Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse

by David Pérez

From the Poet Laureate of San Jose, these poems salvage memories from the wreckage of the Challenger disaster, drink shots with the poltergeist haunting the local dive bar, and resurrect the wisdom in the harsh words of departed lovers.

In his debut poetry collection, Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse, David Perez takes snapshots of a world under collapse to show us the parts worth saving. His images activate a new way of seeing. The mundane is no longer insignificant- the nightmare no longer insufferable.  At times, Perez is terse and pragmatic. Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse beckons us into dark corners in ways that let our eyes adjust, revealing a splendor we would have otherwise surely missed.

Genres: Poetry

108 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2011

Reviews

[Gerhard]

Look, anyone who can write an epic love poem about Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies and in the process make her sound like a futuristic Helen of Troy is … someone you really do not want to piss off. There is a lot of weirdness and mind-fuckery in this collection, which at times made me feel as if David Perez was cackling directly over my shoulder. Not a good feeling, that. But back to Sarah Connor:

I was the only one curious
about what it was like
to see your reflection
in a titanium skull
that crossed the banks of time
to choke out your last whimper.

This is a diverse and rather eclectic collection, with the title ‘Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse’ itself a bit of a misnomer, or maybe a red herring. One is not wrong to think of ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Marquez, I think. But as Zoelle Egner notes:

… there is no aging robot love triangle here. Instead, Perez embarks on a thoughtful exploration of what it means to situate oneself as an individual in a society marked by the tension between what is human and what humans have built. In this hybrid world, defined by the almost sinister pervasiveness of both technological advancement and varying forms of violence—the contemporary robot apocalypse, if you will—Perez probes how one might understand and experience something so fundamental as human connection.

If that sounds somewhat fanciful or downright elliptical, then I simply suggest you subject yourself to the slippery rabbit hole into madness and epiphany offered by this collection. It is a disarming experience, in all senses of that word, as it will shake up a lot of your preconceptions about subjects as diverse as autonomy of self and dependency (both drugs and emotional), and the quiet violence that people often inflict on each other in the name of supposedly lofty ideals like love or justice. As Perez states himself:

I write poetry because I can’t tell you the truth to your face.

[Alice Pederkoff]

So beautiful! Anyone could read this book and get a lot out of it, but it’s also uniquely fun to read because it’s got a lot of Bay Area touch points in it, like a poem about wanting to blow the hand off of the pointing Father Junipero Serra statue on 280.

[Rita Guo]

Beautiful and haunting - this collection was exactly what I needed. David Perez toys with cheeky ideas and sensory images, calling you to question what is truth or fiction in his poems. These lines will stick with you long after you've finished the book.

[Edmund Davis-Quinn]

Very cool book.

Enjoyed reading a lot of these out of order before finally reading the book in order.

Think I will be returning to this book a lot. Looking forward to reading more of David Perez.

[Nai Reads]

A truly enjoyable read with many parts that made me pause and go back to re-read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in some accessible and great poetry!

[Matthew Monk]

Perez, definitely has given us one of the best titles for a poetry collection in recent memory, and this collection is much more than just a great title. With a voice that oscillates between pragmatic and terse, to deeply empathetic and imaginative, Perez' verses manage to be strangely affecting so much so that his lines will pop into your head while you're sitting at your desk at work, or driving your car. Perez' greatest accomplishment in this collection is his ability to ground his metaphysical themes and meditation, through astute observations of objects and situations in the concrete, physical world of so-called everyday life. He also does not experiment with a lot of different forms, which I find refreshing, letting his verse stand alone instead of seeking approval through some type of literary convention. My only critique is that a few of his poems are a bit self-conscious and over realized, which doesn't give the reader much room to play in these instances. Other than that, I think this is a collection worth reading several times, and is definitely a standout amongst the new wave of emerging poets.

[Andrea Blythe]

Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse is a collection of poems that approaches the ways things fall apart and how we hold ourselves together, about how intimate connections get screwed up and how people connecting to people is the way we salvage hope with each everyday apocalypse.

His poems drift through a science fiction wonderland, while being anchored in a reality that is as haunting and brutal as any fantastic story that would appear in a movie. He writes of his love affair with Sarah Connor (of The Terminator movies series), and it reveals what loving has the potential to be when everything else is falling apart. "The Time I Caught My Parents Doing the Viennese Oyster" is a funny and eerie rendering of a child accidentally stumbling upon his parents having sex. Meanwhile, "Tickle Me Elmo on Black Friday," written from the point of view of Elmo, is one of the most disturbing things I've read, the images lingering with me even now as I continue to think about it.

I loved the collection, and I'm thrilled that I own it, so that I can continue to return to it whenever the mood strikes me.

[Jennifer]

Read this now. Thoughtfully constructed and unflinching by a poet who is not just a poet's poet but any thinking, feeling person's poet.