Jordan Abel's chapbook, Scientia, is reviewed in Broken Pencil #61

Alma Talbot was good enough to review Jordan Abel's chapbook, Scientia (2013) in Broken Pencil #61. Thanks, Alma! Although why is the reviewer obsessed with calling such a small publication a 'zine? As though there is no other lens through which to consider small publishing. This is the second review of Abel's chapbook, after our pal Ryan Pratt discussed such, here. Copies of Scientia are still available, here.

Jordan Abel's Scientia had me thinking for a long time before I actually sat down to write this review. The eight poems and their corresponding images work together in dealing with negative space and absent language. This zine seemed to rely more on what was missing than what was given. For example, each of the images is the white block figure of an insect--the insect for whih the corresponding poem is titled--against the scattered text of the poem. "The author", who appears sporadically within the poetry, is hidden amongst the scientific language of the words. The mind-tangling author/subject/poem relationship is almost like a code, and had me succumbing to the powers of Google as I hit a brick wall at names like, "Pterophylla atlanta". This is one of the more complex zines I've read recently, with a lot to mull over in the language of this zine.