"The work of Mez net_wurker or Mary Anne Breeze, also displays a kind of syllable and letter parataxis. Developed on the Web, in discussion groups via e-mail, and using Flash animation to insert syllables into words, between words, moving in and out of words, Mez's mezangelle poetic language translates well onto paper. Mez's parenthetic splitting of words, changes the way you first read the word when you rescan it and make a new combination of syllables within the one word. It's a parataxis of letters and syllables within words.
In this poem by Mez, distributed via email discussion lists (WebArtery), one gets a feeling of computer HTML code, which seems to characterize Mez's style, but it is the breaking up of words with parentheses into letters and syllables that makes for interesting recombinations. It is a poem about a woman, the use of the deliberately gendered expression tells us that. Whether it is the author's head or the subject's head that is full we don't know, but maybe both. The next line is a mix of ritualistic and red lipstick, there is a conflict here and it is a women's conflict. The language is sourced in youth and vitriol, ego-blasting, e-blasting via the web, gob-blasting, mouthing discontents. There is grandstanding and attention seeking, and strutting of ego or egos. The battle continues, involving others, debate is heated. c.rowd[y] of warring codes, angels become demons, the man-eating shark becomes the man, eating shark. The headhuntress is named and ascends the throne, to be attacked, she cracks, and so does her support. The sanity of the subject is questioned, the damage done by remaining silent, the ritual of censorship/the rite of incensed worship is a brilliant mezangelle line. And are the black and white obscenities, words on a screen or on a page? The next line is also quite brilliant, the authoritarian nature of the command beginning with u. must is reinforced by the inclusion of [& dad voice]. This stanza speaks of one way compromise, of subjection to the authority, of restoring the status quo. The last stanza the action of interrogation/the act of interception, continues the argument in cyberspace, murder me through atoms, [www]walls, and the last line I read as moderator status, hiatus, versus you always.
Mez's parataxis of syllable and letter, within words themselves, sets up a poetic experience where the words clash within themselves, their internal workings in opposition, disrupting the way we read as language and forcing a closer examination of the text, creating new meanings with the text. Encountered on e-mail discussion lists, the text as such is difficult to read and requires the creation of a space to receive this text. Many listees reject the challenge, and label it spam without having engaged in its language or followed its development from post to post. But those who embrace it become active and enthusiastic practitioners."
-komninos zervos in "The new forms and devices of poetry in cyberspace." The North American Centre for Interdisciplinary Poetics.
