The Plexiglass Container

The collection itself is a symbol for the collection's function, in that the 22 chapbooks that comprise Carson's latest work of poetry are literally 'floating' within a plexiglass container. This container effectively metonymizes the thematic vein that runs through the collection, this vein being the proliferation of meaning when the specificity of meaning is left suspended, since the fragments of Float quite literally exist in a state of suspension: they are individual and remain severed from one specific context, yet remain connected by virtue of their all being included within the container itself. As such, we might regard Float itself as a symbol for the task it tries to accomplish.

The Chapbook

The chapbook itself, like the plexiglass container that contains it, is a symbol for the function of Carson's latest volume, which attempts to demonstrate how a proliferation of meanings can exist within one...