Disme dous e vexo un só corpo fraccionado (2026) by Alberte Momán Noval is a poignant and intellectually rigorous exploration of contemporary human alienation. Operating at the crossroads of poetry, social critique, and modern philosophy, the collection delivers a trenchant diagnosis of an era dominated by hyper-connectivity, technological mediation, and structural isolation.
From the outset, Momán establishes a atmosphere of ontological fracture. Borrowing its guiding light from Luísa Villalta’s epigraph—which contrasts the “natural voice” with an “inhuman wind” simulated by machines—the poemary navigates the tension between authentic human experience and the artificial constructs that enclose it. The recurring motif of the "simulacrum" (evoking Jean Baudrillard) permeates the text. The speaker moves through urban spaces where three-dimensional reality is flattened into bidimensional calculations, where bodies are reduced to avatars, and where self-perception is trapped in a narcissism detached from physical presence.
Momán’s poetic language is sharp, clear, and deliberately stripped of superfluous ornamentation. He uses dense, conceptual imagery: trembling streetlights, screens detonating with disposable opinions, dopamine syndromes, and the anxious vibration of hands missing their phones. These descriptions vividly capture the psychological toll of late capitalism and the panoptic control exercised by what the author terms the "independent moral eye".
However, the collection avoids falling into mere technophobic despair or passive nihilism. Instead, it engages in a complex dialogue with posthumanism. Through the figure of the cyborg—a clear nod to Donna Haraway—Momán interrogates whether an anorganic fusion might transcend traditional human limitations to forge a more conscious, networked solidarity, or if it simply deepens our servitude to the machine. This philosophical ambivalence gives the work its extraordinary tension.
Structurally, the book progresses from the noise and claustrophobia of the urban routine—exemplified by the claustrophobic metaphor of the elevator and the soul-crushing nature of daily labor—toward a quieter, darker space: "the condition of the dark" (a condición do escuro). In this second half, darkness is not presented as a space of fear, but as a fertile realm free of artificial categories, borders, and predetermined routes. It becomes a canvas where genuine alterity, touch, and collective connection can be rethought.
Momán explicitly draws from Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the "Body without Organs," seeking a state of pure flow freed from the rigid structures of the self. Ultimately, the poemary functions as an act of resistance. By stopping in the middle of the street with closed eyes, the speaker intentionally disrupts the unceasing flow of capital and mass inertia.
In conclusion, Disme dous e vexo un só corpo fraccionado is a major contribution to contemporary Galician poetry. Momán has crafted a deeply political and philosophical text that demands active engagement from the reader. It serves as both a sobering reflection on our fragmented present and an urgent reminder of its core thesis: that true salvation and liberation can only ever be collective.
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