{"id":976,"date":"2017-04-03T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bsudlr.wordpress.com\/?p=976"},"modified":"2017-04-03T10:00:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T16:00:01","slug":"monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/","title":{"rendered":"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Keith Jackson<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">If you were one of the unlucky ones that missed the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Digital Literature Review\u2019<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">s monster poetry reading, you can still read about it here! The reading featured Ball State English Department\u2019s very own Brian Morrison and his manuscript of poems on monsters. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight:400\">He works as an Assistant Professor of English at Ball State University. He agreed to be the star of this semester\u2019s first \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">DLR <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Presents\u201d reading, a themed event held once or twice every year, showcasing professional work from Ball State and abroad. Our second event was held last Friday (March 31st) with Jeffrey Weinstock, Ph.D. You can expect a blog about Weinstock&#8217;s talk on vampires soon!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Before the reading, I asked Morrison a few questions. He discussed his writing process, how he chooses what topics to explore, what his inspirations were for writing monster poetry, and the project he would be reading from. Morrison was very open in his answers, and I have provided a few below. I will discuss the actual reading a bit later on. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Morrison first talked with me about how he approaches a poem. He does not always know what he\u2019s going to write about beforehand, but he focuses on an image, or sometimes a line, to start things off. The poem forms over time, \u00a0over the course of two or three drafts. The ones that he read for the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">DLR<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> were the result of a project he had started a few years ago. He did not know exactly where it was going at first, but he followed the idea of \u2018false history,\u2019 which means that he rewrote classic stories or historical moments. For example, he began to rewrite movies, like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Frankenstein,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> in which the creature is a farmer in the Midwest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">After monsters entered Morrison\u2019s life, he never let them leave. Writing has been a way of life for Morrison, and he used it to help cope with a difficult childhood. Writing helped him navigate through life and make sense of how chaotic it can be at times. To some extent, he says he is still doing it now. Like most of us, his love of monsters stems from movies he had watched. When he was a boy, he and his father found common ground in their love of horror films. They both loved the genre and movies like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Jaws, Predator<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">, and anything with werewolves. They bonded in this way, watching monster movies. Brian still watches them, and writing about them has been the most fun he has ever had. This passion resonated well with quite a few of his poems. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Right off the top, the very first poem he read reminded me of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, the monster expert, and his seven theses. Though Morrison\u2019s poems explored several ideas, at the forefront was the political climate in America. Cohen\u2019s first theory in particular resonated strongly throughout the entirety of the reading. In the first theory, \u201cThe Monster\u2019s Body Is a Cultural Body,\u201d Cohen says the \u201cmonster\u2019s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy (ataractic or incendiary), giving them life and an uncanny dependence\u201d (4). In this way, the monster exists to be read, to reveal, and to warn the reader. The monsters in the first few poems (which work together to convey one cohesive idea) manifest themselves in many ways. For example, in the second poem, fear morphs into a monster Ms. McCready keeps hidden in her basement, bringing it with her to city hall to vote. Though it is easy to blame Ms. McCready for allowing the monster she has only just revealed to influence her ideas, Morrison asks the question, \u201cCan you blame them for caring more about the roads and the children? The taxes and the donors?\u201d The monster Ms. McCready keeps in her basement represents a broader cultural anxiety \u2013 the anxiety of a country split into two poles. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Near the end of the reading, Morrison read the poem he had referenced in our discussions \u2013 the \u2018false history\u2019 poem about Frankenstein\u2019s monster being a farmer in the Midwest. This was perhaps my favorite poem out of the whole collection, partly because of the setting (think rural and cornfields; think Indiana) and partly because this poem was false history. In the poem, which was hilarious and disturbing all at the same time, the monster expresses grief over his unruly appendages and the hard work of tilling a field. The life of a farmer is a lonely one, and Frankenstein\u2019s monster is not devoid of emotion. He longs for friendly connection but knows he is a monster. The townsfolk shun him, consider him \u201cOther,\u201d something that does not belong. The poem closes as Frankenstein disperses his appendages throughout his fields to help the crops grow, ultimately accepting his role as farmer and nothing more. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Whether it is the monster we hide deep within us, the being that controls some of our deepest beliefs, or a twist on a classic story, Morrison\u2019s poems were terrifyingly monstrous. The poems asked us to look within ourselves as a community and as a country. Within them, monsters were created to answer cultural fears and anxieties, to help make sense of the wacky world we live in. \u201cMonsters ask us why we have created them\u201d (Cohen 20). Morrison\u2019s creations asked those in attendance to propose the same question: Why do we love monsters so much? