Featuring a sound chip playing a 1998 rave in Leceister, this multimedia homage to UK rave culture is a poetry book with a twist.
British-Argentine poet Miguel Cullen has released In Dreams of Diminished Responsibility, his fourth collection of poetry. The book continues Cullen’s distinctive approach to blending written word with multimedia, taking readers on a journey through a fragmented, surreal landscape of mental health, mythology, and modern-day culture.
In this collection, Cullen delves into his own schizoaffective diagnosis, using his personal experience with mental health to guide readers through a dreamlike sequence of poems. Themes of sex, drugs, and mythology feature prominently, with references to everything from George Orwell and Pope Urban I to Robert De Niro and the Circle Line. The collection reflects Cullen’s ability to weave together disparate elements, creating a world where historical, literary, and pop culture references collide.
As with his previous collection, Hologram, Cullen integrates multimedia into the book, enhancing the physical object with a sound chip embedded in the back cover. The chip plays samples from a 1998 jungle rave in Leicester, where a firework set off during the event led to widespread panic. This blending of sound with poetry adds a new dimension to the reading experience, drawing attention to Cullen’s ongoing efforts to challenge the traditional boundaries of the book.
Cullen’s style is characterised by an unorthodox blend of irony, surrealism, and sharp observation, with critics noting the “lawless energy” of his work, particularly its connection to rave culture. VICE described his poems as “full of the lawless energy of late nights and early mornings,” while Ambit praised the collection for its “psychedelic modernity” and the way it blends “myths in language, medium, and form.”
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n many ways, In Dreams of Diminished Responsibility builds on the themes Cullen explored in earlier collections, such as Wave Caps and Paranoid Narcissism!, while pushing the boundaries of what poetry can achieve. It stands as a testament to Cullen’s belief in the power of poetry to experiment with form, language, and media to create an immersive experience for the reader.
The collection is set to make an impact among fans of contemporary poetry and anyone interested in the intersection of language, art, and technology.
Published by Odilo Press and available from Brown Books from 21 March.
Find Miguel Cullen on Instagram.
