A Cannibal Explains Himself To Himself

by Will Alexander

Literary Nonfiction. African & African American Studies. Art. California Interest. Will Alexander's A CANNIBAL EXPLAINS HIMSELF TO HIMSELF is a collection of essays on topics ranging from Los Angeles, collaborative art, cosmic interventions, psychic fragmentation via ego, and the folly of Aryanism from one of America's foremost avant-garde writers. A CANNIBAL erupts and disrupts trains of thought exploring various contours of the human psyche like a phosphorescent snake, burning from the first Egyptians' rage to the ailment of its modern expression. Alexander's tenor glows with the energy of self-remembering; as we consume thoughts and air and bread, invisible energy also consumes us.

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2019

About the author

Born in 1948, Will Alexander is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, visual artist and pianist. He was the recipient of a Whiting Fellowship for Poetry in 2001 and a California Arts Council Fellowship in 2002. He was also the subject of a colloquium published in the prestigious African American cultural journal, Callaloo in 1999. Author of nine previous books, Alexander has taught at various colleges including University of California, San Diego, New College (San Francisco, CA), Hofstra University, and Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, in addition to being associated with the nonprofit organization Theatre of Hearts/Youth First, serving at-risk youth. He is a lifelong resident of Los Angeles.

Reviews

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of poetry and essays, some which were collected previously in publications by Apport Editions, Entropy, EVIDENCE, and Los Angeles Review of Books.

In his essay "The Contemporary Mind: A Pointless Rural Fragment", Will Alexander introduces the idea that millennia of human oppression, colonization, and religious and political dogma has resulted in a "suppressed evolutionary tension" in the minds of all people in our current global capitalist society that limits our individual and collective progress. Alexander argues that the influence of colonization and dogma renders the human brain as a "partially functioning fragment", and artistic endeavor, specifically poetic thought, is the only means to transcend the constraints of society and these new predetermined mental functions.

An intuitive intellectual himself, Alexander also discusses “outsider” ethic and intrepid methods of Adolf Wolfli and Henry Darger in “Wolfli/Darger: Contorted Equations”. Following the logic in “The Contemporary Mind: A Rural Fragment”, “Phosphenic Threadings” furthers Alexander’s idea that poetic thought surpasses our conventional thought and even our comprehension.

This is only a small taste of a mind-bending collection which shows that Alexander is the poet of philosophers and historians as well as surrealists and phenomenologists.