Nota

Nota is a tour de force of lyric personality. Corless-Smith here makes a compendium: layers of reference, layers of history, layers of minutes over minutes, text over text over text. The character of Sir Thomas Swan, a constant and conscientious observer, stands in for the Self in crisis, with moments of epiphany, clarity, pleasure, disgust, self-disgust, and inquiry; a Self whose scope is hugely inclusive and which admits to a history beyond the moment of simple consumption. The setting is an England in its Golden Age, a nostalgic construction to be paraded through. Nota is part travelogue and part philosophical examination, and was arrived at when the author sat down one afternoon to type up a year's worth of notes.