Assignment 4 - Book Review

Review of Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong
I chose to read Hong’s book of poetry because we will hear her read when she comes for the Writer’s Series in March. I figured that it would be nice to read something she’s written ahead of time. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
The plot of Dance Dance Revolution is the story of The Guide (who is bald due to an unknown illness). The Guide was born in South Korea and helped lead the 1980 Kwangju rebellion against Chun Du-Hwan’s military rule. After spending time in a penal colony, she moved to “The Desert,” which is made up of theme hotels modeled on other cities (think Vegas). After working as a housekeeper, she eventually becomes a tourist guide, at which point the Historian comes to interview her. Early on we learn that the Historian’s father was The Guide’s lover before he met the Historian’s mother. The poems mostly consist of literal translations of what The Guide has told to the Historian (the Historian has also added footnotes to help inform the reader of their surroundings). Interspersed throughout her conversations, however, are parts of the Historian’s memoir, which helps us understand a little bit more about who the Historian is. The Historian attended various boarding schools, witnessed civil war in Sierra Leone, and has a difficult relationship with his father (as does the Guide with hers).
The most challenging part of reading this book of is getting through the language that The Guide (and other residents of The Desert) speaks. The language is an “amalgam of some three hundred languages and dialects…a rapidly evolving lingua franca. The language, while borrowing the inner structures of English grammar, also borrows from existing and extinct English dialects” (18). Here are some translations given to us by the Historian:
1. Dimfo me am in.
Let me tell you about him.
2. Burblim frum’ im
He said
3. Wit blodhued mout,
with his read mouth (or bloody mouth)
4. G’won now, shi’bal bato
Leave, you homosexual son of a baboon.
5. So din he lip dim clout.
So then he punched him in the mouth
6. Bar goons hoistim off. Exeunt.
Security escorted him out of the bar. (18-19).
This entire book of poetry was written like this, except for when we get interjected work from the Historian. Critics have acclaimed this book as “a wholly original meditation on the evolution of the English language, on what shared experience means in a globalized world, and on the nature of revolution” (front jacket cover). However, I had a hard time following just the plot while having to “translate” what The Guide was saying. What should have taken me less than two hours to read took me two days, and I often found myself reading out loud to myself as I tried to figure out what The Guide was supposed to sound like. Some words are easy to figure out, but I feel that overall, the important message Hong is trying to convey gets lost. I’ve heard that people who enjoyed Dante’s Inferno will find Revolution this akin in structure and dram

I think hearing Hong come to speak, and hearing her read the words of The Guide could be helpful in helping me look at the poems in a new light. I don’t have a problem reading a poem in a different language. “Words in my Mother Tongue” was difficult to read, but the poet gave us a “key” to work with. Hong really gives us nothing.

I do not recommend this book unless you are looking for a book of poems that will take you hours to comprehend (and maybe at the end, you still won’t totally understand what just happened).
Jess Young