Coming to Jakarta: A Poem about Terror
Select Format
Select Condition 
Book Overview
A devastating revelation of violence, exploitation, and corrupt politics, Coming to Jakarta derives its title from the role played by the CIA, banks, and oil companies in the 1965 slaughter of more than half a million Indonesians. A former Canadian diplomat and now a scholar at the University of California, Peter Dale Scott has said that the poem "is triggered by what we know of the bloody Indonesian massacre... However it is not so much a narrative of exotic foreign murder as one person's account of what it is like to live in the 20th century, possessing enough access to information and power to feel guilty about global human oppression, but not enough to deal with it. The usual result is a kind of daily schizophrenia by which we desensitize ourselves to our own responses to what we read in the newspapers. The psychic self-alienation which ensues makes integrative poetry difficult but necessary." With a brilliant use of collage, placing the political against the personal--childhood acquaintances are among the darkly powerful figures--Scott works in the tradition of Pound's Cantos, but his substance is completely his own.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0811210952
ISBN13:9780811210959
Release Date:April 1989
Publisher:New Directions Publishing Corporation
Length:164 Pages
Weight:0.40 lbs.
Dimensions:0.4" x 5.4" x 8.0"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
The Poetry of Terror
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
Peter Dale Scott is a modern American hero. His forays into the dark world of deep politics and the functions of the Uber-State are extraordinary contributions to our understanding of how US hegemony has developed in the post war period, and particularly since the 1960s. The persuasive power of that writing is, apart from the argument, derived from meticulous research, the rechecking of sources and corroboration of factual claims by ample foot-noting (there were, for example, 117 pages of footnotes in The Road to 9/11). Coming to Jakarta is a poetic re-telling of Scott's personal, intellectual journey through the world of international political terror and complements his other body of work. It's a long poem, and much of it may prove inaccessible to readers unfamiliar with Scott's political writing or the historical subjects alluded to. That should not deter, but be accepted as an invitation to commune with one of the great political analysts of our time.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
