This set of six thematically linked poems revolve around appliances and obsessions about the body. From the outset, the Nelson seeks to unsettle the reader by taking a medieval, religious kind of image and placing it over a layer of what seems to be digital static, while a couple of soft audio tracks play: one a barely audible person speaking, and a throaty voice repeating “I will eat you.” As the reader explores this surface and clicks on links to go to the poems, she will be unsettled further by entering environments that respond to their presence in various ways. There is a learning curve for each poem as the reader figures out the interface enough to be able to read the texts, which increases the exposure to the environments Nelson has crafted for each short poem.
As you progress through the sequence, think about the use of the word “appliances” in the title, thinking about some of the lesser known aspects of its definition. Also, just read the title out loud.
