Gillian Sze Panicle

Annotation

' Succulent in its excellence, Sze s poetry insists that cultural difference is what can make a beautiful difference in our apprehension of the beautiful. George Elliott Clarke on Peeling Rambutan In Panicle, Gillian Sze makes her readers look and, more importantly, look again. It s a collection that challenges our notion of seeing as a passive or automatic activity by asking us to question the process of looking. The book s first section, Underway, deals with the moving image and includes both poetic responses to film theory and lyrical long poems while also reimagining fairy tales. The next section, Stagings, takes its inspiration from the still image and explores a wide range of periods, movements, and media. Sze s focus on the process of looking anticipates Guillemets, a creative translation of Roland Gigure s 1966 chapbook, Pouvoir du Noir, which contains a series of poems accompanied by his own paintings. Sze s approach