A Review of Michael Chang's BOYFRIEND PERSPECTIVE
Publisher: Really Serious Literature
Release Date: September 9, 2021
In the battle of style versus substance, great writers seek the détente. If their substance is the ammunition, the bomb they are dropping, the style comes in like a spy, whispering into the eager ears of the reader, preparing, making the argument, for there is always an argument, palatable and charming. As Victor Hugo states, “Style is the substance of the subject called unceasingly to the surface.”
If poetic style is seduction and substance is the penetration, the poet Michael Chang offers both in 男友•视角BOYFRIEND PERSPECTIVE (Really Serious Literature, Fall 2021). As they say in the poem STRANGER DANGER, “A lot of ppl write pretty words but don’t say shit.” Michael Chang has the polish and the perspective to say so much in a way you won’t forget, and this full length is the rare book that will both teach you things and make you laugh.
I have to confess Michael Chang is one of my very favorite poets. I was honored to publish “Area Code 604,” in my anthology Pinkprint and nominate it for Best of the Net. This poem introduced me to Chang’s charmingly potent perspective. The poem seamlessly alternates between the personal, the sexual, the political from the Stanford Prison Experiment, Chinese Exclusion to sexual domination. It was love at first read to me, and I’ve been a big fan ever since.
I felt honored to get a sneak peek at 男友•视角BOYFRIEND PERSPECTIVE in order to write this review. Per usual with Chang’s poetry, it is full of:
wisdom – “everyone carries with them the capacity to wound, to disappoint; the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be,” ADMISSION
writing advice – “you can lie in poems,” PRAIRIE OYSTER
literary criticism – “good art is always smarter than the person who made it,” PINK STEGOSAURUS
philosophy – “Lately I have been so delighted by movies about shoplifters & scam artists & ppl really sticking it to the Man, stealing, but I find myself rooting for the underdog, revenge of the nerds & some such, you’re programmed in this country to want the underdog to win,” SEAN ★LENNON
survival tips – “When approached by law enforcement: avoid unprovoked / flight, do not call them pigs, do not be black, know your / rights (you have none), regret your existence, get a lawyer (if / still alive),” RULES FOR AMERICAN LIFE
political commentary – “we need a government where we don’t have to / depend on the mercy of bureaucrats or the kindness of / strangers,” 零 (ZERO)
queerness – “in China, ‘bitten peach’ is code for queerness,” UGLYCUTE
boys - “a boy, to put it plainly, is a loathsome thing,” ROSEBUD
film commentary – “I want to have never seen Jurassic Park / I want to be / unburdened by the knowledge of Jeff Goldblum as sex / symbol,” HIGH DRAMA PANDA FURY
racism – “we order duck confit & baked alaska / not knowing what to / expect / they say what a pretty family / too bad they are chinks,” FIELD NOTES ON THE PRODIGAL SON
pop culture – “is Ryan Murphy killing off the cast of Glee,” BRIGHT WHITE NOISE 天使脸 • 恶魔心
I could pull lines from this manuscript for pages that delight, enlighten, infuriate and encourage me. It’s the style of the poet to interpose the trivia of modern life with substantive universal truths about racism, homophobia, xenophobia and the judicial system. They do this uniquely well in a way that solidifies why Michael Chang is a poet’s poet – someone so many writers I know respect fiercely and admire.
In a poem like 零 (ZERO), Congressional testimony by the Director of Central Intelligence Roscoe Hillenkoetter on the subject of homosexuals being unfit to hold public office is dissected by Chang and annotated with personal commentary. It is a powerful juxtaposition of a broader policy that I myself, a bisexual person, was, naively, unaware of -- more aware of the modern and equally hate-filled debate about military service for the openly homosexual. Chang includes excerpts of the testimony like “homosexuals have ‘psychopathic tendencies which affect the soundness of their judgment, physical cowardice, susceptibility to pressure and general instability, thus making a pervert vulnerable in many ways.” While I’m sadly not completely shocked at this outrageous hate speech, it was very powerful to see the efforts to codify such beliefs and prohibit any kind of general public service.
零 (ZERO) is a poem that reflects a way of thinking that still exists in puritanical, conservative subcultures today. In the Deep South, where I’m from, it represents a lot of my fears of being discovered to be bisexual – an essential component of myself; my puritanically, abusive family still does not know. Chang educates, offers a substantive cultural commentary of the history of this prejudice. That they can do this while interspersing facts with chuckles about Snoopy and Dairy Queen is what eliminates the potential pedantry of such a discourse. Chang couches this horrible history between giggles and the personal.
They are the ultimate cool teacher who knows how to speak a startling intelligence in the language of the student. Their pithy, pop cultural references invite a reader, first, to relate, then to commiserate with the difficulties of their perspective and ultimately to celebrate -- for Chang’s is a voice that deserves to be celebrated. It imbues, ultimately, a joy in the details of the collective human experience. But what makes Chang inspirational and exceptional is their ability to hold one’s perspective in life inside the frame of a poem and write from it with utter confidence and authority. This full length is full of pretty words and says a lot of shit we all need to hear about hate and love in all its forms.
Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Rhysling nominated sonneteer and a Best of the Net 2020 finalist. Her sonnets have stalked journals like Glass, Yes, Five:2:One, Luna Luna and more. She is the author of 23 books of poetry including Candy Cigarette Womanchild Noir (Hedgehog Poetry Press) and Atheist Barbie (Maverick Duck Press). She is the founder of Pink Plastic House a tiny journal and co-founder of Performance Anxiety, an online poetry reading series. Follow her on Twitter: (@lolaandjolie) and her website kristingarth.com