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Interview with a Comic Strip Diva by Denise Duhamel & Maureen Seaton We
sat down with Olive Oyl at her home in Chester, Illinois. We were struck
by the graceful reserve with which she served us herbal tea, her quiet
yet sparkling generosity. MS:
Ms. Oyl, you've been called the skinniest thing in boots. Do you find
this interferes with your self-esteem? OO:
Did you ask General MacArthur that? Nancy Sinatra? Betty Boop? DD:
Are you concerned at all about America's obsession with the private
lives of celebrities? OO:
I've never had sex with Clark Kent. But that doesn't mean I won't if I
get the chance. DD:
Are you saying you've considered a career outside of showbiz? OO:
I am not monogamous. There are millions of monogamous people, but I am
not one of them. MS:
In that case, would you like to respond to the Inquirer? I'm thinking
especially of the front page spread with the picture of you and Bluto
caught in an indiscretion. OO:
It's not as if Frank O'Hara were monogamous, right? DD:
Speaking of the New York School of Poets, do you align yourself more
with them or the Beats? OO:
You can't imagine how boring it gets in all these little boxes, each
strip's linear predictability. MS:
I'd heard you were a surrealist at heart. OO:
There are sardines and there are lemon trees--it depends what you're in
the mood for. DD:
Are you as uncomfortable doing interviews as your publicist says? OO:
I believe in performance and page. My goal is to bust through genre
restrictions-- strips, 'toons, feature films. MS:
Oh, are you double-jointed? OO:
Why can't I be it all? Pen and ink legs with human hair or Meret
Oppenheim's tea cup covered in fur, the way art has sex with life and
vice versa.
Olive Oyl Cento by Denise Duhamel & Maureen Seaton her
toes are not
(lines in this found poem were borrowed from Robert Duncan, Kathleen Fraser, Lyn Hejinian, Denise Levertov, Hilda Morley, Frank O'Hara, Ed Sanders, James Schuyler, Jack Spicer, Keith Waldrop, Philip Whalen, and John Wieners)
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