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from An Introduction to Venatius Fortunatus for Schoolchildren or Understanding the Medieval Concept World Through Metonymy
Poetry/Translation (Latin) Paperback: $10 ISBN: 978-1-939781-01-7 |
Praise for An Introduction to Venatius Fortunatus for Schoolchildren or Understanding the Medieval Concept World Through Metonymy
"An Introduction to Venantius Fortunatus for Schoolchildren is a manifestation of the sheer and adventurous wit of Mike Schorsch as much as it is a strange, beautiful, and meditative song to society. It’s an absolute wonder to be summoned into this book—and now you too have been summoned—no backsies. Schorsch’s tenacious voice is one of modern energy and doubt engaging with antiquity. He mines the kind of authentic care it takes to hold parenthetical action—“(pending supernatural intervention and/or time travel)”—while also considering “even / the bishop, that honored man who thinks / I have so many female friends.” Some of the questions asked here will only be answered with difficulty; the key of Mike Schorsch’s generosity is that they are always explicitly addressed to all of us."
—Amanda Nadelberg
author of Bright Brave Phenomena and Isa the Truck Named Isadore
"From beginning to end, this is a book of telling contrasts between vastly different sensibilities, values, beliefs, customs, and modes of expressing and interacting with the world. This much one might expect from a book of translated poetry by a forgotten medieval saint. That it should, at least indirectly, critique the crass materialism of contemporary middle-class life might also not be terribly surprising. What, after all, could show more profoundly our weddedness to things than prayerful rumination on the immaterial spirit? That it should be hilarious and marvelously irreverent in achieving all of this is its greatest virtue, better even than a DeLonghi sandwich maker. Compare and contrast."
—Russell Valentino, translator of Materada by Fulvio Tomizza and The Other Venice: Secrets of the City, by Predrag Matvejevic among many others
From An Introduction to Venatius Fortunatus for Schoolchildren or Understanding the Medieval Concept World Through Metonymy
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Mike Schorsch writes poems and essays about God and dead people. He also sues debt collectors in the Boston area, where he lives with his wife and children.
