Friendly Fire
Comprising experimental poetry and prose, Friendly + Fire interrogates the male subjective experience of war and the gendered implications of camaraderie or “brotherhood” while aligning the seriousness of a war target with the frivolities of gossip: “MILITARY LINGO SUBLIMATES SMACK TALK FROM HERE ON IN.”
Friendly + Fire employs a character named H.S. (also to be read as “his”) as a filter for engaging with and through real-life stories of friendly fire. In the first section, the Tarnak Farm Incident (where four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were killed by American Air Force pilot Harry Schmidt) is used as source material, intersecting with questions about receiving a “pink slip” from one’s employer and the mental and physical conditions
endured by fighter pilots (suppressed appetite, prescribed sedatives and amphetamines to regulate sleep, and stress tolerance). Reductionist language is used to describe friendship in the 21st century (forced affect in the workplace and Facebook friends).
Act I of LaFrance’s first book, Species Branding, ends with the line: “crippled on my last leg. where are our friends?” It is a question that has carried forward into Friendly + Fire, acting as the connective tissue between these two texts.
DANIELLE LAFRANCE LIVES ON OCCUPIED AND STOLEN LANDS CARED FOR BY THE XʷMƏΘKʷƏY̓ƏM, SḴWX̱WÚ7MESH, AND SELILWITULH peoples. LAFRANCE COMES FROM GREEK AND DUTCH ANCESTRY, AND IS LEARNING WHERE THE FRENCH CANADIAN RELATIVES CAME FROM. FOLLOWING THE WOULD-BE POETICS MAPPED IN JUST LIKE I LIKE IT (TALONBOOKS 2019), LAFRANCE ARRIVES AT READING AND WRITING FROM A POSITION KNOWING ILLUSIONS ARE DESTROYED. LAFRANCE’S RECENT POETRY PROJECT #POSTDILDO THINKS AND ACTS THROUGH FANTASY, RAPE CULTURE, MODES OF COMMUNICATION, YEARNINGS, AFTERMATHS, AND LOST IDEAS. MUCH ANIMAL LOVE. LAFRANCE MAKES MONEY AS A COMMUNITY LIBRARIAN AND FROM SIDE HUSTLES. WITH ANAHITA JAMALI RAD, LAFRANCE CO-EDITED THE JOURNAL AND DISCUSSION SERIES ABOUT A BICYCLE, OF WHICH THERE WERE 5 ISSUES. LAFRANCE AUTHORS FRIENDLY + FIRE (TALONBOOKS 2016) AND SPECIES BRANDING (CAPILANO UNIVERSITY EDITIONS 2010). LAFRANCE INVESTS IN LISTENING AND/OR ADDRESSING AND/OR RESPONDING TO THE RADICAL ROOT OF THINGS.
