Amiano, Daniel. Zurrusco (2002)

Amiano, Daniel. Zurrusco. Buenos Aires: Libros del Empedrado, 1994. 45 pp. ISBN 950-736012-3 Balderas, Eduardo. Globo ocular; cuentos. Dibujos de Jose Agustin Ramirez. Mexico: La Cuadrilla de la Langosta, 1998. 31 pp. ISBN: 968-7887-05-02 Doctorovich, Fabio. Bribage Cartooniano. Trans. John M. Bennett. Prol. Enrique Blanchard. Buenos Aires/Columbus: Nuevo Milenio/Luna Bisonte Prods, 1994. no pag. ISBN 0-935350-42-X --. http://www.postypographika.com --. Tierra de Malandras. Buenos Aires: Editorial El Caldero, 1994. no pag. ISBN 950-9859-8-7 Escudero, Raqel. A manera de causa--poemas--. Salta, Arg.: Gofica Editora, 1996. 83 pp. ISBN 987-9103-15-7 Estrada, Teresa. La cueva de los susurros oxidados. Canciones. Mexico: La Cuadrilla de la Langosta, 1998. 31 pp. ISBN: 968-7887-04-4 Gordon Vailakis, Ivon. Colobries en el exilio. Quito: Editorial El Conejo, 1997. 73 pp. ISBN 9978-87-168-3 Iasis, Claudio. Mientras los muchachos duermen. Santiago de Chile: Libros de la Elipse, 2001. 37 pp. ISBN 956-7117-12-8 Luna, Leticia. Hora lunar Presentacion de Juan Banuelos. Mexico: Ediciones La Caudrilla de la Langosta, 1999. 53 pp. ISBN 968-7887-06-0 In this essay review, we take a look at a number of chapbooks of poetry, books of aphorisms, and other unique volumes that Chasqui has received during the last few years: In Zurrusco (an overtoasted slice of bread), Daniel Amiano (1963-) shows his nihilistic spirit. A newspaper writer transplanted from the country to Buenos Aires he writes poetry which is a cross between prose poems and aphorisms. The reader receives little help from the syntax or punctuation: el sueno insiste persiste se hace fuego cancion elemental (9) Amiano's nihilism is apparent in the following: somos lo que sobra del vacio lo que esta por ser nombrado como una religion que desaparece en sus propios laberintos (7) Amiano's images can grow on the reader: todo gira gira y se aleja gira y olvida y gira mundos detras de las palabras evidencia gesto nausea (37) Compared to Felipe Vazquez--a definite nihilist in his longer, rambling book (which has been included in this number of Chasqui in another review essay)--Amiano is more poetic and more structured in his brief book of aphorisms set in verse form. Eduardo Balderas's book of apocalyptic science fiction stories, Globo ocular, is augmented with line-etching engravings. This art is often erotic, sometimes obscene, and was drawn by Jose Agustin Ramirez, who also published Suenos de la muerte in the same chapbook series. In his book, Ramirez's stories are also accompanied by his own psychodelic-aztec-science-fiction sketches. Balderas's futuristic universive portrays the world--as we know it--as having been virtually destroyed. The aristocratic survivors--the only ones with fortunes to pay the high costs of a ticket on the rocket/transbordador--had immigrated centuries before to the moon, now called ironically, New Kabul. By the 30th Century, mutants are the only remnants of humanity, and because they have been able to escape for hundreds of years, they threaten the materialistic goals of the rich. The human mutants have allied with cyber-solvents, or long-living robots. To eliminate these non-human types from the planet Earth, the Neonazis have to search them all out with a special psychometer that psychopolicemen use. Eventually the mutants and solvents rebel. With their cybernetic genius they are able to create a double of the humans' tyrannical world president, who is about to flee with the huge fortune he has robbed. Thus the non-humans take over the world to change it for the better. The story seems to represent the hope and dreams of third-world forces facing a first-world power. …