Against the Written Word

Svenonius (The Psychic Soviet), punk musician and 1990 winner of Sassy magazine’s Sassiest Boy in America, rages against everything from Instagram to language itself in this rangy collection of essays. His supposed mission, as presented in the book’s madcap first pages, is to convince readers to adopt a “new, unlettered life of sublime illiteracy.” Wielding the satiric tone of a Gen-X Jonathan Swift or leftist Andy Kaufman, Svenonius isn’t always clear about how seriously readers should be taking him: the transcript of a behind-the-music documentary about Frankenstein’s monster is an obvious lark, while an essay likening international tourism to military occupation reads as mostly lucid and sincere. Many of the pieces are pulled from Svenonius’s Cellophane Flag zine and adapted from public presentations he’s given at museums and festivals, and the lack of a through line binding everything together can make this feel too loose for its own good. Still, Svenonius is an engaging companion (even if he trends long-winded), and he lands some scathing blows, as when he links internet porn to contemporary Christianity by noting that both are “anti-intellectual, patriarchal, have an elitist or outsider self-image, and are aesthetically garish.” For radical readers seeking silly, left-field stimulation, this will more than suffice. (Jan.)