In An Oceanic World

Hi Everyone,

In reading Dan Taulapapa McMullin’s A Drag Queen Named Pipi I was struck by this poet’s ability to move between, and often to intertwine, character study and mythology. For example, in “Jerry, Sheree and the Eel” he intertwines and overlaps the “real” world/story and the more mythological sounding “part of the story I made up” in such a way that the two blend together. Another way he accomplishes this occurs in “The Old Way” when he characterizes figures from Samoan mythology and humanizes them in their relationships to one another. The poem is almost like a love story between Moana and Tagaloa, who takes human form, since “Moana was everything to him.” Then, when she pours into Tagaloa’s small canoe, yet cannot fill it, she is compared to a beloved baby girl. For me, there is something mesmerizing about the concept that Moana, the ocean, can be rocked in the ocean. This poem also plays a large part in the design of the book. The book’s designer, James Nakamura, chose (at least, I’m assuming it was his choice) the first three lines from “The Old Way” to be the first poetic text the reader encounters in the opening pages: “Moana was the Ocean / The Ocean’s name was Moana / The whole world was Moana.” A few reasons for this choice struck me as possibilities. One is that, by including the underwater photographs, often done as close ups, the “whole world” of the book also becomes Moana, from cover to end page. Another related idea is that these lines imply an argument for inclusivity that is important in a book about giving value to people who, traditionally, have been marginalized and devalued (See “Jerry, Sheree and the Eel”: “Jerry always stays in the kitchen, / that’s what fags in American Samoa do”). In other words, the image of the ocean possibly shows how we are all connected by inhabiting the same world, Moana. These are just some possibilities though, and I’d be really interested to hear others ideas about the book’s design.