Dance Dance Revolution: Poems
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"The mixture of imagination, language, and historical consciousness in this book is marvelous."—Adrienne Rich, Barnard Women Poets Prize citationPublishers WeeklyThis deeply political Barnard Women Poets Prize-winning second book is part poetic sequence, part science fiction: in a future city called the Desert-a Vegas-like manmade tourist trap-a character called the Guide shows another, the Historian, the sights. The Guide has survived the historical Kwangju uprising, a 1980 massacre of students and other prodemocracy protesters by the American-backed South Korean dictatorship. The Guide's speeches-all in verse-turn repeatedly to her own life story, detailed in a superbly invented dialect, based on English but incorporating Spanish and Jamaican patois: "I'mma double migrant," the Guide says. "Ceded from Koryo [Korea], "ceded from/ Merikka." The "Dance Dance Revolution" the Guide has seen-described, vaguely, late (perhaps too late) in the book, and named for, but supposedly unrelated to, the popular video game-thus becomes "Kwangju Replayed," another failed attempt to destroy an undemocratic capitalist system. The Historian's own reflective autobiography, presented in a terse, melodic prose, brings in other examples of global horrors (Sierra Leonean amputees) as it mirrors a reader's own unease. Hong's earlier treatment of Korean-American themes in Translating Mo'umattracted some attention, but nothing could have predicted this admittedly flawed but highly original work: hard to excerpt, hard at times to decode, it's even harder to forget. (May)Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Chronology of the Desert Guide 17Foreword 19Strolling Through the HotelRoles 25St. Petersburg Hotel Series 27Services 27Preparation for Winter in the St. Petersburg Arboretum 29The Fountain Outside the Arboretum 30The Washrooms of St. Petersburg 31Atop the St. Petersburg Dome 33Karaoke Lounge 35Excerpt from the Historian's Memoir 37Stirrings of Childhood That Begin withSong that Breaks the World Record 41The Lineage of Yes-Men 43The Importance of Being English 45Excerpt from the Historian's Memoir 47Education During the Year of Falling HairEarly Influence 51Cholla Village of No 53Windowless House 56Excerpt from the Historian's Memoir 58Visions of Pamphlet GodsSeizure 61Tide Pool 63Reunion 64University Years 66Excerpt from the Historian's Memoir 68Intermission: Portrait of the DesertElegy 71Almanac 72Almanac 74Almanac 76Almanac 78New Town 80Excerpt from the Historian's Memoir 83Resuming the Desert Tour: Toward the Outskirts, Toward the BridgeBasement of the St. Petersburg Hotel 87Music of the Streets Series 88Hagglers in the Bazaar 88The Hula Hooper's Taunt 89The Auctioneer's Woo 90Dance Hall Song for When You're in the Mood 91Toasts in the Grove of Proposals 92O Light, Red Light 93Once the Factory, No Longer the Factory 95The Guardsman's Warning 97The Bridge 98Excerpt from the Historian's Memoir 100KwangjuElegy 103The Voice 104Kwangju Replayed 108Years in the Ginseng Colony 111Dance DanceElegy 115Orphic Day 117The Refinery of Voices and Vices 118Excerpt from the Historian's Memoir 120
