American Anger: An Evidentiary

by H. L. Hix

Overview

American Anger applies psychological and philosophical anger theories to the choler of American life. These genre-bending poems speak to the demographics that engage the Occupy movement, recognizing anger as the primary condition of the American empire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780989753241
Publisher:	Etruscan Press
Publication date:	02/16/2016
Pages:	215
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

H. L. Hix has published an anthology, Wild and Whirling Words: A Poetic Conversation (2004), and ten books of poetry and literary criticism with Etruscan, including Shadows of Houses (2005), Chromatic (2006), God Bless: A Political/Poetic Discourse (2007), Legible Heavens (2008), Incident Light (2009), First Fire, Then Birds (2010), As Easy As Lying: Essays on Poetry (2002), Lines of Inquiry (2011), As Much As, If Not More Than (2014), and I’m Here to Learn to Dream in Your Language (2015).

In addition to having been a finalist for the National Book Award for Chromatic, his awards include the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Grolier Prize, the Peregrine Smith Award, and fellowships from the NEA, the Kansas Arts Commission, the Missouri Arts Council, and Fulbright Distinguised Lectureship.

He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin, taught at Kansas City Art Institute, and was an administrator at The Cleveland Institute of Art, before accepting his current position as professor in the Creative Writing M.F.A. program at the University of Wyoming. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and at Shanghai University.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Aggression Cues
Aggression Cue 1: The presence of a gun.
Aggression Cue 2: A hand slammed on a table.
Aggression Cue 3: A fist punched through sheetrock.
Aggression Cue 4: Arms crossed.
Aggression Cue 5: Fists clenched.
Aggression Cue 6: A uniform.
Aggression Cue 7: The gathering of a crowd.
Aggression Cue 8: The presence of an aircraft carrier.
Aggression Cue 9: Shouting.
Aggression Cue 10: Encroachment upon personal space.
Aggression Cue 11: The stationing of troops.
Aggression Cue 12: Frequent interruption.
Aggression Cue 13: Use of expletives.
Aggression Cue 14: Breaking of fragile items.
Aggression Cue 15: Obscene gestures.

The Plural of Hate Speech
Preamble: Nomination Anthem
Days of 1852
Days of 1969
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Report
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Declaration
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Inquest
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Assembly
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Analysis
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Admonition
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Discipline
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Prophecy
Torture Ghazal
Hate Crime Legislation Couplet
“Get Tough” Sentencing and Prison Privatization Couplet
Invisible Punishment Couplet
Stealth Imperialism Couplet
God Hates Fags Couplet
What’s the Big Deal About Torture Couplet
Darwinian Rationale
Impellors and Inhibitors: Cultural, …
Aryan Nations Couplets
What’s Wrong With Kansas Stanzas
Background Checks Quatrain
Futility Refrain
Bias-Crime Unit Sonnet
Thomas Jefferson Couplet
James Madison Couplet
George Washington Quatrains
God Is On Our Side Statistic
Cynical Political Solution Quatrain
Let’s Not Kid Ourselves Quatrain
Militias / Malicious / Mollitious
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Imperative
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Prayer
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising List
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Paean
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Interview
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Estimation
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Complaint
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Explanation
Police Brutality Limerick
Survival Crimes Limerick
Short Anecdote in Which …
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Association
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Search
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Definition
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Suppositions
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Contrast
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Debate
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Rationalization
Compromised Sonnet: Compromising Profile
American Ingenuity Villanelle
Foreign Policy Villanelle
Holding Cell Villanelle
Abortion Doctor Murder Villanelle
Paranoid Politics Villanelle
Sexual Violence Villanelle
Villanelle from the Case Files
Civilian Morale Villanelle
Crisis Orientation Villanelle
Arrest Warrant Villanelle
Ghetto Villanelle
Poverty Trap Villanelle
Psychopolitics Villanelle
Gun Culture Villanelle
Wartime Powers Villanelle
Addendum: Bill of Slights

The Anger Construct
Anger, considered by analogy with health and happiness:
Anger, considered as a state:
Anger, regardless of affect:
Anger contrasted to hatred:
Anger, not summative:
Anger, considered in relation to groups:
Anger, considered in light of the word’s etymology:
Anger, as in former days they spoke of it:
Anger, by nomination:
Anger, by activation:
Anger, by protestation:
Anger, considered as a fundament:
Anger as rule rather than exception:
Anger, variously:
Anger, all in a row:
Anger, anger everywhere:
Anger, that willful naiveté:
Anger, considered as a right:
Anger, epidemic:
Anger related to fear:
Anger as response:
Anger as animus:
Anger, synchronic and diachronic:
Anger less violent than pleasure:
Anger, erasing its tracks:
Anger theorized, v. 1:
Anger theorized, v. 2:
Anger theorized, v. 3:
Anger, easily mistaken:
Anger as misattributed and misplaced frustration:
Anger, anaesthetic:
Anger variables:

