Notes on Three Poems by Jonathan Minton
I Walked With a Zombie (1943): One of the central concerns of the film is who gets to tell the story. It is remembered and voiced by the outsider Betsy. Paul, the white plantation owner, tells the official narrative, but it is in conflict with the songs and folklore of the indigenous people of Saint Sebastian. Some of the phrasing is adapted from Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, Roky Erickon’s “I Walked With a Zombie,” and Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
The Beast With Five Fingers (1946): The assistant/secretary/astrologer is played by the brilliant Peter Lorre, always adept at playing ambivalent characters who can elicit both sympathy and dread. Some of the phrasing is adapted from Maria Dong’s “In the Beginning of Me, I Was a Bird,” KT Bryski’s “Folk Hero Motifs in Tales Told by the Dead,” and Seamus Heaney’s “For David Hammond and Michael Longley.”
I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Invasion of the Saucer Men (Double Feature) (1957): Some of the phrasing is adapted from the June 23, 1992 issue of World Weekly News, Julia Thacker’s “I was Bigfoot’s Love Slave,” Sharon Olds' "The Day They Tied Me Up,” and W.D. Snodgrass' "Nightwatchman's Song."