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Poetry. Philosophy. Translated from the French by Nathanael. Drawing from philosophy (including Pre-Socratic materialists, Nietzsche, and Spinoza), A SPECTACULAR INFLUENCE by Chantal Neveu offers readers an exercise in extreme perception. With clear lines and minimalist language, A SPECTACULAR INFLUENCE solicits movement in melancholy as a way of celebrating the intimate role that each of us plays in the human collective experience. This is Neveu's "materialist poetry manifesto" in all its paradoxical joy through tragedy. It holds a linguistic magnifying glass up to core subjects at the foundation of our very humanness, dwelling in the Spinozan questions, Is consciousness an illusion? How do metamorphoses arise within the collective? In this graceful, rich translation by acclaimed author and translator Nathanael, Neveu's poetic perspective invites us to consider that, in our inevitable connection with the world, "I am a human, and nothing human is foreign to me" (after Terence).
About the author
Chantal Neveu is a writer and an interdisciplinary artist. She is the author of the books
Une Spectaculaire influence (2010), COÏT (2010; translated into English by Angela Carr and published by BookThug in 2012), and
mentale (2008). Her interdisciplinary textual projects include
Èdres followed by
Èdres Dehors (2005) and
Je suis venue faire l'amour, among others. A SPECTACULAR INFLUENCE, translated by Nathanaël, is Neveu's second book published by BookThug. She lives in Montreal.
The (self-) translating author of more than twenty books, Nathanaël writes in English and in French. Her recent works include
Sotto l'immagine (2014), SISYPHUS, OUTDONE, THEATRES OF THE CATASTROPHAL (2012) and ASCLEPIAS: THE MILKWEEDS (2015). Nathanaël's extrinsic translations include works by Danielle Collobert, Édouard Glissant, Hervé Guibert, Catherine Mavrikakis, and Hilda Hilst (the latter in collaboration with Rachel Gontijo Araújo). Nathanaël lives in Chicago.
