on the Baroness' poem

Subject: Re: The Baroness Rules
To: albertox@coqui.net (Alberto Fernandez)
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:37:18 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: 88v@dept.english.upenn.edu
Sender: owner-88v@dept.english.upenn.edu
Precedence: bulk

88'ers:

More on the sexy, rule-breaking poem by the Baroness. It's about sex, yes,
but it's also a tirade against the commodified (commercialized) language
about sex (and love in the sexy sense).

The phrase "coy flappertoy" - referring to a sexual stimulator that's on
the market - is just stunning when you think about the

                        tone

of its appearance in the poem. Think about the 1920s. Home products were
all the rage. "Buy this toaster. It's for the modern woman!" "Your home
would not be complete until you get rid of that icebox and buy an electric
refrigerator." "What America needs is optimism! Can do! Buy products!"
Etc. etc. And then among these sold products is..... the perfect sex toy
for today's flapper! Yikes!

She's wild.

She has a keen sense of the awful ironic comedy in American commercialized
language. In this sense she and Williams had a lot in common; Williams was
not a tragic poet but he's less comic than the Baroness.

--Al


|
| Nope.  It's about sex. It's phallic...(to these one-Baroness-poem eyes).
| The proof (to ply Lorine's condenserial trade):
s
| lusting palate
| Always eat them
| all sizes
| a baboon's hind
| A man's an American Home comfort : a wellgroomed upsy
| There's the vibrator-- Coy flappertoy!
| roof eden obelisk
| Eve's dart pricks snookums
| It'll come--tongue swallowing yogi
|  ravishing
| Nudge it--Kick it--Prod it--Push it--Broadcast--
| S.O.S.--national shortage of lifted upsys
|  snuff all cockiness. We'll hire one.
|  The very word penetrates.  I like that.
| I ain't queer--I need it straight -- A dozen cocktails-- please-- -- --
--