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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1988)
Arts & Entertainment Poet combines offbeat style, spontaneity ORAL SEX IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1927 □ occupational E2 recreational CD accidental Courtesy ot Black Oak Press From The Hideout of the Sigmund Freud Gang' by James Magorian. Magorian incorporates poetry, visuals, entertainment By Mick Dyer Staff Reporter_ Chasing away gnats with a flick of his hand, he peers at trading stamps pasted on the bathroom mirror, begins to hum a Cole Porter tune for reasons known only to himself — “Art Historian Pulling Hairs Out of His Nostrils with Pliers'* Poet James Magorian has been painting surreal visions, inspired by the America he grew up in, for more than 20 years. During that time, he has become one of the foremost chroniclers of the /any post-indus trial angst that we all sufferas Ameri cans. He has had poems published in a variety of “legitimate" and offbeat literary magazines through the years and has published more than 50 books of poems and children’s sto ries. In addition to being a prolific writer, Magorian, who attended UNL. and is a part-time Lincoln resi dent, is a publisher at the Lincoln based Black Oak Press. “The Hideout of the Sigmund Freud Gang” (Black Oak Press, ll)K7) is a collection of some of the bizarre and satirical poems and visu als from earlier books. 1 he book also includes his version ol a play about Medea entitled “Medea and Fred, his own version ol the lile and works of Karl Marx, and such “revisions” of American history as “The: Emily Dickinson Jogging Book,” “The Red, White and Blue Bus" and “The Great Injun Carnival,” which pur ports to be the secret diary of Custer. If you like the nice, bland, safe variety of poetry, you probably should skip the rest ol this review. Magorian’s work probably won t interest you. It may even disturb you. Magorian’s poems are about mania. They are about finding truth in unusual places. The are irreverent, spontaneous, playful pieces of his mind that may try to bite at you once in a while, just to see il you re still there. The poems hold nothing back. Magorian unleashes one strange image from the darkness of the American collective unconscious ness after another. Magorian s poems are a celebra tion of the eccentric. Sometimes Magorian captures some of the really w eird moments of everyday life and makes deep and insightful observations about them. Such is the case w ith “Isosceles Tri angle,” about finding a snowflake that was just an isosceles triangle; “Silent Fart,” a poem about know l edge only the reader is aw are of; and “2(X)Pushupsat the YMCA,”a poem about the appearance of a weeping willow tree. These are poems that approach Zen. Most of the time, however, the poems are a result of Magorian’s vivid imagination. They are not bound by any kind of literary author ity and arc a joy to read. The poems will surprise you. They will startle you. Above all, they arc w ritten w ith a sense of humor that may help the reader sec things in a new' way. As their tales of daring become more spectacular, a crowd gathers, asking for autographs. — “Veteran Sperm Donors Reminiscing in Front of an Artifi cial Insemination Clinic" Magorian also has a knack lor discovering poems in unusual places. There are poems taken from techni cal manual glossaries and footnotes, symposium programs, musical scores and a number of other ever) - day sources. If you w rite poetry, this book ma\ make you want to w rite more. If you don’t write poems, the contents o! this hook may help you learn that poetry is not a difficult art. The book is full of fascinating and informative graphs, diagrams and other interesting visuals that are worthy of critical acclaim. Nearly 1,000 pages long. “The Hideout of the Sigmund Freud Clang will provide hours of thought-pro voking entertainment. During the past three years, Mn gorian has worked on a rather length) novel that he plans to publish in the future. . ' ^ayaways Bankcards