Michael Change's "Synthetic Jungle" is a chaotic, genre-defying poetry collection. It's like Dril got an MFA and started writing poetry; paradoxically irony-poisoned and earnest. Many of the poems use unique typesetting, with creative punctuation, line breaks and formats. Unfortunately, since my ARC from Netgalley was an e-book, some of the formattings became messed up. But I fully believe that it looked beautiful on the printed page.

"Synthetic Jungle" explores queer love, loneliness, politics, and racial identity. The poems are playful and irreverent.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc! It's not a bad book at all but I worry that perhaps it has too many niche references to pop culture that only people who inhabit certain parts of the internet will be able to understand them?

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc! I have the feeling this book will be divisive. It’s not a bad book by any means, but there is certainly a defined target audience. Synthetic Jungle will most likely resonate best for those who identify as Very Online™️, especially in the Twittersphere to best understand the niche pop culture references, and appreciate the internet shorthand style of writing. Despite the shorthand, there is great vocabulary used throughout without feeling pretentious.

The long form pieces that are included are definitely important but feel disjointed to this work; they seem better suited for a separate piece by the author.

Lastly, I have never read a poetry book with so many references to c*m, so so be prepared for that. This is not a book for prudes / the faint of heart.

WEDNESDAYS WITH DENISE: March 15, 2023

I’ve never read anything quite like the poems in Michael Chang’s Synthetic Jungle which is published today by Curbstone books. I’ve never read anything quite like their poems and that is a good thing indeed. Chang is making space for high art (Heidegger)and low art (Shawn Mendes) and poets (CA Conrad and Wayne Koestenbaum) and by the time I finished this book I was dizzy with excitement. Reading Synthetic Jungle is like riding a roller coaster of associations, my equilibrium off in the best possible way. Congratulations, Michael!



You can check out their poem “Zum Zum” here:



https://www.barzakhmag.net/winter-2022-poetry-1/2022/1/15/michael-chang-5aam8-t8bw4

Michael Chang’s Synthetic Jungle reflects a masterful reinvention of contemporary poetry. Chang employs alterations to the “traditional” format and language of the poem in an entirely unique display. The brevity and wit of Chang’s use of slang show that Chang trusts the reader to understand not only the surface meaning but the undercurrent of each poem as well. One line stingers like ‘we’re extremely eloquent therefore extremely dangerous’ (from “不适合 NOT SUITABLE”) demonstrate Chang’s skill with economy of words, whereas longer phrases like ‘But context is only helpful some of the time, b/c you never / tell me anything, you have a whole life w/o me & you’re impossible to figure out / Jealousy isn’t futile; jealousy is an engine’ (from “UPON HEARING SYLVESTER FOR THE FIRST TIME”) show Chang’s masterful understanding of the human condition. The impeccable word choice of this collection is indicative of Chang’s power to use words to relay emotion with such high specificity. Chang blends humor and raw emotion into the internal monologuing about love and sex. Chang also takes a serious, heartfelt, and true stance on social injustices and accountability.

I read these poems out of order because, to me, that's what it seemed to call for. An organized chaos of thoughts and emotions, this collection feels deeply personal. It read to me like the awkward pause before a kiss, sensual and emotionally charged. Honest and authentic.

Synthetic Jungle is an upcoming poetry collection by Michael Chang, which explores subjects of sexuality, longing, culture, politics, identity, and queerness, as well as the author’s Chinese heritage.

My first impression of this collection is that the poems feel casual and playful, but also intentional. What first might come across as hurried or flippant is an essential part of the charm, exploring the boundaries of form and flow. These instances of unusual formatting - shorthand, abbreviations, acronyms, and references to brands, celebrities, and politicians add to the “home-brewed” feel of the collection. I imagine that folks who don't usually read poetry would find this collection incredibly refreshing, funny, and readable.

This is poetry that leans into the contradictory nature of culture, language, and existence in general - it caresses with one hand and pinches with another. This is poetry for a generation that oscillates between trauma and pleasure - between witnessing and erasure. Blending pop culture with personal anecdotes, Chang is our confidant, but also our puckish critic.

