Wakoski reads 'Rose'

The fourth in a series of books that all use mythology as a backboard ("Medea," "Jason the Sailor,"and "The Emerald City of Las Vegas"), her newest, "Argonaut Rose" will be the focus of Diane Wakoski's reading here tomorrow.

One of the underlying questions of "Argonaut Rose," with its focus on the mythological in everyday life, is what a woman has to do to be a heroine in modern culture. Revamp the "Scarlet Letter," pop in Demi Moore and make Hester Prynne sexy? Filter Medea through "Fatal Attraction," add a dash of Tarantino brain-shots and she'll be the villainess killing her children out of spite?

PREVIEW
	Diane Wakoski Shaman Drum Saturday at 8 p.m.

"The general title is 'The Archaeology of Movies and Books' and my idea was to write an epic of the West, which is from the point of view of a woman," said Wakoski in a recent interview. "I started this ... big poem but it's made up of all these little poems."

The foundation of this book is a collage of matrices - quotes from a layman's book of Quantum Physics, "letters" written to friends, and mythology.

"I was fascinated by the way that the theories of quantum physics and mechanics are descriptions of the emotional and psychological world as well the physical world. We've fallen in love with ideas like parallel universes, observer created reality," Wakoski explained.

The collage aspect of "Argonaut Rose" creates a mosaic of language and thought that is reflected in the way culture itself envelopes its members, Warkoski believes.

"To the extent that ... those of us who live in the world of movies and books are very much part of a culture, we're living those archetypes and patterns and stories and myths ... in our own personal visions. So I'm interested in the way in which you see those stories constantly being repeated, retold, reinvented ... transformed sometimes but still recurring as recognizable patterns."

The idea of a personal mythology is recurrent in "Argonaut Rose:" The oranges of Southern California, the Golden Fleece and the amaryllis are scattered throughout the book. These ideas develop and change throughout, as if each poem is a snapshot from a metamorphosis.

The patterns that Wakoski explores run the gamut: Fiction's veracity, poetry's truth, the silver of the moon, Medea. It is the weaving between that makes each poem discrete, focused, like "The Missing Sandal," which is dedicated to "all the Jasons."

When asked who the poem is addressing Wakoski said, "clearly in my mind it's a 'you' who was a betrayer in my life, that moves in and out of my poems over the years. For the reader it's - everyone has a Jason. At least one."

"And I'm sure that men have a counterpart: Jezebel, Salome or the femme fatale who never attempts to give men what they want but takes everything. But on the other hand, those are equal positions and we should hear a woman's vision of that just as much as the men's."

The version of Medea commonly known focuses on Medea betrayed by Jason, Medea killing her children - a woman of sorrow, defeat and vengeance, which is not the focus of "Argonaut Rose."

In a sense, Wakoski revises our culture's interpretation of this myth by focusing on aspects of Medea that are often forgotten.

"I'm interested in the fact that this woman who breaks every taboo ... Her only salvation in all that is that she loves Jason. And then he of course betrays her," said Wakoski.

"In the story, she is a heroine, she is not a tragic character ... She's a figure of magic and sorcery and women breaking the taboos ... supernatural laws or laws of physics that we don't understand."

At another level, there's a personal identification with Medea, at the same time that culture itself is altered. But why Medea?

There is "the personal theme which is men promising women what they want, which is usually love, in exchange for power or the golden fleece or money," explained Warkoski.

"The woman doesn't deny this by becoming a warrior or becoming like a man or denying her love, but somehow continuing to do this and escape the worst of the tragic destiny."

03-13-98