The Posthuman Dada Guide

"One of our most prodigiously talented and magical writers."--New York Times Book Review "Can't decide whether to cry or laugh? Laugh at absurdity, laugh at hardship, laugh at poverty, says Andrei Codrescu in his maddening, enlightening, self-contradictory, highly amusing new book... [Codrescu] has rolled into one slim guide a postmodern self-help manual, a history lesson, a love letter to dissident poets, a hard jab at communism and a veiled autobiography... The guide is, beneath it all, a mournful celebration of the achievements of pre-communist Romanian Jews, such as Tzara and modernist painter and architect (and Dadaist) Marcel Janco."--Carly Berwick, Los Angeles Times "Any reader looking for a quirky, polemical, provocative introduction to Dada might like to try Andrei Codrescu's Posthuman Dada Guide, in which the author's key terms are alphabetically listed and 'hermeneutically filleted'. His linguistic glee also means that this dictionary can easily be read cover to cover."--Peter Read, Times Literary Supplement "This Zagat-sized handbook, a Dadaist chop suey showcasing the astonishing intellectual range of English professor and NPR commentator Codrescu, is arranged alphabetically and topically, which permits one to dip in or to read it all. The occasionally outrageous encyclopedic juxtapositions of entries give a firsthand experience similar to the effect of Dada cutups and collages."--Publishers Weekly "A hard-edged, rapier-like volume, perfect for sliding into a back pocket of skinny hipster pants or stabbing into the complacent underbelly of bourgeois (or bourgeois-bohemian) society. It offers a headier-than-usual tour of the early-1900s avant-garde, sprinkled with sex appeal for the would-be MySpace-age revolutionary... As art theory, the Guide could even be preferable to a college seminar on modernism... [Codrescu] also places Dada on a broader historical stage than it usually receives, mingling it with world politics."--Eli Epstein-Deutsch, Village Voice "Even for professional provocateur Andrei Codrescu, he of the playful intelligence and sardonic wit, this new book is quite something. It's out there--a chronicle of an imagined chess game between V.I. Lenin and Tristan Tzara, the founder of Dada, set in the cafe culture of Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916, amid the ferment of bohemianism and revolution. It's a scholarly work, with extensive footnotes; it's a work of imagination; it's a guidebook to a strange new era. It's a call to remember humanity in a post-human time, and an incitement. To read it is to light a mental fuse."--Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune "A profoundly provocative look at dada... If you're vaguely familiar with Codrescu's NPR essays or other writings, than you already know that this is a book laced with wit and humor. He makes an erudite topic easy--and pleasurable--to follow."--Robert L. Pincus, San Diego Union Tribune "A dictionary, a history of art movements, a manifesto, and a joke book; [The Posthuman Dada Guide] traverses high and low, seeking answers to our most persistent confusions about art, culture, and identity... By the end, the reader has come to grips with Codrescu's stoic, but darkly hopeful, vision for a future that is no future at all."--D. Scot Miller, San Francisco Bay Guardian "Codrescu's analysis of the chess game is written with attitude--itself a Dada-like performance--balancing critique with reinvention, aiming to reveal Dada's place in 'posthuman' life. This guide is true to its title, fitting comfortably in a pocket, ready to be deployed at the slightest provocation."--Alan Lucey, Bookforum "Erudite, witty, often demented, Codrescu's book is an excellent introduction to the matter and spirit of dada."--Justin Clemens, The Australian "A delicious book... A fascinating

Andrei Codrescu is an award-winning writer and National Public Radio commentator. His latest books are "Jealous Witness: New Poems" and "New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writing from the City" (Algonquin). The author of many essay collections, including "The Disappearance of the Outside", he is the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University.

*Frontmatter, pg. i*Part I, pg. 1*Notes, pg. 221