“the problem with pretending u have no feelings? - it catches up to you”

Towards the end, there is a jarring, powerful shift in tone as the author dissects the American court system and shows its gutlessness.

“We’re extremely eloquent therefore extremely dangerous”

Indeed. I always appreciate how poets are able to succinctly skewer complex and vast concepts and institutions so neatly. It makes solutions to collective problems feel so approachable, and yet reminds us that these systems are designed to be isolating and soulless. In the context of these contradictions and their undulating social narratives, we craft and destroy identity over and over again - and Chang is a master of pinpointing these contradictions in our personal and collective spaces.

If you enjoy modern and experimental poetry, check out Synthetic Jungle when it's released on 3/15/23. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

Synthetic Jungle breaks poetic boundaries with meter, flow, and structure. The question is, how far is too far? In the vein of Tommy Pico, Chang boasts text/slang style of speak throughout his poetry creating a casual and unfiltered energy. Readers in the millennial-gen z generations will find the flow easy yet biting. Certain poems try to break barriers but ultimately come up as hard to parse.

Chang writes about love, sex, connection and uses masterful metaphor and prose to reel readers in. I did enjoy my time reading while not entirely enjoying the collection as a whole. I really love the bi-lingual approach in many of the poems. It adds a beautiful depth of personality to the collection.

My favorite poems are: "Best Buddies, 1990", "Mentaiko", and "Accidental Anarchist."

I first requested to read Michael Chang’s ‘Synthetic Jungle’ because I was struck by its cover. The image is jarring; while so many book covers nowadays have succumbed to the corporate clip-art trend, Chang’s collection sticks out as something stirring and entirely different. This impression turned out to be true for its contents, too.
As someone who frequently reads university-level poetry and assesses it for publication, I found this collection familiar; unfortunately, however, the pieces contained within do not align with what I usually elect to publish. I found the stylistic choice of ‘text-speak’ to be very off-putting, and, I must say, it severely impeded my enjoyment of each piece, although I concede that this may be a case of personal preference. Often, the poems seemed to be less like poetry and more like a game of word association; while I understand that this often allows and encourages the reader to derive their own meaning, it felt difficult this time around - largely because, to derive one’s own meaning from a poem, I believe it necessary for there to be one to the poet to begin with. Personally, I don’t believe that name-dropping the entire Governor’s Ball guest-list, alongside a heft of wholly unnecessary punctuation marks, is conducive to enlightenment.

There were a number of different typographical styles put to use throughout the collection. While these were certainly interesting experiments, they were rather randomly scattered, and did not often serve the poem any better for being there. Although most of the poems were not to my taste, there were lines whose rawness stopped me in my tracks, too; “i do most of my winning on my back”, for example, and “loving me is good work if you can get it”. For all my gripes, I do believe that Chang is a talented writer, and I would be interested in reading works of his that examine different themes than those included in this collection.

I think much of the point of this collection is to be jarring - to create a dissonance between words as we know them and the meaning Chang creates in his combinations of them - but I found it difficult to find any meaning throughout this collection, and a lot of that is due to the text-speak. Again, though, this might be the point; reading this collection did indeed feel like hacking through a synthetic jungle, but unfortunately that is not an experience I can claim to have enjoyed.

Sadly, I did not get on with this collection at all. To begin with, I struggled with the form the writing took. I have never been a fan of text-style abbreviations and spellings in literature, and I found that it was a persistent annoyance as I read. If I opened this book in a book shop, I would put it back on the shelf. I would have picked it up for it’s stunning cover work though! I do love how the artwork reflects the tone of the collection’s content.

This poetry was incredibly dense and abstract. I really understood almost none of it. Occasionally, there were more prosaic moments, such as ‘U.F.O & Dolphin, 1982’, which was much more stylistically approachable and I was able to understand and be educated by it. The rest, however, felt overly abstracted, an almost Finnegan’s Wake-esque morphing of true meaning until it is almost impenetrable for the reader. I needed hours to study each individual poem, but even then I’m not certain it would have happened for me.

