Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #29, "Pop culture references in haiku and senryu".

!!! This post is published earlier, because of the nightshift !!!

Dear Haijin,visitors and travelers,

I have a new GW-post for you all in which Jen of Blog It Or Lose It will write about "Pop culture in haiku and senryu". I think this is a very interesting GW-post and I hope you all enjoy it.

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First of all, thank you, Chèvrefeuille, for allowing me to share some thoughts with the Carpe Diem Haiku Kai family.   

This Ghost-Writer prompt is based on an earlier post on my blog – one that I didn’t link to Carpe Diem partly because it wasn’t in the spirit of “little creatures” – and partly because I chickened-out.

POP CULTURE REFERENCES IN HAIKU AND SENRYU

BACKGROUND:

When Chèvrefeuille posted his “little creatures” prompt (“lizards”) I had just watched a Dr. Who episode entitled “Deep Breath”.  One of the main characters that day was a “Silurian” warrior-detective named Vastra, and Silurians look like a cross between a lizard and a human.  

Credits: Screenshot

THE INSPIRATION:

In “Deep Breath,” Vastra had a very moving speech – “I Wear the Veil”:

Please watch:  "I Wear the Veil" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYiul4NoBGw

“I wear a veil to keep from view what many are pleased to call my ‘disfigurement’. I do not wear it as a courtesy to such people but as a judgment on the quality of their hearts.”

- Vastra, “Deep Breath” – Doctor Who

THE POEM:

I was moved to tears by her speech and wrote this senryū based on it:

wearing jeans
in ninety degree heat –
a denim veil

© Jen

EXPLANATION:

Vastra is a reptilian alien living in Victorian London.   She doesn’t exactly blend into the crowd. She’s a warrior – she’s tough – but she wears a veil to keep her face hidden.  And I’ve felt like Vastra many times in my past seven years as an amputee – dodging staring eyes – or, just as bad sometimes – eyes that quickly dart away and make me invisible. Many times I choose to suffer the summer heat and humidity in jeans – not that I’m ashamed or afraid – but because I’m just not in the mood to deal with people’s reactions.  And - in a way – isn’t that a form of judgment?

Credits: Tardis

POP CULTURE PRECEDENTS IN HAIKU?

Now.  Before you say “Doctor Who Haiku?  Is she serious?  Is ‘pop culture’ appropriate?” I suggest that it might not be as inappropriate as you think.  Basho wrote an iris haiku upon the sudden death of his favorite Kabuki performer, Motome:

Motome―
Iris withered
only in one night

Kabuki is an art form - not "pop culture" - but the celebrity that would have followed actors could be considered a form of pop culture.  [The presence of kabuki/ ‘theater’ in haiku was well-established:  kaomise (“face-showing ceremony”) was a mid-winter kigo.]

Basho: The Complete Haiku (trans. Jane Reichhold) mentions thirty-three “techniques” in Basho’s haiku.  Number twenty-three is “honki-dori” or “literary references”.  Reichhold’s example from Basho is as follows:

pining for flowers
or a tune from Gichiki
Mount Yoshino

Reichhold explains that Gichiku “was a popular flute player in Basho’s time whose hit song had the title of ‘Yoshino,’ the mountain most famous for its cherry trees and deep snows” (page 404).

Hit song?  Pop culture!  Dr. Who and Vastra might not be far-fetched after all...

Credits: Star Trek

PROBLEMS IN USING POP CULTURE IN HAIKU

The biggest issue in using pop culture references seems to be finding references familiar to a large audience.  Motome and Gichiku would have been very well-known to Basho’s contemporaries – but today’s readers need explanatory notes to “get it”.  Some pop culture icons seem to stand the test of time – for example the explosion of "tribbles" in Star Trek, Doctor Who's TARDIS (the big blue police box /time machine /spacecraft ), Elvis, and The Twilight Zone.  (And Chèvrefeuille used Peter Pan recently.)

Having said this, my initial poem (jeans as a veil) may or may not be successful – if you know me personally, then "yes".  Otherwise?  Not so much.  Perhaps this would be a better Dr. Who-ku:

in the autumn fog
the sound of a braking train -
the TARDIS landing

© Jen

Not as emotional – but more accessible I think.

CONCLUSION?

Even with historical precedents, a lot of people will reject pop culture in “serious” haiku.  But – I have to question this attitude.  Why can’t we use cultural references that move us (like Madam Vastra and Peter Pan) or amuse us (like tribbles) – and use them in our poetry on occasion? 

Video Link:  "I Wear the Veil" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYiul4NoBGw

Basho's Irises:   http://akitahaiku.com/2009/07/04/bashos-irises/

Kaomise and Kabuki:  http://edoflourishing.blogspot.jp/2013/08/kaomise-kabuki.html

Star Trek's Tribbles:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2T1QX7BEyg

TARDIS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS

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What a wonderful GW-post and I hope it will inspire you all to write an all new haiku. So ... have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 17th at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, Magic Fields (August 2013), later on.