - a list of dead people, Manson’s to do list, a short story, bizarre news headlines - but it’s all so hopelessly mashed together that one can’t possibly make sense of it. The anecdotes and half-phrases that pelt the reader throughout the book are at turns hilarious, disgusting, and bizarre. But these gems fade into the din of context-less reading as it becomes increasingly difficult to do any more than recognize the string of words on the page. And good luck finding your place if you’ve forgotten to mark it!

“Does the piece feel whole? Or is it a series of barely-connected anecdotes and random thoughts? Sonny Bono is dead. Private Finance Sludge Disposal Schemes. Policeman Killed in Abortion. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has announced a package of measures designed to deliver a “first class Tube for everyone.” Mug furiously at slight acquaintances until they start doing it back.”

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way I approach the booklist is to be as naive as possible - I don't read up on a book before picking it up, and so I sometimes end up feeling a little unprepared. This was a really interesting way to read Adjunct, as it read like the musings of a bright chap with some serious mental health issues - a splash of depression, perhaps with a little hallucination on the side. He wants a job, but he's screwed up multiple attempts, and meanwhile his brain is crowded with equations, Scottish indie bands, and the deaths of famous people.

Turns out the whole thing is significantly more random than that. Adjunct is a novel of found fragments assigned randomly to a page, crafted into a novel without reason or drive. There's themes but they don't run straight, and it's frequently pretty hilarious. You can read so much into it, only to find there's no rhyme or reason to any of it. And I'm pretty sure it's the only book on the list that will reference Mogwai, who still, apparently, aren't loud enough.

[Wesley Van Hoosen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not at all prepared for how difficult it would be to suffer through 75 pages of total nonsensical crap. Besides the chronicling of deaths happening in his life in the 7 year span this work was forged, there was no through line on any of it. The language is choppy and almost paranoid at times. Although I think that this doesn't really qualify as anything you would drink your coffee and relax with on a cold, rainy day, I do think that this book does belong on the 1001 books to read before you die list. In order to understand what kind of book you really enjoy reading, you need to read one you legitimately despise.

Also, this book is incredibly hard to attain for reading. If you are inclined to read it, or you just happen to need to scratch it off your list of "1001 Books," look to see if your library uses interlibrary loan. That way you're not spending around $200 that booksellers ask for.

[Seamus Duggan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is undoubtedly the most strikingly original book I have read this year. Giving Gysin's / Burrough's cut up techniques a spin through a random number generator this is a collage of found phrases, beer, slices of (low)life, deaths, John Cage, grammar, The Fall, whisky, the difficulty of publishing poetry while on the dole etc.
Manson has a killer's surname and an eye for killer phrases. I wonder if he feels The Fall returned to form in the 21st century? Does he still have boils behind his ears? This is like Lucky Jim for poètes maudits.
This could very well be a work of genius, or at least a work of advanced frustration.
By the way, you can purchase a copy here: http://www.barquepress.com/publicatio...
Longer review @ http://theknockingshop.blogspot.com/2...

[Sheila Metcalf · Rating 1 out of 5]

For Week 5 of ATY READ, I chose Adjunct: An Undigest by Peter Manson for its weird, intriguing title. This avant-garde piece—a jumble of random phrases, from funny snippets to odd musings—felt like scrolling through a chaotic social media feed. I get why it’s on the 1,001 Books list for pushing boundaries, but the lack of plot or structure left me cold after Secret Garden’s warmth. It’s a bold experiment, just not for me—1 star.

[Alana · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is technically considered poetry, so I guess I'll call it that, but extremely loosely. I abandoned this after a personal records of a single page (after skimming the rest, including the last page, to see if it got better; it doesn't). It consists of short, unrelated sentences, one after the other, in one long, unbroken "paragraph" for 81 pages. Gag me. Don't waste your time.

[Bonnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What would happen if you wrote everything you thought, saw, felt or experienced as it happened. You too would have a nonsensical book of random sentences and words to sell. Why this is a must read selection in a the 1001 must read books is beyond me.

This is a ‘biography’ of the authors life that is not worth reading.

[Deanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange entry for the 1001 list, there's no real story and other than a list of people who've died it's difficult to see where the author is going. Manson makes observations, diary extracts and a list of the dead stretch to about 95 pages.

[Patricia]

not available at library

[Dumitru Moraru · Rating 1 out of 5]

Am văzut cartea asta în 1001 de cărțit de citit într-o viață. Nu mai țin minte precis despre ce e, a fost cu 4 ani în urmă. Dar știu că e o porcărie și ce caută în lista aia, idee nu am.