Soft Science (poetry collection)

Soft Science is a poetry collection published in 2019, written by poet and writer Franny Choi. It received positive reviews.

Soft Science
First edition cover
AuthorFranny Choi
GenrePoetry
PublisherAlice James Books
Publication date
2019
ISBN978-1-938584-99-2

Development

Many of the poems in Soft Science appear in Choi's 2017 chapbook Death by Sex Machine.[1] Choi began the chapbook without "[...] really [knowing] what it might turn into".[1] Choi has also said she drew inspiration for the collection from a series of poems she wrote about the character Kyoko from the 2015 science fiction film Ex Machina[2] though only one of the Kyoko poems appears in Soft Science.[1] Choi has referred to the Kyoko poems as "bay leaf" poems. Borrowed by Danez Smith, the term indicates the poems were necessary to "get things going" but not necessary for inclusion in the final version of the book.[1] Choi faced moments of "self-doubt" as she wrote the book.[3]

Themes

The collection deals with technology and language's relationship with technology, as well as themes of identity.[4] In Fields Magazine, Shannon Austin commented on the collection's treatment of language, writing that Choi "[...] plays with language, manipulating typical definitions, sentence structures, and grammatical rules in order to reject what we have come to think of as the norm".[5]

Reception

According to literary review aggregator Book Marks, the collection received mostly "Rave" reviews.[6] Writing for Lambda Literary, July Westhale praised Choi's language as "lyric and logical".[7]

gollark: So it had some positive effects, doesn't make it good on net.
gollark: Yes, which is bad.
gollark: So you both subscribe to... roughly egoism?
gollark: That's basically impossible, unless I try and draw on... human nature or something, which is baaaasically just a somewhat obfuscated ethical framework.
gollark: Well, I can't exactly justify an ethical framework to you which you don't agree with.

References
  1. Todd, Levi (28 May 2019). "A COMPLICATED, SHIFTING SUBJECTIVITY: TALKING WITH FRANNY CHOI". The Rumpus. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  2. Quong, Spencer (21 May 2019). "Queerness, Cyborgs, and Cephalopods: An Interview with Franny Choi". The Paris Review. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  3. "The Journey of SOFT SCIENCE — an Interview with Franny Choi". Palette Poetry. 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  4. Gibbel, Katherine (15 March 2019). "Interview with Franny Choi". Iowa Review. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  5. Austin, Shannon (24 April 2019). "in review: Soft Science". Fields Magazine. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  6. "Soft Science". Book Marks. Literary Hub. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  7. Westhale, July (15 April 2019). "'Soft Science' by Franny Choi". Lambda Literary Foundation. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
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