Plastic's Republic
by Giovanna Riccio
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Pub Date Apr 01 2019 | Archive Date Jul 30 2019
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Description
In 2019 Barbie turns 60. Never only a toy, she defines the stellar. In Plastic's Republic, Giovanna Riccio delves into Barbie's impact on female beauty highlighting how plasticity in body and persona have allowed the doll to remain top-diva. Other poems bring to life, Mattel's movers-n-shakers who created Barbie to be their in-house money maker. Riccio's Plastications lyrics illustrate how Barbie's mouldable nature lets Mattel position their high achiever as ever-relevant, arguably, by exploiting social trends, political movements and historical events. In the Human Barbies section, Barbie becomes plastic surgery's prophet, spawning “plastic-positive” people who see their bodies as raw material suitable for actual and virtual surgical “doctoring.” Riccio's witty, inimitable poems portray Barbie as a complex, contradictory global celebrity, but also explore the philosophical, feminist and body-image issues that this plastic goddess engenders. In the finale, the poems naturally segue to silicone sex dolls and a plastic-smothered ocean.
Advance Praise
"If Mattel masterminded, in 1959, a bitch-goddess of a doll, with breasts that are accoutrements for, and arched feet that are no impediments to, High Fashion, so now does Giovanna Riccio apply her own unconditional critique-in-verse, to break Barbie out of the mummification of her marketing but also out of the stagnant, feminist pontificating that sees her as standing as fallible as a pawn.
Riccio answers the "plastication" of femininity with her own sardonic feminism, her own Platonic panache, to remind us that, within the beatific toy, there is unseen bleeding, an invisible vagina, and that Barbie is so iconic a symbol that some human beings play dress up--via plastic surgery--to become as "perfect" as is she. Still others, poignantly solitary, address their amorous thighs to the sullen cavities of sex dolls." -- George Elliott Clarke, Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2016-2017).
"Moving between Plato's cave and Plastic's world of appearances, these eloquent and trenchant poems chronicle the history and aftermath of the "living doll" we know as Barbie... Plato may have banished the poet from his Republic, but in Plastic’s Republic, the poet returns with a vengeance to reminisce—with no trace of nostalgia—and then to recraft Barbie’s story with both confident elegance and daring resourcefulness." -- Linda Hutcheon, University of Toronto, author of A Poetics of Postmodernism and A Theory of Adaptation.
"This genre-bending collection is a Barbie Bible for the Disenchanted. Riccio’s philosophical reflections, historical, sociological and personal verses... create a playhouse fit for kings, queens, misfits, and lost souls who can’t wait to revolt against the tyrannical capitalist system that favours the strong over the weak, the young and pretty over the over-the-hillers."-- Mary Melfi, award winning novelist, poet and playwright; author of Italy Revisited: Conversations with My Mother.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781771833684 |
| PRICE | $20.00 (USD) |
Links
Featured Reviews
nathan h, Reviewer
It's ambitious as all get-out. It's several facets of the Barbie legacy presented in slightly different forms: You have some direct history, some slice-of-life stories from those who have attempted to become living Barbie dolls, some interesting insight about how the doll's impacted our culture, a segue into some talk about modern sex dolls, and then a poignant ending, which gives the reader a moment to ponder, and I mean seriously ponder, where all of those dolls go in the end.
Now, most of this is in some sort of form of poetry, so it's not your typical aggregation of information by an author to be absorbed by the reader. I'm by no means a poetry buff, but there were slight variations in the way many of the stories were presented, so you're spared an event of the same cadence leashing you and leading to the last page. Some pieces came off like it was Barbie history by way of Miranda's Hamilton; others seemed absolutely stream-of-consciousness. Having said all of that, it's impressive to behold. I couldn't do it, that's for sure.
I think a person who is already familiar with the history of the Barbie doll (or recently finished some sort of work that recounts how the doll grew to its current status) would have more to gain here. Maybe it's on account of the unique way the book goes about things, but I was struggling at times to see if we were delving into the abstract, or if I was being given straight-up facts.
It's a recommend if this is a subject you're interested in, for sure. So much of this is thought-provoking and beckons for a good unpacking after the reading's done; it transcends being just an average history book and is a different vessel of knowledge-dropping.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Guernica Editions for the advance read.
Taylor W, Reviewer
You get Barbie from all angles in the book from direct history to how the doll has impacted our culture. There are also parts of this book written as poetry. The author has done everything to fill you in on everything about the doll we all know as Barbie. There are parts about how Barbie has affected the lives of its creatures and workers at Mattel. We learn how Barbie has made people feel like they need plastic surgery to look better, how she influenced the sex doll and more. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about Barbie and her effects on the world today.
