Harryette Mullen has composed a well thought out collection of poems in, "Sleeping with the Dictionary." Mullen uses playful language in strategic ways to create meaning in the meaningless. The somewhat childish jumble of words sparks the readers imagination. However, the childish language usually does not lead the reader through a childish maze and political and social conflicts often jump out unexpectedly. Mullen successfully illustrates a poetic environment that brings readers into a linguistic maze, but the end is often unexpected.
The diction of Mullen's poems often requires extra attention. In the poem, "Kirstenography," Mullen uses indirect language to tell her story as if she is hiding the meaning in a code. The third paragraph starts, "It shook a few ears until they cold talc to gather, tall yolks, shear sacreds, heave a conversion or a dish cushion." This use of language prompts the reader to either turn the page or keep rereading until meaning is found. If the reader chooses to search for meaning, the reward is even greater and the meaning is more meaningful. However, looking for something concrete in Mullen's poetry seems to be a lost cause. Mullen's poems do not have concrete solutions, but rather abstract queries.
The abstract and sometimes playful language, makes it difficult to reach a concrete meaning in Mullen's collection. However the poem, "X-ray Vision," gives an ironic commentary to her hard to reach poems.
"You don't need X-ray vision to see through me.
No super power's required dto penetrate my defense.
Without listening to your mother's rant
you can tell that my motives are transparent.
A sturdy intuition could give you
the strong impression that my logic is flimsy.
Before the flat lady sang the first note of the book,
you knew that my story was thin."
This poem lends commentary to the meaning of her collection as a whole. The last stanza is a powerfully thick statement. The story-teller tells as that the story in the book is thin and lacks meaning. It basically says that the book was over before it began. While this may seem to be the case because of the way that Mullen's poem go round and round in sometimes incoherent language, this poem ironically contrasts the seeming lack of meaning in "Sleeping with the Dictionary."
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Nick, I liked your description of Mullen's writing as finding "meaning in the meaningless". This seems like a pertinent evaluation of her work. I would agree that Mullen's linguistic code keeps her writing interesting. It allows her the reader many read- through of the book, each time with a different interpretation.
ReplyDeleteI would disagree with you however on your evaluation of Mullen's work not having anything concrete. I think a challenge of her writing is finding the "concrete" in her work. I think certain poems like "bilingual instructions" have concrete ideas and have only a few interpretations. I agree that some poems lack concrete interpretations or obvious ones. However, after systematic analyzation. Much of Mullen's confusing phrases become clearer.