Entropy Digs Tony Trigilio’s 'Sneaky Text'

At Entropy, Joe Milazzo praises Tony Trigilio's vastly titled book Inside the Walls of My Own House: The Complete Dark Shadows (of My Childhood) Book 2 (BlazeVOX). Milazzo writes "Trigilio lures you into these poems with an unassuming, even charming conceptual-cum-procedural transparency ('hey, we’re all binge-watchers here') and tone (O'Hara-esque chattiness)." We'll pick up with the rest of Milazzo's review, before their discussion.

But, by the time you realize that your cozy cup of tea has been laced with phenomenology and epistemology and ontology, it’s too late. The walls are closing in, your certainties are draining away, and you can’t help but admit that, as much as you fear for your comfort, a more intense tingle is telling you how thrilled you are.

Appropriately enough, there’s a word in Italian for what Trigilio achieves in Inside the Walls of My Own House: The Complete Dark Shadows (of My Childhood) Book 2—sprezzatura. Roughly translated, this term (coined by Castiglione for the benefit of courtiers everywhere) means “the artifice of no apparent artifice.” In the hands of a lesser artist, sprezzatura is just an ironic form of braggadocio. “Oh that? Oh yeah, sure, I made that. But it’s no big deal.” But let a true artist bring their craft to bear on this nonchalant performance of virtuosity, and what often results are works defined by an almost inexpressible grace.

Read more at Entropy.