Media Journal: Dickinson

"Dickinson," a modern young-adult melodrama with a hip soundtrack released in 2019 by Apple TV+, presented a mysterious 19th-century American poet as today's young teenager with plotlines and dialogues that the young viewers could easily relate to and understand. The series sparked my curiosity, so of course, I had to watch it.

The show is set in the middle of the 19th century in Amherst, New York, where Dickinson grew up. Our main lead, as expected and predictable, is our very own world-famous poet, Emily Dickinson, and her character as portrayed in the series by Hailee Steinfeld, is a mess while being very entertaining.

In the first season, Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld) rides shotgun with Death (Wiz Khalifa), while cursing a pretentious Henry David Thoreau (John Mulaney), and dancing with a vision of a huge bee (Jason Mantzoukas) while high on opium. Yes, this is absurd. But exceptionally excellent and if I say so, very binge-worthy.

“ Emily wonders why Austin doesn't have to slave away in the kitchen like she and Lavinia are doing at the start of the series.

"Austin is a boy," Lavinia reminds.

"This is such bullshit!" Emily replies.”

That scene, along with a few others early on in the series, gives the impression that Emily is a woman out of time, radically new not just in sense of her literary works (the majority of which were published after her death), but also in the way she managed to carry herself in this old, claustrophobic setting. Emily's dad and sister speak in typical period language; while she is seen occasionally swearing and using modern slang, such as when she admits to a friend, "We hang out, like, all the time."

But it soon becomes clear that Emily isn't the only one who speaks or acts in this manner. It's not only Emily and her lifelong friend Sue (Ella Hunt), who is courting Austin but appears to be Emily's soul mate. But practically every young person on the program (and a couple of adults) appears to have drifted over from the set of Euphoria to be crammed into awkward period costumes.

‘Dickinson’ did not invent the use of contemporary phrases and words used by period personalities and neither enforced it upon the cast rather chose to portray the coming-of-age of Emily Dickinson in the 19th-century in an unusual manner- characters talking in Millennial lingo, soundtrack being packed with current hit songs, and situations frequently literal understandings of Emily's metaphorical poetry.

Dickinson is a series that, like poetry, takes a chance on failure in an attempt to develop something spectacular — a complex, witty, and packed origin narrative for a literary heroine that's deadly serious about her subject of matters but not so serious about herself.

This show wasn't merely another modern-day recreation of a famous dead personality for entertainment with Mitski in its soundtrack or a corny take on the poet Emily Dickinson's life. It explored how she became a legend, and why even today's public, who exist in a much more welcoming and enlightened era, might still lack creativity like Emily’s peers in her era. The play took its leaps of fantasy, which aroused the same depth of emotion as her poetry, providing it with life and beauty.

Dickinson was a poet who recognized the power of every emotion, but her era barely recognized her. As did Slyvia Plath in their extraordinary meeting, reminding Emily that the future never comes for women. And so, Emily Dickinson made the future come to her. And that, the show- even if quite unusual but very much in trend with the generation -succeeded in portraying.

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

Then there's a pair of us!

Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!

How public – like a Frog –

To tell one's name – the livelong June –

To an admiring Bog!

-Emily Dickinson

-s