{"product_id":"cellab","title":"Cells of Absolute Property, by Ariel Beller","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePoetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from \u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b00ff;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/collections\/bottlecap-features\" style=\"color: #2b00ff;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBottlecap Features\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eTyped out exactly as it appeared from a handwritten journal, this poetry sequence shows a complete disregard for traditional literary forms, punctuation, grammar, or even an individual style.  Much of it is lifted language, and the numbers in this long sequence are in fact the page numbers written on the pages of the original journal.  The book is the author’s response to the typed-out journal of another writer, which he found to be absolutely awful.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThe conceit lay within its opening quote by Henry Miller, \"One speaks of man’s potential nature as though it were a contradiction of the one he reveals.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\"I love to imagine Beller's \u003cem\u003eCells of Absolute Property\u003c\/em\u003e as 74 separate speaking roles for nearly any group chorus scenario possible: members of HAVI (Health Alliance For Violence Intervention) quarterly meeting notes, final journal entries of British soldiers missing after Battle of New Orleans (War of 1812), Pelican Bay State prisoners daydreams, unused dialogue for most Munchkins in \u003cem\u003eThe Wizard of Oz\u003c\/em\u003e, Oceanic Flight 815 survivors cave poems sketched in chalk. Another interesting statistic: for every 74 people there is one Seventh-day Adventist on earth, much to the chagrin of the Seventh-day Adventists. Beller's work is a constant reminder that in order to appreciate sanguine singularity, it first takes a lot of listening to other haunted people talk.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e—Jeffrey Hecker, author of \u003cem\u003eArk Aft\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\"A cell can mean an organism, a fatal disease, a clandestine social movement, an 'accomodation' in jail, holy religious confinement. Ariel Beller's \u003cem\u003eCells of Absolute Property\u003c\/em\u003e may be all or none of these things; but poetry is at its most beautiful, and paradoxically accessible, as a mystery. These enigmatic sequences, which recall C.D. Wright's \u003cem\u003eDeepstep Come Shining\u003c\/em\u003e, are cells run amok as Delbert Grady or Teletubbies bouncing from fantasia to fantasia. In this surrealist family chronicle (if that's what it is), the grotesque is also as sweet and comforting as oatmeal. Technicolor bursts of DMT in the minds of the dying? Wayward auditory ectoplasm splattering in people's faces? Delirium tremens? Remorseful spirits wringing their non-hands? Sure, if you like. Rivers, fences, hills, and apparitions abound in this uncanny valley, and the overall vibe is wyrdly pastoral and domestic. Whatever you see here, go ahead and follow it home.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e—Lisa A. Flowers, Founding Editor of Vulgar Marsala Press\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\"These \u003cem\u003eCells of Absolute Property\u003c\/em\u003e are a matter of life and death. They build and swarm and multiply repeatedly in a small, caged set of human beings. Beller, crucially, understands the number of characters in our play is rather small, even though they explode on the page through so many faces—in all their romance and history. The best writers know you have to go into it. That it’s all rooted in the blood and that if you go into it properly it glows, glows evenly on all our beauty and defects. The power and truth of the blood is that it never lies.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e—Rauan Klassnik, author of \u003cem\u003eHoly Land\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Moon’s Jaw\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eA Slow Boiling Beach\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eAriel Beller was born in Portland, Oregon. He lived as an expat in the UK from 2001-2014, where he was a recipient of the Michael Donaghy Memorial Prize. His work has appeared with \u003cem\u003eDriftwood Press\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAmsterdam Quarterly\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eQueen Mobs Teahouse\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eExquisite Corpse\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLuna Luna\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTears in the Fence (UK)\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eGobbet (UK)\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Wolf (UK)\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAs it Ought To Be\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTrnsfr Books\u003c\/em\u003e, and many other places.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ariel Beller","offers":[{"title":"Chapbook","offer_id":50237449896251,"sku":"CELLAB","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital Download (PDF)","offer_id":50237449929019,"sku":"CELLABe","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0062\/4420\/4614\/files\/cells2front.png?v=1745347478","url":"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/products\/cellab","provider":"Bottlecap Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}