Twenty Love Songs and a Measure of Disdain
Toxic Waste Love Song
Criminal Tendencies Love Song
Carcinogens Love Song
Alternatives to Rage: Candidate One: Posturing
Corporate Greed and Irresponsibility Love Song
Your Lyin’ Eyes Love Song
Alternatives to Rage: Candidate Two: The Gisaro Ceremony
Apocalyptic Endings Love Song
Pathogens Love Song
Invasive Species Love Song
Alternatives to Rage: Candidate Three: Sa-Salan
Collision Course Love Song
Mass Starvation Love Song
Blood Sport Love Song
Alternatives to Rage: Candidate Four: Quiet Biting Attack
Numberless Casulaties Love Song
Devastating Journeys Love Song
Celebrity Murderers Love Song
Distance-Decay Function
Cyborg Love Song
Tables and Charts

Abscessive
I saved myself for this?
I worked hard and saved up for this?
I worked a second job all those years for this?
I quit smoking and drinking for this?
I risked my neck in those godforsaken jungles for this?
I risked my neck in that godforsaken desert for this?
I risked my neck in those godforsaken mountains for this?
I listened and took notes, for this?
I put myself through school for this?
All those committee meetings, for this?
I saved up all my sick days for this?
I stood in line all that time for this?
I worked out five days a week for this?
I paid the house note on time, month after month, for this?
I solicited all those donations for all those worthy causes, for this?
Every day I flossed, no exceptions, and for this?
I put three kids through school for this?
I changed all those diapers for this?
I cleaned up after him for twenty years for this?
I came back with half a leg for this?

God’s Bounty
God’s Bounty, as Stalking and Shooting from Cover
God’s Bounty, as Normalization of the Pistol
God’s Bounty, as Abundance and Ready Availability…
God’s Bounty, as Unintended Consequences
God’s Bounty, Qualified by Sundry Measures
God’s Bounty, as Perpetual War
God’s Bounty, as Data Sets on Firearms Use
God’s Bounty, as a Secure Border
God’s Bounty, as the Image of Desire…

Erinyeneutics
Fire, Venom
Wounds, Recklessness
Horse, Girl
Crop, Harvest
Shriek, Shiver
Fruit, Blood
As Best, Until
His Half, Your Half
Ever, When
Flood, Wave
Hers, Yours
Except, No Matter
Suspend, Rebut
Oaths, Inscription
Into, Against
Out Of, Away From
Into, Onto
Oracles, Dreams
Ships, Horses
Plea, Claim
Earthen, Olympian
True, Bent
And, And
Spirit, Dog
Banishment, Return
Demagogues, Sycophants
Risk, Grief
Lashes, Luxury
Everything, Nothing
Fog, Hunger
Blood, Grapes
Figures, Phrases

Lost Wax
Why can’t anger occasion the calculated…?
Must anger be expressed immediately?
Does it have to look like anger to be anger?
Are victims of the actions of the angry…?
Have I chosen anger or been chosen by it?
Who’s entitled to host anger, and entitled by what?
We learned our distance from the sun…?
In what history is anger erased by…?
What is it to be overcome with anger?

Apparatus
Attributions
Acknowledgments
Declaration
Disclaimer
Works Cited

Editorial Reviews

01/18/2016
The latest from the prolific Hix (I’m Here to Dream in Your Language) is nothing if not unified: eight parts, each with many short segments in prose and verse, examine the word and the idea of anger, from the wrath of Achilles in the Iliad to America’s current war on terror, domestic violence reports, psychological jargon, and—especially—gun violence. Hix’s talent for meter shines in many sonnets and curtailed sonnets, which take in measured sullenness, self-accusation, and full-throated outrage: “how angry/ I am at those angrier than me.” One part of the book compiles quotations about rage, righteous and otherwise, many of them translated from classical Greek. Other parts (penned by Hix himself) favor harsh irony: “If you’re going to be angry,/ be white, not black or brown.” Readers familiar with recent protest movements will notice several pieces titled “About the Author,” all of which register discontent with Wyoming and its university, where Hix teaches—its “mascot is the cowboy,” and its “business school has adopted as its official creed ‘The Code of the West,’ a bullet-point homage to cowboy movies, in a state vast portions of which are American Indian reservations.” Hix’s book-length project joins other recent volumes in its corrosive anguish about a society both unequal and heavily armed. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly