Publisher's Synopsis
Poetry. Bob Perelman is one of our wittiest poets, but his new book, THE FUTURE OF MEMORY, is as scary as it is funny. It presents the poem itself as doomed human subject in time. The poet is both emblem of Western subjectivity and the very figure of the fool -Rae Armantrout. The absence of theory pulses in my neck, / at least I've thought so, / sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling off my socks. / Break the life-mask of empiricism and, underneath, prophecies / become visible: the death of the past, swaddled in / old jargons of self-expression, those other bodies (Chapter Four). To read this book is to give language a second chance, and second life -Susan Stewart. Active in the Bay Area poetry scene during the 70's and 80's, Bob Perelman moved to Philadelphia in 1990, where he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
