The Rossi Reader: Essential Writings: 1984 - 2018

By Mark Antony Rossi

A lifetime of provocative but humane writing in poetry, fiction, drama, criticism and screenplay is contained in this expansive ebook edition. The foreword by Hugh Cook is astounding and delves deep into what Rossi is uncovering in his incredible art.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Soma Publishing
• Release date: Oct 3, 2018

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Author

Essential Humanity:

Rossi’s American Hopes and Fears

Mark Anthony Rossi, an Italian-American writer born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1965, has gained critical acclaim and a notable following for his writings as a futurist, as well as his powerful, dynamic plays which explore the complexities of masculine relations and social behavior. His scientific research and writing, as well as his professional experience as a political advisor, and his service in the military mean his essays, which explore everything from the dangers of technology to better suicide prevention, offer a knowledgeable voice which does not hesitate to present hard truths. Throughout his writings across genres, we can see four clear thematic and philosophical focuses that continuously develop. The first is the balance of family-life, and the discovery of a new masculinity made possible by growing beyond his early years in Hoboken. Secondly, his writings offer thought provoking points about Capitalist exploitation of the deprivileged, in particular the illusion of choice which keeps so many blind in a broken system. These two themes grow out of an inherently humanist perspective leading to the third: Rossi’s tempered cynicism allows him to explore the artist’s role in society, and their responsibility to change it for the better through their work. Finally, we see his faith symbolically appear throughout his continuous investment in a view of pure humanity, rejecting the idea that we must be modified by technology. Rossi’s writings are not so much dismissals of technology, as they are celebrations of the humanity that fills our day to day life. In what follows I discuss Rossi’s work by genre, while showing how these issues are braided throughout this body of work, in both fiction and non-fiction. This collection offers the chance to see the ongoing conversations within Rossi’s work through the decades. These conversations expand in fresh directions and with new ideas as we engage his poetry, plays, essays, and short stories.

Poetry

Rossi’s poetry balances his sharp tongue with vivid imagery to bring us his life in Hoboken, offering us the world through the eyes of a man who experiences life with intensity. His casual style accesses topics that many readers can relate to, but that are often missed by writers who search for a transcendental style of poetry which is removed from the beauty and pain within the day to day life around us. Rossi brings us touching images of a sensitive child’s secret world, an acerbic argument for becoming a polyglot, and the tangible struggles of a young man with one foot forced into fighting position at home in New Jersey, while the other steps into the wider world. In these words we see the costs of every choice made with Rossi’s expressive morality and poetic faith. His poetry takes us around the world, documenting the beauty of the people, and the unexpected gems he found in his travels. His poetry also seems to give him room to reflect, widening his view of his home, and showing us that our home in the United States is more complex than many recognize.

Rossi’s poetry does not shy away from the violence of the world, using brevity at its best to bring us to the darker side of familial silence in many of his poems. in Question the Quiet Rossi refuses typical form, bringing us a new perspective through his development of short lines with high emotional impact. Sometimes he focuses the image he is creating with fresh, uninhibited eyes; sometimes he offers horrifying images implied by the textual silence he uses to jumpstart our imaginations, "Question the quiet. / Like kids left alone in the playroom. That silence is not golden. It is nightmarish."

His love for the city uniquely inverts the Romantic attachment to nature, taking us through alleys and hungry corners in tight well written stanzas. He redefines biblical stories to change our expectation, in poems such as Wrath of Rain, which reject rain as nothing more than an inconvenience, rather than a divine blessing. His definitive poem Soma holds up Huxley’s work, showing us its long-term influence on Mr. Rossi, and the ideas that would launch him down a career of careful cynicism and technological distrust, holding humanity up, in all his poetry, as the ultimate ideal: "And a library is a church where angels are afraid"

Rossi’s poetry digs into dictatorships, childhood, and his unique, powerful perspective, always reminding us that our humanity is what we can truly own.

