jim mccrary Reviews
Luci: a Forbidden Soteriology by j/j hastain
(Black Radish Books, 2015)
No doubt this is the best
book I have come to in a long, long time. I am so pleased that j/j hastain
has created this text and that they will become, I hope, a very sought after
author. Everyone should read this book. Really. Just try and
do that. It will be worth your time. Long story short: Luci is the fictional (?) auto-biography
of the fallen angel Lucifer who "now" wants to be known as Luci...the
queering of Lucifer to the preferred Luci...the long, long struggle between
Luci and their dad and, of course, the spirit brother who is still hanging
around. And hastain has written a deep, deep text here that brings us
into and along with Luci's attempts to free themselves from the yoke of past
and realize all human emotion including love, sex...lots of sex...wet feathers
and all....pussy and peepee and poop and just all that too. Not to
mention heartbreak and loss and anger and guilt.
I had to read this book
with my laptop nearby open to a religious dictionary. So much is out of
my depth and words I'd never seen before. At first I thought it was going
to be a drag looking everything up, like when one first tries to read Pound and
then realizes...oh fuck it who cares what it says in Chinese. But that is
not the case with hastain...they, I can enjoy, finding out the meaning of a
sentence like: "...By way of the ongoing corpuscles of concupiscent
saints during crepuscular eras?"
The humor is always
present especially when trying to explain to their Dad how the appropriation of
human feelings and emotion feels to them. Always there is Dad who is his
usually rather narrow minded selfish egotistical self. And the spirit
brother who embarrasses and shames Luci. Always.
"It
has always bothered me how my spirit brother scolded me in front of my
father."
It is hastain's
thoughtful and thought out text that brings Luci into our life and hearts with
text like this:
"As
a light-bearer in the darkness of my own body, I implore you to ponder me as
something other than male or female in the human sense of these terms..."
The struggle, as mentioned,
continues as Luci sees themselves as more becoming both queer and equipped as
human. Perhaps. halstain brings so much into their text and it
seems that so much has gone into the preparation of the writing.
Well, it is difficult to
describe and to lift from the page to this brief notice of a book so powerful
and beautiful.
Here is a final
quote. If this don't getcha goin I don't know what will:
"Is
it possible for a memoir and a hagiography to be one and the same? If
not, consider this moment, this work, to be a fictional hagiography: a life
story of tenebrous broth. I am drawing shapes in handmade ink.
Doing so, over a shaved patch that remains startling, no matter how much it is
experienced.
*****
"mccrary lives in lawrence, ks. latest books include This Here from Theenk Books and Year Book from Shirt Pocket Press. he is the honored mascot at the 8th st taproom poetry series in a downtown lawrence dive bar that is curated by one megan kaminski."
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