There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce is a poetry book written by Morgan Parker that is compiled of medium-length poems that follow the topic of race, gender, social norm, and Beyonce. In my opinion, this book is an absolute disgrace to the genre of poetry and all forms of literature. The book is extremely vulgar and uses simple phrases that could be formulated by a five-year-old.
Because this book is completely compiled of poetry I cannot review every single poem because there would simply be too many. So, I've picked out three poems that show how disappointing this book is.
The first poem is titled Hottentot Venus and attempts to communicate the struggles that black women face in a society that undervalues and objectifies them. However, it tries too hard to communicate anger and frustration as well as makes a shameful effort when it comes to adding a 'foreign' or 'African' essence, randomly adding in passages like "my captors drink African hibiscus". This poem is 10% actual content and 90% slang words or phrases that encourage stereotypes.This next poem, "Freaky Friday Starring Beyonce and Lady Gaga" seems to communicate the main idea that cultural appropriation is a large problem between white Americans and black Americans. My main problem with this poem is that it uses an inappropriate symbolism to represent the issue of cultural appropriation. The film "Freaky Friday" is a complete joke and has no substance to it, taking away from the seriousness of the poem, and making the point of it a complete joke. Also, although this may be a small problem, I have no idea why Lady Gaga is put into the title of this poem other than the fact that she is white because her importance is not mentioned whatsoever in the poem. This poem makes no argument against cultural appropriation and only shows the superficial aspects of this issue like a white person getting dreadlocks.
Finally, the worst poem of this whole book. "13 Ways of Looking at a Black Girl" makes no sense at all. This poem is literally just the name of a black artist and a crude word. For example, one of the lines in "13 Ways of Looking at a Black Girl" is "Ma Tina Turner sex" with this exact random and confusing spacing. This poem
is obviously trying to communicate what the author believes that society thinks of when they see the name of a certain black artist, but this point has been horribly communicated through poetry. I am almost sure that whenever you think of a black female artist you do not automatically associate them with the words sex, booty, rape, kitchen, slut, hair, single or exotic. Instead, you probably think of the words rap, autotune, singer, actor, or rich. This poem is just an over-exaggerated interpretation of how all famous people are victims and society should not be so harsh on them.
Overall, I think that "There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce" makes a tasteless attempt to represent the social issues in our society and is just as relevant to the cause of ending injustice between race in America as a Buzzfeed article. If you enjoy poetry, this author will book will change your mind. So, I would not recommend reading this book at all.
Andrea Torelli
First off, the humor you have incorporated into your review was extremely entertaining, believe me I was laughing the entire time. Secondly, I now know for sure I would never even consider picking up this novel and risk having to experience "an absolute disgrace to the genre of poetry and all forms of literature." Furthermore, your criticisms of the novel were enlightening and informative, however I would have also enjoyed the positive aspects of There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce, if any. Overall, great review!
ReplyDeleteWow! Your feelings towards this book come across loud and clear. Your severe dislike towards this book made your blog post enjoyable to read, and I was engaged while reading it for the whole time. You make good points about why you do not enjoy a few of the poems from the book, however, I would have liked if you explained more of your overall problems with the poems, and what you felt made it so bad, besides a few substandard poems. I will definitely be checking this book out to see if I share your strong opinion!
ReplyDeleteGood review! Your obvious distaste toward this book kept me hooked throughout the whole review. The way you expressed your anger was entertaining but also quite informative. Even though you were expressing your anger towards this book, I actually want to read it now!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very entertaining post. I liked not only that you weren't afraid of criticizing the book, but the amount that you criticized it was very funny. I honestly want to read the book more now. Was there anything you liked about the book? Also, how did you find out about it/why did you want to read it?
ReplyDeleteThis was very entertaining to read and it was obvious what you did not like about the book. This does sound like a very badly written book/composition and I like how you gave examples to back up your claims. I will not be reading this book, thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing review! I liked how you highlighted what an average reader would think of a book like this, and how its author was trying to convey an important message, but failed miserably. The examples you gave, such as the oddly spaced and worded poem, really push your view that the book is so horrible. Thanks for your humorous review.
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