{"id":896,"date":"2024-05-03T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/wordpress\/greenblotter\/?p=896"},"modified":"2024-05-03T22:51:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T22:51:00","slug":"las-vegas-in-fiction-and-reality-a-review-of-triple-sonnet-for-nomi-malone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/2024\/05\/03\/las-vegas-in-fiction-and-reality-a-review-of-triple-sonnet-for-nomi-malone\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas in Fiction and Reality: A Review of \u201cTriple Sonnet for Nomi Malone\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reviewed by Meg Burns<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Triple Sonnet for Nomi Malone\u201d can be read here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

In their poem \u201cTriple Sonnet for Nomi Malone,\u201d Dorothy Chan explores the controversial protagonist of the 1995 film Showgirls<\/em> and its Las Vegas setting. Chan draws parallels between the film and their own life, specifically their own memories tied to the Nevada city. They also utilize various pop culture references to suggest feelings of loneliness and a struggle to find one\u2019s place.<\/span><\/p>\n

The poem, published in Vol. 53, no. 1 of American Poetry Review<\/em>, strings three stanzas of sonnets together into a run-on, stream-of-consciousness style study of the character and the speaker\u2019s shared loneliness. At a glance, the structure of this poem seems daunting. It doesn\u2019t follow the traditional rhyme scheme or meter of a sonnet, except for the fourteen lines in each stanza. The line and stanza breaks occur at seemingly random times as well. Yet, a hint as to why this piece reads the way it does lies in the author\u2019s note at the very beginning: \u201cin the Center of the Universe<\/em>.\u201d Chan\u2019s capitalization refers to a reference to Project Runway<\/em> later in the poem. The show was filmed in New York City, and this inclusion alludes to the place they are writing from. In contrast, Nomi Malone, the subject of the poem, lives and works in Las Vegas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chan goes into the differences between the two cities by comparing their use in films. While New York seems to be a common setting for movies of various genres, Las Vegas, despite its glitz and glamor, is not a popular location for filming. The speaker questions this, asking \u201c…How many\/great love stories take place in Sin City or\/in those ’50s sci-fi movies where would\/the aliens park their saucer.\u201d Chan furthers this idea by referencing that the monster Godzilla attacked New York because it was a more populous and important city, leaving Vegas further down on the \u201cfood chain of Kaiju conquests.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The stark contrast that Chan creates between the cities leads back to the theme of loneliness. In order to understand this further, it\u2019s important to note that in Showgirls<\/em>, Nomi Malone is a runaway criminal who is trying to redeem herself by getting a job as a stage performer. She\u2019s ruthless in her pursuit and does many questionable things, such as pushing her rival (as Chan puts it) \u201cdown the fucking stairs.\u201d Despite praising this action as ambition, they immediately note that Nomi\u2019s name can be read as a hidden message: either \u201cKnow me? I\u2019m alone,\u201d or \u201cNo, me? I\u2019m alone.\u201d This acts as a suggestion that loneliness was Nomi\u2019s true motivation in the film, and acts as the volta towards Chan\u2019s self-reflection.<\/span><\/p>\n

The final stanza begins with the speaker reminiscing on a past lover they met in Las Vegas. They note that he was \u201cBorn in the Year of the Cock,\u201d which turns the Chinese zodiac sign, rooster, into an innuendo signaling that they enjoyed his company. (This also is a fitting allusion to make, as Nomi Malone is a sex worker for part of Showgirls<\/em>.) Their musing over this man ends abruptly, in the middle of a line. They say \u201cHe ended up calling every night\/though I wish\u2014\u201d and don’t even pause before moving into a different memory and leaving the potential partner behind. This time, they recall walking through shops on the strip with their father as he gave them the advice, \u201cPlease don\u2019t end up alone.\u201d Another memory overtakes this one, and another, and another, separated only by dashes in the text. The reminiscing quickly turns into desperation, longing, what Chan calls \u201ca time machine.\u201d The reflections of both Nomi Malone as a character and the speaker\u2019s history with Las Vegas give this poem an overall sad nostalgia to it, with a rambling sentence structure to match its chaotic journey through the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meg Burns is a junior music major at Lebanon Valley College. On campus she can often be found acting with Wig and Buckle, singing, or hyper-focusing on whatever she’s writing at the moment. She enjoys art, cosplay, Pok\u00e9mon, tabletop roleplaying games, and a nice cup of hot chocolate in the evening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Meg Burns In their poem \u201cTriple Sonnet for Nomi Malone,\u201d Dorothy Chan explores the controversial protagonist of the 1995 film Showgirls and its Las Vegas setting. Chan draws […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}