Bite Harder, Jee Leong Koh

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At the close of his well-written study, The Death of the Critic, Ronan McDonald repeats a quote from the playwright Brendan Behan and the gist of this is that literary critics are eunuchs in the harem. McDonald regrets this point-of-view and the decline of criticism into a dark place, almost a grave, where it is seen as uncreative. Bite Harder Open Letters and Close Readings by Koh Jee Leong could almost be a reply to McDonald's book. It is not a book written by a eunuch: it is sexy, savvy, incisive, cultured, and ultimately creative. 


Ethos Books have taken a leap into the dark with this book and their bold jump is a challenge to dreary criticism-- to the conservative tongue-in-cheek writing in Singapore that tows the governmental line and to the dull, polyglottal theories of reading that avoid authorship and close, textual reading. The twenty essays are collected into four sections, each building into a unity, and they fold around a central interview with the author about literature and identity. The Open Letters (in the second section) exemplify the humanity of this author and chew away at a Singapore that avoids equality. "It Stops the Heart" is a wonderful defence of the right to read freely. Literature is life and life is literature and criticism upholds moral values and moral values fail where an individual or nation slips away from fair judgement. 


This is a deeply personal book, but it is not an egotistical book and this is where its strength lies. Though it grows out of an individual, it speaks for many and its force gathers from an Eastern awareness: the man/woman who would put the State in order must first put himself/herself in order. And for that to be done, the heart must be put in order. A reader must bite harder into flesh and spirit if reality is to be understood, to a point of Nietzchean wounding: criticism is not a soft act.


To bite harder could be interpreted as wanting to wound, but this is not at all what Koh's criticism is about-- it is about truth-telling and Koh is a knowledgeable, thoughtful, generous critic of poetry. He takes in Singaporean and USA and UK poetry with equal flair. His admiring essays on Cyril Wong and Justin Chin are fascinating in their range and depth. As are his balanced essays on Mann and Gregory Woods. 


This book restores the word "creative" to criticism and also another one-- purposeful. It offers much to Queer Studies and to anyone who still believes that poetry is a vital, humanising influence in the world.

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