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Sydney Spleen

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( 22 ratings, 4 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Sydney Spleen explores the modern experience of melancholy and despair, drawing on Charles Baudelaire's idea of spleen—an inexplicable gloom and disgust. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Sydney, the poems confront contemporary crises including corporate greed, climate change, fake news, and the challenges of parenting in a rapidly changing world. Toby Fitch employs radical forms and tones, blending poetry, essays, and satire to create a provocative and multifaceted reflection on global anxiety and fleeting moments of connection.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2999
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This collection will appeal to readers interested in contemporary poetry, social critique, and those who appreciate experimental literary forms. It is suited for an audience drawn to cultural commentary blended with artistic innovation and dark humour.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Sydney Spleen takes Charles Baudelaire's concept of spleen as melancholy with no apparent cause, characterised by a disgust with everything and combines it with a contemporary sense of irony to articulate the causes of our doom and gloom: corporate rapacity, climate change, disaster capitalism, the plague, neo-colonialism, fake news, fascism, and how to raise kids in a world fast becoming obsolete.

The backdrop of this collection of poems is sparkling Sydney and its screens, through which the poet mainlines global angst. Fitch's 'spleen poems', with their radical use of form and tone, are as much an aesthetic experience as a literary one—translation becomes homage becomes satire becomes song; essays become lyrics become rants become dreams. What is a poem when 'no one believes in the future now anyway'?

Nor is the collection lacking in humour. Sydney Spleen mocks everything in its crystal glass, yet still finds real moments of connection to celebrate.

'Fitch's poems are not interested in slowly unfolding a metaphor or arriving at a singular meaning. Instead, they ask you to cling on for your life.' - Sarah Holland-Batt

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781925818758

Publisher: Giramondo Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 July 2021

Country: Australia

Imprint: Giramondo Publishing Co

Illustration: Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 148.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 150g

Pages: 120

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