Robert Duncan, auteur van de debuutroman LOUDMOUTH, brengt een ervaren perspectief in zijn fictie, gesmeed door zijn uitgebreide carrière in de rockjournalistiek. Hij was eerder hoofdredacteur van een gerenommeerd muziektijdschrift en werkte mee aan tal van invloedrijke publicaties, waarbij hij een inkijkje gaf in het tijdperk. Naast zijn schrijfwerk richtte Duncan een succesvol reclame- en ontwerpbureau op, wat getuigt van een veelzijdige creatieve drive. Zijn werk wordt gekenmerkt door een authentieke stem en een scherp oog voor het culturele landschap dat hij verkent.
Exploring the complexities of American identity, this work delves into the historical context of invasions and the intertwined legacies of European colonization and African enslavement. It reflects on the struggles and dreams of a nation grappling with its past, offering a profound commentary on the socio-political landscape. Through evocative language, the author invites readers to confront the realities of America's history and the ongoing impact of these foundational experiences.
Faust Foutu (Faust Screwed) is a satire featuring a mid-20th-century Faust as a bourgeois artist "suffering" for his art. It was first performed by poets and painters in San Francisco in 1955. The book includes drawings by the poet made to accompany the printed text. "In the early fifties the art of painting was at the cutting edge (Clyfford Still, Pollock, Rothko) -- it's not surprising that this "screwed" Faust is a painter or that a public reading and performance of the piece should have taken place at San Francisco's most intensely avant garde art gallery, the Six Gallery. It's no surprise either that the actors in the presentation, seated at a long table on a little dais, should be friends, actors, experimental film-makers, poets, painters, and playwrights. Poet Jack Spicer leaned towards the audience at moments with intensity and almost boyish innocence of expression and near harshness of diction. Larry Jordan, the film-maker, had been encouraged by Duncan to just sing loudly and naturally letting his untrained voice carry Faust's songs. Painter, and life-friend of Duncan's, Jess Collins, spoke his lines with immense clarity and irony. The play was being tested on the ear, there was no acting-out as Duncan did in his solo performances, this was to be heard—and, listen, it's still sounding." -Michael McClure Robert Duncan's "comic masque" Faust Foutu was first performed in 1955 and published in a small edition in 1960 with drawings by the poet, reproduced here in a trade edition.
Duncan stál v čele tzv. Sanfanciské renesance a přednášel literaturu na univerzitách. Publikoval v avantgardních časopisech The Experimental Review a Phoenix. Jeho složitá a vrstevnatá poezie v českém výběru pochází ze sbírek Selected Poems (1959), The Opening of the Field (1961) a Roots and Branches (1965).
