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Infantilisms concerns the work of serious culture, which for the philosopher Charles Fourier (the presiding spirit here) is deathly. Infantilism, by contrast, is the work of the passions (work as passion, which is true poesis): Fourier's "little hordes." Blake had a similar idea of "infantile" joyousness in doing & making, in revolt against the Iron-Clad Laws. Infantilisms is a poetic refusal of all such Laws & their dour, sarcastic, humourless notaries. At its heart lie feelings of tenderness. A writer can only be a fool according to the exigencies of the epoch they're bequeathed, but only a child can write poetry. Everywhere the work of mourning has turned to so much schadenfreude: what good's Literature that can bring only flowers to its own funeral? Do not draw comfort from watching the little children play - join their wild dance!
As curious and clever as ever Louis Armand unearths all kinds of cultural infantilism in the unpredictable tricks and treats that consume this damaged planet. Meta poems, memoriams, philosophy, art, pandemic, politics - classical and contemporary entanglements that invite our unravelling as he casts a vast critical net across Eastern Europe, France and its North African ex-colonies, Australia, USA and elsewhere. Perceptive, uniquely imaginative and often darkly funny, these poems animate the pursuit of possibilities. - Pam Brown
About the author
LOUIS ARMAND's critical works include Feasts of Unrule (2024), Entropology (2023), Videology (2015), The Organ-Grinder's Monkey: Culture after the Avantgarde (2013), Event States (2007), Techne (1997) & Incendiary Devices (1993), poetry collections including Infantilisms (2024), Vitus (2022), and Descartes' Dog (2021), & novels including Anizar (2024), Glitchhead (2022), Vampyr (2021), The Garden (2020), Glasshouse (2018), The Combinations (2016) & Clair Obscur (2011). He co-directs the Prague Microfestival & is the director of the Centre for Critical & Cultural Theory, in the Philosophy Faculty of Charles University, Prague. www.louis-armand.com