Short Fiction

Many of Rossi’s greatest pieces of short creative prose touch upon the topic of fatherhood. With Rossi’s care for his children as a source of passion, and sometimes revealing pain in the world he writes about. The perspective of fatherhood expands to stories about the tragedy of environmental inequality in Black Mayonnaise, in which children with less money lose access to his hometown’s river. Bloodless Betty offers an elegant rant, painting a picture of a southern school system slowly dying, offering less and less to its children each year. Just as the teachers age without moving, the school is stagnant too. At the end of the story, Rossi’s unexpected parental vulnerability rises to the challenge of ending apathy towards a failing school system. In Loyalty Left Me Lonely and Brando’s Bench of Blues we see an evolution of the narrator: he grows into a man with a voice that can capture the words and stories of multiple generations and work through all that was left unfelt, knowing his words may bring the next generation the healing it needs to speak for itself. Moving beyond his first understanding and writings about loyalty, the narrator returns to his family with a new perspective on the past which placed him at that crossroad in Hoboken. The strengths of Rossi’s writing shine through in his ability to weave critiques into short, sharp stories that could be part of anyone’s day, with an added depth provided by Rossi’s vision. He further builds on his artful stories of urban fear by exploring the machines of guilt that run our lives. These build up to contacts with the ineffable in day to day life. The narrator meets an angelic nurse who saves his son, only to disappear back into the very bureaucracy that has the characters trapped. Here Rossi shows us the duality within any system: the narrator’s trademark cynicism is challenged by a miraculous act from a stranger. This episode holds on to the two strands of the city like the weaving of the Fates: the random kindness of strangers is balanced by the fear and guilt crushing the caryatid in Rossi’s other stories.

These stories explore the traumas of his family’s past with a voice full of empathy, and a knowledge of the responsibilities he has taken on as a father who hopes to move beyond the pain he was left with by his own family. The narrator’s words have an electric power, bravely opening and exploring a world ignored by masculinity for far too long, and consciously carrying healing to his life and the lives of his loved ones. The city is thematically central, as both the dead-end home of the child, and an arena of the fighting youth, but also as the hearth of growth. The same streets nurture the beginnings of a sense of responsibility to build and become one with a community. These two worlds seems like day and night, until Rossi’s words capture the low light of evening in quiet humanity. These are the moments and the feelings that Rossi holds up for us to see in a voice which refuses panache in favor of a more varied tone, exploring the whole of the city that Rossi has spent his life caring for with his words and actions.

Perhaps one of the greatest pieces included here is a short reflection on the life of Gary in Gary Gonejob. Gary appears at first as a lens through which the narrator sees the community, but the tragedy of Gary’s death leads to reflection, and Gary’s final short note forces the narrator to review how he appeared to Gary. This heartbreaking story confronts questions that we ignore until they hit us head on, as Rossi helps us ask what we owe one another, and what it means to understand another’s life.

Rossi’s allegorical fiction, such as Johnny Bag O’Doughnuts, brings dark nightmares to life, showing us that the monsters we imagine around us might be what holds a community together after all. This story is a rich mixture, with tones similar to fairy tales by the Grimm brothers, overlaid by a harsh New York night. The mix of concrete, daily experiences with a vivid, fervent tone, offers tangible fear and well-presented perspectives.

The balance of this duality is most clearly shown in the excerpt from I Miss the Cold War. This story analyzes the repeating tragedies of a lost balance of power, leading to a military-industrial complex fighting in the sand against a soon-to-be Taliban martyr. The story reveals the narrator’s the ultimate wish for our humanity to be held up above both sides of the fight. Rossi’s narrator understands that sacrifice of life by any one man is a misguided hope to recover something lost long ago on Earth, such as the feeling of innocence, health, or the hope of feeling whole. Importantly, Rossi separates the damages done to our collective humanity by states from that done by corporations. In his work, big business furthers the divide between the rich and the poor, the privileged and the oppressed. The narrator recognizes the separate yet interlocking oppressions that occur, such as the inequalities of business which leave many hungry while others never worry about work, and the wars fought between states that trap individuals on both sides in unnecessary violence. However, our humanity survives despite these forces, shared among us through our art and genuine connections.

Plays

Off Broadway Rossi’s plays received recognition for their powerful dialogue and insightful portrayal of societal burdens. Rossi’s plays cleverly place a minimal number of characters in extended discussions arising out of well-developed situations. This produces short, gripping plays that explore complex ideas with the intensity of longer works in the genre. We see the strength of Rossi’s dialogue in Eye of a Needle, and Rossi’s strength in developing and exploring the lives of his characters in The Thief in The Night and Partisan Girl. I will use The Thief in the Night to show how economically Rossi shapes characters’ relations.

In Eye of a Needle Rossi’s live, fresh language and gritty yet beautiful imagery makes clean dialogue and creates a gripping entry into this world. This play holds a delicate balance, rejecting typical closed masculinity for an important moment