Phoebe 2002: An Essay in Verse

A groundbreaking deconstruction of the classic 1950 film All About Eve, Phoebe 2002 is a collaborative epic poem/essay that zings in and out of the scenes and makes a thousand connections within the world of popular culture. Drawing from high and low sources, the poets relate All About Eve to such epics as Paradise Lost, The Faerie Queene, The Iliad and The Odyssey, as well as to other movies (Valley of the Dolls, Rosemary's Baby, Silence of the Lambs) and television shows (Gilligan's Island, The Twilight Zone, Scooby-Doo).~The figure of Bette Davis assumes heroic proportions as she descends into a Dante-esque Inferno (a drunken party) and goes on to do battle with husbands, directors, studio heads and archrival Joan Crawford. At the same time, Davis's character, Margo Channing, must contend with nefarious Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), a young fan who attempts to usurp her success as an actress. The poem builds toward the pivotal "powder room scene," where Eve's true nature is revealed and culminates in her winning a coveted Best Actress award. The authors identify Eve's sin (hunger for fame) as the root of the power- and award-mongering prevalent in contemporary American culture. ~Inspired by nine muses (Dunaway, Taylor, David, Crawford, Head, Breckenridge, Susann, Sexton and Plath) who make appearances throughout, Phoebe 2002 is a treasure trove of poetic forms woven seamlessly into a text that pushes the limits of poetry and film criticism. "The result," writes poet D.A. Powell, "is an utter triumph, a contemporary Satyricon." The authorial trio of Phoebe 2002 has dared to imagine the all and about of All About Eve (a film with a few things to say about ambition), and the result--full of obsessive details, zany tangents, cinephile gossip, rejuvenated poetic forms, literary "visitations," and true confession--is an audaciously original work to which the only fitting response is wild applause. --Jeanne Marie Beaumont, author of Placebo Effects by Lynn Crosbie, Jeffery Conway and David Trinidad. Paperback, 7 x 10 in./650 pgs / 0 color 0 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20146