Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

Anne Carson

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781786827616
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786827593
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

Norma Jeane Baker of Troy is a partly spoken, partly sung performance piece by poet, essayist, and scholar Anne Carson, and an exploration of the lives and myths of Marilyn Monroe and Helen of Troy-iconic beauties who lived millennia apart.

A thrilling and thoughtful meditation on the destabilising and destructive power of beauty, it had its world premiere at The Shed in New York City, starring Ben Whishaw and Renée Fleming.

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ἁρπάζειν “ to take”

HISTORY OF WAR: LESSON 3

If you pick a flower, if you snatch a handbag, if you possess a woman, if you plunder a storehouse, ravage a countryside or occupy a city, you are a taker. You are taking. In ancient Greek you use the verb άρπάζειν, which comes over into Latin as rapio, rapere, raptus sum and gives us English rapture and rape – words stained with the very early blood of girls, with the very late blood of cities, with the hysteria of the end of the world. Sometimes I think language should cover its own eyes when it speaks.

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Enter NORMA JEANE.

Enter Norma Jeane as Norma Jeane.

Episode two.

The story so far:

TROY DOWN

THOUSANDS DEAD

NORMA JEANE TO BLAME

NORMA JEANE NOT TO BLAME

ARTHUR LOST (AT SEA)

NORMA JEANE CAPTIVE (CHATEAU MARMONT)

EXIT MR. TRUMAN CAPOTE TO LUNCH

WITH MISS PEARL BAILEY

NORMA JEANE sits, knits a bit, puts down knitting.

(Here’s an aside.

I’m not generally a weeping woman

but the sailor told me

a bit of news

I didn’t mention before. About my daughter,

my dear one, back in New York.

What he heard is that

she’s dropped out of school

and is hoarding her meds.

Hermione’s her name.

She must be 17 now.

A golden flower of a girl.

A precarious girl.

I’ve wanted to call her so many times – Fritz Lang said

No -

we can’t jeopardize the cloud scam.

MGM has a lot invested in this war at Troy,

even beside the movie deals there’s spinoffs, casinos,

reality shows.

But Hermione!

Hermione is my own soul walking around in another

body.

So here’s what I do when I really miss her.

I use the wind telephone.

A guy in Japan – remember that place in Japan where

they had the big wave,

the earthquake? and the sea

came up over the town, thousands drowned.

And the ones left behind

were so sad they couldn’t live.

So this guy buys himself an old telephone booth,

sets it up by the side of the road

on the edge of town.

People can go in and dial a number

and talk to the dead, talk to their lost ones, talk to

the underworld.

It’s rotary dial.

People find that comforting.

Most of them just say Hi Dad or Funny weather these

days or Guess what we got a dog -

but they come out of the booth smiling.

It was said in the town that the phone sometimes

rang

at odd hours.

I’ve no opinion on that).

Exit NORMA JEANE on wind phone, hand to ear, Hermione it’s me, hello hello hello hello hello.

Enter NORMA JEANE.

Enter Norma Jeane.

Episode three.

Surprise!

Enter Arthur.

I was downstairs chatting up the night clerk, Bobby.

Arthur just came walking into the lobby.

Looking like a bum. Smelling like a guy who’s spent

7 years in the same shirt.

I tell you who was more surprised than me,

however,

was he.

No, he said.

No, he said eleven more times.

I’ll skip ahead.

He told me his Troy story -

basically nine years of cattle raids and pillaging the

locals...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• εἴδωλον “image, likeness, simulacrum, replica, proxy, idol”
• τραῦμα “wound”
• ἁρπάζειν “ to take”
• δουλεία “slavery”
• παλλακή “concubine”
• ἀπάτη “deception illusion trickery duplicity doubleness fraud bluff beguilement hankypanky dodge hoodwink artifice chicanery subterfuge ruse hoax shift stratagem swindle guile wile wiles The Wiles of Woman”
• βάρβαρος “barbarian, Other”
• καιρός “opportunity”
• τις, τίς “someone, anyone, a person, a certain person, who?”