Isabelle Baafi - Chaotic Good

Chaotic Good gives an interesting offering into the death and rebirth cycle attached to the pains and aftermath of divorce. 

Firstly, the collection's title ('Chaotic Good') is an interesting manifesto in itself. Reading from cover to cover, the reader is often set at odds with what truely Chaotic Good means to the poet and to ourselves. We only come across the answer after deep reflection, through the realisation that the entire healing process is indeed a chaos process. This point is illustrated excellently through the collection's non-linear structure. 

The entire collection is split into 5 distinct chapters: Sepearation, Childhood, Adolescence, Marriage and  Rebirth. Starting with initial trauma and upheaval of divorce. The collection returns the poet back to their past, allowing them to recontextualize their past experiences in light of present circumstances. It is from this recontextualization of the past, that the poet and indeed the reader are allowed then to define and reconstitute their own interpretation of themselves.

The greatest strength of Baafi's brilliance is her ability to compose her thoughts and feelings through a great variety of mediums. Not only is each example done masterfully, but it also challenges the reader's own perceptions of relationships. 

This collection is very much a raw exposition into human healing; it is emotive and of course it is extremely personal. Reading through this collection you really get a sense of the impact and effect that divorce has had on the poet in the first instance. Moving through to subsequent sections, we get a rare insight into the inner working's of the poet's mind; it is interesting to see which thought and memories rise to the surface in times of great toil. 


Chaotic Good
by Isabelle Baafi
ISBN:9780571390953

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Modern Physics: Why the World Works

Modern Physics is a novel revitilsation of the standard 1st year education in undergraduate physics. The text is very comprehensive; it covers a broad spectrum of topics from quantum mechanics to condensed matter physics and cosmology.  What makes this book special is its approach in explaining physics phenomena. This text gives intuitive, relatable and detailed explanations of the how's and why's.  This is refreshing, as it build gently the readers physical understanding of how the world should work. This is remarkably important for building student's confidence when solving problems, but also their mathematical toolkit to do so. This is further aided by the numerous worked examples, conceptual questions and exercises throughout. There is no doubt in my mind that Modern Physics will soon become the standard reference for first year teaching. Modern Physics by Gary N. Felder and  Kenny M. Felder ISBN:  9781108913270
Read more

The Square Root of Einstein

What does it mean to be a scientist ? How do I become a scientist ? What makes up the universe around us ? What is the Square Root of Einstein ? The Square Root of Einstein answers all and more of these questions, in a satisfying way.  Written in a warming conversational tone, this extremely entertaining book walks the reader effortlessly through some of the greatest surprises in fundamental physics over the last century: Quantum Mechanics, Special Relativity, General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, and of course Particle Physics. These earlier chapters coalesces into the final half of the book which describes one of the most perplexing results of the last 20 years: The Double Copy. This book appeals to broad audience of popular science enthusiasts, young and old. For the teenage reader, this book provides a calling and challenge. This book is an accessible call to action towards young readers considering a career (or at the very least a university education) in science, especial...
Read more