Reading the poem “Triple Feature” by Denise Levertov
(1923-1977) I couldn’t help but wonder if anti-immigrant sentiment in America
won’t ever go away, but will keep resurfacing. Levertov’s poem was published in
1959, as the United States experienced economic growth and baby boom after World
War II. The poem’s gaze is on a family of four about to go into a movie theatre,
and it can be interpreted as pro-immigrant. Levertov indicates the family is of
Mexican descent with descriptions of traditional Latin American clothes they
wear. A serape is a shawl worn as a cloak, a rebozo is a long flat women’s
garment, and sombrero is a wide-brimmed hat.
“– he in a mended serape,
she having plaited carefully
magenta ribbons into her hair,
the baby a round half-hidden shape
slung in her rebozo, and the young
son steadfastly
gripping a fold of her skirt,
pale and severe under a
handed-down sombrero”
Given the poem’s title, the family
is about to see a triple feature of B-movies. American film industry experienced
a shift after the Hollywood Golden Age of 1930s and 1940s, and the collapse of
the Studio System which enabled it. The Studio System was when all films were
produced and distributed by a few major studios. In the 1950s more independent
companies were able to produce and distribute due to court rulings against the
monopoly of the Studio System. Film goers have various tastes, and some really
enjoy B-movies, but it is generally accepted that these movies are cheaply made
and have a silly plot. By the late 1950s Hollywood struck back by producing its
own B-movies: for example, MGM’s 1959 film “Girls Town” was reviewed by Variety as having a screenplay “as
flimsy as a G-string.”
Levertov sympathizes with the
family because the parents are likely looking to escape their daily chores, relax,
and maybe the father will take a nap, but they might feel dissonance
afterwards. At least one of three B-movies is likely to be an exploitation
film, a genre that reinforces racial stereotypes in ridiculous plotlines.
“all regarding
the stills
with full attention, preparing
to pay and
go in –
to worlds
of shadow-violence, half-
familiar,
warm with popcorn, icy
with
stranger motives, barbarous splendors!”
Reading the
poem “Bubble Wrap” by Rae Armantrout (1947-present)
I couldn’t help but wonder if anti-immigrant sentiment will always have a
pro-immigrant response, and maybe the two can’t exist without each other. Like
Levertov’s gaze at an immigrant family, Armantrout mentions an immigrant as a
part of American cultural landscape. The poem was published in 2011, and may be
referring to Hurricane Irene in the opening.
“Want to
turn on CNN,
see if
there’ve been any
disasters?”
Armantrout
is a language poet, and her writing can be viewed as abstract. “Bubble Wrap”
consists of 5 parts separated by single asterisks. There are no rhymes, and no
rhythm consistency. Nonetheless, single stanzas in parts 1 and 5 are somewhat
of a structure, creating an even opening and closing; part 2 has three stanzas, parts 3 and 4 have four stanzas. If the number of stanzas per part were notated
as music – 1, 3, 4, 4, 1 [C, E, F, F, C] – they would make a complete musical
sentence. Parts 2 and 3 both feature the word “dream,” which may refer to the
American Dream. Part 4 talks about an “engine’s single indrawn breath,”
bringing to mind deindustrialization, which is often falsely misrepresented as a
result of outsourcing, when the cause is technological advancements.
In part 5
an immigrant is trying to earn a living by selling doohickeys in front of a
pharmacy chain. There is some irony in the juxtaposition of the immigrant
aiding himself, and commercial chain selling aid.
“An immigrant
sells scorpions
of twisted electrical wire
in front of the Rite Aid.”
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