Poet Monica Youn discusses writing from a poetics of difference, exploring anti-Asian violence in the US, Greek mythology, and racial triangulation. The conversation delves into the complexities of identity, home, and community interconnectedness in her latest poetry collection 'From From'.
Challenging authenticity with a poetics of difference vs. identity in exploring displacement and identity formation.
Exploring the power of language in poetry to shape perceptions and challenge ingrained norms.
Emphasizing the significance of tone as a primary element in shaping poetic form and expression.
Highlighting the impact of writing style on conveying main messages and enhancing content understanding.
Delving into cultural variations on interpreting symbols and desires, analyzing societal pressures and individual beliefs.
Deep dives
Exploring Different Perspectives Through Characters: Midas and Marigold
The poem delves into the characters of Midas and Marigold, highlighting the consequences of dissatisfaction and the desire for improvement. Through vivid imagery and metaphorical descriptions, it conveys the notion that dissatisfaction can lead to death and the pursuit of perfection can bring about tragic outcomes. By tackling topics of hubris and coloniality, the poem challenges stereotypes and delves into complexities of identity, weaving a narrative that prompts reflection on power dynamics and the impact of one's desires.
Challenging Conventional Narratives: The Poetics of Difference
The podcast episode discusses the author's resistance to the authenticity trap and embracing a poetics of difference over a poetics of identity. By navigating the complexities of deracination and personal history, the author explores themes of displacement and identity formation. Through a critical lens, the author engages with cultural narratives, pushing back against stereotypes and traditional expectations to carve out a unique literary voice that challenges conventional norms.
Exploring Power Language in Poetry
The episode delves into the concept of power language in poetry, highlighting the author's use of analogical reasoning and metaphorical constructions. By drawing parallels between law and poetry, the author explores how language can assert authority and shape perceptions. The discussion touches on the ethical implications of power language and its role in crafting impactful poetic narratives that challenge ingrained norms and perceptions.
Navigating Tone and Form: The Essence of Poetry
The conversation addresses the significance of tone in shaping poetic form and expression, emphasizing the author's deliberate choice to focus on tone as a primary element in poetry. By dissecting the relationship between tone, form, and content, the episode illuminates how tone can influence meaning and evoke specific responses from readers. The exploration of tone as a vehicle for artistic expression underscores the author's nuanced approach to crafting poems that resonate with depth and complexity.
The Significance of Writing Style
The podcast episode explores the significance of writing style in conveying the main messages, focusing on the distinction between writing styles such as A and B to enhance the understanding of the content.
Exploration of Cultural Variations
The episode delves into cultural variations surrounding the interpretations of symbols like the magpie in different contexts, highlighting how perceptions differ between Eastern and Western cultures and exploring the impact of these beliefs.
Challenges of Desire and Self-Identity
The podcast discusses the complexities of desire and self-identity, analyzing personal desires versus societal expectations and the impact of racialized origins on individual wants and beliefs, touching on narratives of cautionary tales and introspection.
Evolution of Poetic Form
The episode delves into the evolution of poetic form across various works, reflecting on the shifts in writing style, including the use of parables and biblical influences to convey didactic messages and provoke critical thinking among audiences.
Impact of Objectification and Racialization
The podcast examines the impact of objectification and racialization in desire and perception, addressing the objectifying gaze and the struggle against commodified views on one's identity, focusing on the challenging dynamics faced, especially in the wake of societal pressures and biases.
In today’s conversation with poet Monica Youn we explore what it means to write from a poetics of difference rather than of authenticity, a poetics of deracination rather than identity. Youn’s latest poetry collection From From engages with the history of anti-Asian violence in the United States but is always conscious of the ways this violence is situated structurally, of the racial triangulation of Asian Americans, of how, in Dorothy Wang’s words, “there’s no way to talk about Asian immigrants or the Asian American experience as separate from the Black American experience or the Indigenous experience or the Latinx experience because of the relation to whiteness.” From From engages with everything from Greek mythology (and the construction of the Greek self in relation to the Asian other) to the 1992 L.A. uprising and the murder of Latasha Harlins by Soon Ja Du. And ultimately with what it means to call a place “home” that never seems to see you as part of its history, that is always asking “but where are you from from?”
For the bonus audio archive Monica contributes the reading of two electrifying long poems. The first, “A Guide to Usage: Mine,” was commissioned by the Boston Review for the anthology Poems for Political Disaster (a book conceived in response to the election of Donald Trump). The second is a draft of a poem, one that hasn’t yet fully come together (and which she has never shared before), but was originally meant to be part of the series of magpie parable poems in the new collection. Partially inspired by the landmark 1948 Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer, which abolishes racially-restrictive housing covenants, this never-before-seen poem is called “Parable of the Magpie’s Nest.” To learn how to subscribe to the bonus audio archive (which includes readings from everyone from Victoria Chang to Nikky Finney, from Ada Limón to Dionne Brand), and about the many other potential rewards and benefits of joining the Between the Covers community as a listener-supporter, head over to the show’s Patreon page.
