about kaeptnbeer
the first life of Swiss poet Pascal Beer ended at the age of 33, when he decided to give away all of his posessions and walked direction west without money for as long as it took him to figure out one thing or another. When he returned from Costa Rica after a year of adventures, he sat down at the typewriter and started his second life. The collections of poems was later to become his first book of narrative poetry entitled “knives in a flower vase, waiting for the lover to return” (2013).
Within the next ten years, he founded his own publishing house Muskat Media Press (2013) specialized in dirty realism, transgressive fiction and experimental prose, published a novel called “journey to the end of the world” (2017) and a second tome of narrative poetry, “the angriest man in town” (2020).
His new poetry collection is entitled “WE ATOMKINDER” deals with a generation that spent its childhood in the shadow of the cold war and a potential nuclear holocaust. A topic now more relevant than ever. The book has been published by the author’s publishing house Muskat Media Press in February 2024. This is the first book of hopefully many to come being published in English and German.
Pascal Beer lives in Aarau, Switzerland, when he is not sailing the seven seas, living this one big adventure called living.
During a recent North American tour Pascal Beer took part in the open mic at the Eagle (Church Street, Toronto) as part of the monthly Dirty Queer Poetry series founded by Patricia Wilson and hosted by David Bateman. The series welcomes poetry of all kinds, and Dirty Queer poetry, when it is frequently presented, is a welcome feature of the evening. At our recent Christmas edition a number of poet's presented their dirty queer revisions of popular Christmas poems such as The 12 Days of Christmas & The Night Before Christmas.
The premise behind our idea of dirty queer poetry is to re-appropriate negative, homophobic connotations surrounding conservative notions regarding perspectives on sexuality and queerness, thereby giving LGBTQ2S+ people the opportunity to present and celebrate their diverse sexualities in a supportive queer positive space.
Pascal Beer's work, as you will see in the following review, embodies a kind of -
"queer heteronormativity as it simultaneously uplifts and diminishes the male gaze, always acknowledging the possibility of a woman's power over her potential detractors, enchanted observers, and chosen lovers."
The opening poem (A True Friend) illustrates the speakers need to stay both distant and close within a conflicted but valued childhood friendship, while the final poem (Sarah) echoes the discomfort of a specific situation with a self-proclaimed marriage partner - quickly becoming a somewhat comic, yet violently overpowering encounter that places the female presence within a deceptively dominant pose.
This focus upon women in a world of deification & objectification - and at one point, a connection to the iconic figure of Barbie – appears at various points throughout WE ATOMKINDER and creates a form of queer heteronormativity as it simultaneously uplifts and diminishes the male gaze, always acknowledging the possibility of a woman's power over her potential detractors, enchanted observers, and chosen lovers.
An especially evocative piece (A VIEW OF SCHÖNENWERD) speaks of beauty and potential doom within an everyday setting where the poet's skill for creating a direct and engaging narrative epitomizes the general themes of the overall collection. This thematic strain surfaces as both warning and delight in a profoundly fractured world of nuclear power plants, beautiful women, and the peace and the smiles that help us move through frequent views of chaotic natural and unnatural landscapes.
A VIEW OF SCHÖNENWERD
realizing
everything that
once was free
now comes at a price.
toys
food
tv
a roof over your head
love.
now I take advantage of these last
few things that cost me nothing
like the sundown
outside my window
with a view of the
nuclear power plant.
seeing all of these
beautiful girls walking past
my window,
I feel adrift and at
peace, knowing that
their smiles
are not meant
for me.
Even the sudden line break between - I feel adrift and at
peace...
speaks of the overall collections narrative power and engaging consistency, as it both startles and enlightens, separating a sense of disconnection and formlessness through the clear focus that Pascal Beer maintains throughout WE ATOMKINDER. He both joins & separates the positive and the negative images and connotations of a single thought, showing that a fragile yet comforting sense of peace may come with the potentially explosive nuclear baggage of a world always on the edge of disaster.
www.muskatmedia.ch
