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by J. A. Gucci (Author)
Failure Modes: An Atlas of Psychological Systems is a collection of poems composed through a structural method in which psychological states are rendered as physical systems. Rather than describing emotion directly, each piece constructs a governing mechanism-pressure differentials, optical distortions, biological responses, cycles of accumulation and release-through which meaning emerges from behavior.
Organized into seven thematic sections, the book traces a range of mental and affective conditions across domains of perception, embodiment, identity, relation, and temporal rhythm. From mechanical loops and environmental thresholds to geological formation and ecological response, each poem operates as a self-contained system, inviting the reader to encounter the state through its structure rather than its explanation.
Minimal in language yet precise in design, these compositions resist interpretation and instead present an experiential field in which the reader becomes the point of resolution. The result is a rigorous and immersive work of contemporary poetry-part atlas, part taxonomy-where structure precedes meaning and psychological experience is translated into observable form.