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Work Cited<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Cohen, Jeffrey. \u201cMonster Culture (Seven Theses).\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Monster Theory: Reading Culture<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400\">. Ed. Cohen. Minneapolis, MN: U of Minnesota P, 1996. pp. 3-25.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Keith Jackson If you were one of the unlucky ones that missed the Digital Literature Review\u2019s monster poetry reading, you can still read about it here! The reading featured Ball State English Department\u2019s very own Brian Morrison and his manuscript of poems on monsters. He works as an Assistant Professor of English at Ball [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[386,387,388,7,389,390,89],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monsters","tag-ball-state-english","tag-ball-state-university","tag-brian-morrison","tag-bsudlr","tag-monster","tag-monster-poetry","tag-poetry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison - The Digital Literature Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison - The Digital Literature Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Keith Jackson If you were one of the unlucky ones that missed the Digital Literature Review\u2019s monster poetry reading, you can still read about it here! The reading featured Ball State English Department\u2019s very own Brian Morrison and his manuscript of poems on monsters. He works as an Assistant Professor of English at Ball [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Digital Literature Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-03T16:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bsudlr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bsudlr\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/03\\\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/03\\\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"bsudlr\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dbdfd204803a40c0c244970784e8cd42\"},\"headline\":\"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-03T16:00:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/03\\\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":935,\"keywords\":[\"Ball State English\",\"Ball State University\",\"Brian Morrison\",\"bsudlr\",\"monster\",\"monster poetry\",\"Poetry\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Issue 4: Monsters\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/03\\\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/03\\\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\\\/\",\"name\":\"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison - The Digital Literature Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-03T16:00:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dbdfd204803a40c0c244970784e8cd42\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/03\\\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/03\\\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/03\\\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Digital Literature Review\",\"description\":\"Food Matters in Literature and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dbdfd204803a40c0c244970784e8cd42\",\"name\":\"bsudlr\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e2632ecc536239b97fa78465932f47afe9e7947b6692ca7b9beb2ab0754f0989?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e2632ecc536239b97fa78465932f47afe9e7947b6692ca7b9beb2ab0754f0989?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e2632ecc536239b97fa78465932f47afe9e7947b6692ca7b9beb2ab0754f0989?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"bsudlr\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bsu.edu\\\/dlr\\\/author\\\/bsudlr\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison - The Digital Literature Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison - The Digital Literature Review","og_description":"by Keith Jackson If you were one of the unlucky ones that missed the Digital Literature Review\u2019s monster poetry reading, you can still read about it here! The reading featured Ball State English Department\u2019s very own Brian Morrison and his manuscript of poems on monsters. He works as an Assistant Professor of English at Ball [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/","og_site_name":"The Digital Literature Review","article_published_time":"2017-04-03T16:00:01+00:00","author":"bsudlr","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"bsudlr","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/"},"author":{"name":"bsudlr","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/#\/schema\/person\/dbdfd204803a40c0c244970784e8cd42"},"headline":"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison","datePublished":"2017-04-03T16:00:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/"},"wordCount":935,"keywords":["Ball State English","Ball State University","Brian Morrison","bsudlr","monster","monster poetry","Poetry"],"articleSection":["Issue 4: Monsters"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/","name":"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison - The Digital Literature Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-04-03T16:00:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/#\/schema\/person\/dbdfd204803a40c0c244970784e8cd42"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2017\/04\/03\/monter-poetry-with-brian-morrison\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Monster Poetry with Brian Morrison"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/","name":"The Digital Literature Review","description":"Food Matters in Literature and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/#\/schema\/person\/dbdfd204803a40c0c244970784e8cd42","name":"bsudlr","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2632ecc536239b97fa78465932f47afe9e7947b6692ca7b9beb2ab0754f0989?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2632ecc536239b97fa78465932f47afe9e7947b6692ca7b9beb2ab0754f0989?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2632ecc536239b97fa78465932f47afe9e7947b6692ca7b9beb2ab0754f0989?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"bsudlr"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/author\/bsudlr\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}