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Essays, Manifestos, Statements, Speeches, Maxims, Epistles, Diaristic Jottings, Narratives, Natural histories, Poems, Plays, Performances, Ramblings, Revelations, and all such ephemera as may appear necessary to bring society into a slight tremolo of confusion and fright at least.

Contradicta: Aphorisms

Nick Piombino

Illustrations by Toni Simon

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Inspired by the notion of the dialectic in the work of philosophers such as Hegel and Bachelard, Nick Piombino created his idea of paired aphorisms he calls contradicta, recasting the classic form of the great aphorists such as La Rochefoucauld, Blake, and Emerson in a contemporary context.

Instead of presenting a single point of view, the pairs reflect on and resonate with each other, and sometimes even contradict one another. Piombino has said that the contradicta replicate some aspects of psychoanalysis in which two individual viewpoints are juxtaposed, working together to achieve understanding, and insight. Piombino's poetic, wise and witty aphorisms are well complemented by the humor, warmth, and lyricism of Toni Simon's collages, which offer a telling slant on the contradicta, as well their own vivid visual dimension.

Author of several books, including Poems, Theoretical Objects (also published by Green Integer) and The Boundary of Blur, Nick Piombino lives, with artist Toni Simon, in Brooklyn, New York.

Book Review(s)

ST. MARK'S POETRY PROJECT, NYC, 2011

by Nick Piombino

Nick Piombino reads from his book Contradicta: Aphorisms at the St. Mark's Poetry Project, NYC 2011. Drawings and video by Toni Simon.

Contradicta: Aphorisms from Toni Simon on Vimeo.

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