“The notion of “poetic language” is bogus & elitist - everything is poetry”. This felt almost like a paradox. As if Chang was doing both exactly this, “poetic language”, whilst resisting it as an idea.

I do think the description is a real reflection of the collection. “Effortlessly bashes convention while simultaneously rebuilding the language we use to communicate our fears and joys” certainly describes and makes sense of the language and approach that so bothered me. However, the description failed to warn me of a few crucial things.
I am not the target audience, and this collection landed in a strange place for me. I am a white female in a heterosexual relationship. It seems that Michael Chang is none of these things, and is writing for an audience that can be emotionally connected to his anger, humor and criticism. I couldn’t step in. I was always on the outside of his world, and I don’t believe that is the intention.
Personally, the content was more sexual than expected, and this is something I couldn’t tell from the outset. The description mentioned that the collection grapples with sexuality, but the graphic and persistent nature of sexual imagery was not forewarned.

I do want to take a moment to acknowledge that I don’t underestimate the impact of reading a poetry collection on a phone. It feels almost sacrilegious, and I know it will have impacted the experience greatly.

I tried very hard to enjoy this, but I ended up with a list of things I didn’t like that I was trying - and failing - to overlook. Too many of its lines were cliche, while too many others were very far-reaching metaphors, awkward references, or lines that seem to think they’re cleverer than they are. Many of the poems are about poetry, which always reads kind of weak to me. Certainly not for me.

"Synthetic Jungle" is the newest collection of poetry by author Michael Chang. In this release, a series of poetry and prose is showcased, with both styles written similarly to a series of texts and messages between the narrator and their closest confidante. Furthermore, readers are granted the great privilege of entering the world of Chang’s intrusive thoughts.

The collection begins with the two pieces "Charm Against Too Many Apples" and "Caducity," each an ode to the confusion that lies in being a young adult overwhelmed with unrealistic expectations of life. Furthermore, it is these expectations, such as "erotic potential" disguised as a "dream of love," that drive them to commit and act on thoughts that are ignorantly "governed by wishes or propelled by aspiration."

As the book goes on, oxymoronic rhetoric is used in order to reveal the contradiction that lies in people's lines of reasoning. Ideas of condemning what is wrong while still participating in similar behaviors create an honest and relatable tone throughout the pieces.

Throughout the selections, Chang heavily relies on metaphors and references to love and relationships. Chang discusses the impossibility of finding "perfect love" by referring back to a coital encounter where it felt like all they ever did was make "efforts to nudge [their partner] towards humanity," but to no avail. Moreover, there is this unignorable seesaw dynamic demonstrated between Chang and all of their past lovers. It also brings about a dialogue on the value of self-regard as opposed to selflessness.

Chang also harps on the plague of settling for less, which most young people unfortunately succumb to. They mention and make references to this common theme of "[accepting] whatever comes, so long as it is to [their] benefit." They also relate this motto for life to music and poetry, as they share the common principles of "playing with language" and "structure" to create an impulse. Everything people do leaves a strange presence in someone else’s life, but it is up to the perpetrators of this presence to decide whether or not it will be a graphic or a harmonious one.

The biggest fault in the collection is the incessant references to pop culture that are likely to be misunderstood by older, less spry audiences. Also, the way in which Chang communicates their feelings, while never predictable or bland, begins to wear itself out about halfway through the book. There is no rising action, climax, resolution, or connection in sight between any of the pieces, and, after a while, it becomes quite disorienting. Nevertheless, "Synthetic Jungle" embodies the antithesis of convention and formula, beautifully narrating the highs and lows of existence in a way unlike any other. This collection is a definite sign of the times and embodies the culture of accepting contradiction that those who facing the wrath of modernity are sure to relate to.

This is the first Michael Chang poetry I've experienced and there were so many things to love. His unexpected use of internal rhyme, clever use of language, punctuation and line breaks, and his emphasis on how language has evolved was particularly interesting to me. I love it when a poet writes about the writing process. I'm not a big fan of list-style poetry so those selections were disappointing for me, but the rest of this collection was amazing. Looking forward to reading more from Chang in the future!

This collection has such an interesting structure that kept my mind working. I also enjoyed its content.

Not for me at all. While I do enjoy "contemporary" and "experimental" works, I was just simply not a fan of this. Some of the stylistic choices (e.g. using "u" instead of "you) came off as more of an attempt to write a rant within the confines of a twitter’s word count rather than actual poetry which came off as a bit unserious. Chang seems to be conscious of this "half-assed" poetry, so I guess the point of the work was to come off this way.

As always, I'm sure it's for someone, just not me.

I can admit where I lack range: I'm not a Poetry Girly™, I probably only understood 20% of the references during this first pass, and I have no idea if I read this collection ~correctly~, but I had a wildly fun time along the way. Synthetic Jungle was definitely a palate cleanser compared to what I was reading before, and I'm looking up a few of Michael Chang's other works ASAP.

Also, this cover art is stunning. Truly stunning.

Poetry collections are always a hit or miss. I started reading this, but ending up dropping it 25% through. I wasn't my cup of tea, and I wasn't intrigued enough to continue on. It doesn't feel right to rate a poetry collection that I ended up dropping, because I'll never know if the 75% I didn't read were good or not. I gave it 3 stars on here, solely to not change the rating too much in neither a negative or positive way.

📚 #NetGalley ARC review📚

Title: Synthetic Jungle
Author: Michael Chang
Release date: 15/03/23

Thanks to NetGalley and Northwestern University Press for the chance to read this poetry ARC ahead of its release later this year.

So...I tried, I really did. I even slept on it then reread it the next day to see if I could find something within that I could appreciate before reviewing, but I just couldn't. I actually considered not writing a review at all, or giving a higher rating than I have done, to avoid awkwardness, but I'm trying to be more honest with myself with my gradings from 2023 on. If Goodreads says 1 star means "I did not like it" then unfortunately that's the star I have to pick in this case.

Not all poetry is going to hit the spot for all readers, and I'm afraid this was a miss for me. I'm keen to be challenged within my reading, to get out of my comfort zone, and I fully accept that not everything written is done so with my demographic in mind. I wouldn't expect it to be. I like to learn and had hoped this would maybe be the case here, but sadly, I just didn't 'get' it. At all. Maybe I'm too old (42), or perhaps I'm just not a modern poetry kinda girl...who can say?

The language and 18+ content didn't bother me (I'm a gamer who spends most of her time on the internet, I've heard it all before), it was more the fact that nothing I read really made me feel anything. Not curiosity, not shock, not repulsion, not my perspective being broadened, just...indifference? Perhaps if it hadn't been predominantly written in 'txt spk' I'd have engaged with it differently, but, well, I just really love full words too much. Always have, always will (I told you I might be too old!).

I'm very clearly not the target audience, so maybe I shouldn't have requested the review copy. But I'm new to the world of poetry and didn't know what it'd be like till I read it - the only way to find out was to dive in. I don't doubt that there's value there for the right readers though, and it's clear that others really love it, so it's probably more a case of a reader/poet mismatch. You can't win them all!

Sorry, but in my heart of hearts I can only give it 1/5 stars.

There was definitely a message here, but I'm not entirely sure I always got it. I enjoyed the different formats of prose. I do think some of the formatting was messed up on a kindle view and might have had more impact in a hard copy of this book. It kept my interest and I read it in one sitting which is always a great thing! I would like to read it again in a hard copy when it is released.

I felt this work was quite edgy and fresh compared to some of the other poetry I've been reading lately. I can imagine hearing it read spoken word style in a cool, dimly lit dive bar with some acoustic track to keep in time with the cadence of the piece. The author came out with some great one-liners that made me laugh, and others that made me contemplate. There's references to race, culture, sexuality, classism and explore experiences of the human condition in the modern day. Using different forms and formats of presentation, there was always something to keep your interest turning to the next page.

I thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this work via the eARC for free. I would recommend this to other readers and if I saw a copy I would be tempted to buy it to reread.