May -- Women and Girls, Danger and Resilience

                                                                                                 

                                                               
                                                                    The painting is by Andrea Kowch.

Stories to light the path. . .

Long, long ago, when the first fairy tales were being dreamed up, mothers were always on the verge of disappearing. To be an adult woman was to live a precarious existence at best. Too soon you could be sure of violence, of rape or beating or even murder. Too soon you could be sure of illness or death in childbirth. Too soon you could be gone, replaced with the next young fertile woman, still able to suckle your young. (The story of stepmothers is a whole other essay.) In those days, you had to create something you could leave behind to light the path, to keep throwing those bread crumbs, to clear the thorns from the thicket. A tree or a ghost or a bear or a good fairy—but something, something to outlast you.

A mother had to bequeath a gift, a story. And a daughter had to be ready. For her mother’s disappearance—and for her own, too. -- Amber Sparks Lit Hub

The illustration is by Caitlin Hackett.

.........................

Why Do these Dark Stories Endure

I had found the stories of Bluebeard and Beauty and the Beast  fascinating. However, I also found them disturbing and overwrought. The illustrations were gruesome. The basic ideas were horrific.

In one tale, a demonic murderer uses exceptional wealth and deception to lure his wives to a nasty death.

In the other, a lovely young woman is forced to be the wife of a man who was a beast -- a powerful man, a wealthy man, a man who was more than he appeared to be. But a beast nevertheless.

According to researchers at the universities in Durham and Lisbon, the basic story of Beauty and the Beast can be traced back to the Bronze age, about 4,000 years ago. Many variations of the basic theme have been developed throughout the centuries reaching from Europe and Russia to Asia.


The illustration is by Angela Barrett.

........................

The Voice Of Women

Why does this story endure? . . .Why has a variation of the story, based on versions written by two French women in the 18th century become a classic? Madame de Villeneuve (1740) and  Madame de Beaumont (1756) were both adroit survivors of French court life as well as talented writers who gave voice through stories to issues of concern to women at all levels of society.

Versailles and the court of Louis IV were a world unto themselves. A world of power, wealth, and rules. Well connected, intelligent women, developed literary salons. They were initially inspired and led by a talented and brave woman, Madame D'Aulony. Known as the conteuses or storytellers, they wrote, read, and recited.

"D’Aulnoy and her peers used exaggeration, parody and references to other stories to unsettle the customs and conventions that constrained women’s freedom and agency. Throughout her writing career, D’Aulnoy’s central theme was the critique of arranged marriage, her heroines repositioned as agents of their own destinies." Link: D'Aulnoy

The illustration is from the TV series Versailles.

........................

A Beast In The Marriage Bed

Terri Windling in Myth and Moor, explained the background and motivation for Madame de Villeneuve's story.

"The story she came up with was uniquely her own, however, and addressed issues of concern to women of her day. Chief among these was a critique of a marriage system in which women had few legal rights — no right to choose their own husband, no right to refuse the marriage bed, no right to control their own property, and no right of divorce. Often the brides were fourteen or fifteen years old, given to men who were decades older. Unsatisfactory wives risked being locked up in mental institutions or distant convents. Women fairy tale writers of the 17th & 18th centuries were often sharply critical of such practices, promoting the ideas of love, fidelity, and civilité between the sexes. Their tales reflected the realities they lived with, and their dreams of a better way of life. Their Animal Bridegroom stories, in particularly, embodied the real–life fears of women who could be promised to total strangers in marriage, and who did not know if they'd find a beast or a lover in their marriage bed.

.................................................

 

Who by Fire-- in Your Merry Merry Month of May

Who by fire, who by water,

Who in the sunshine, who in the night time
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial
Who in your merry merry month of May
Who by very slow decay
And who shall I say is calling?   Leonard Cohen  -- Live in London

 

 

The painting is by Andrea Kowch.

....................................

 

Bluebeard, Lydia Millet reminds us, is a story about illusion, transgression, and the dark side of carnal appetites. It cautions us to beware of strangers in the woods...and of gentleman in the front parlor.

 

.....................................

Perrault and Bluebeard

 

The wonderful Terri Windling, in a definitive article in Myth and Moor, reveals the many variations on the Bluebeard story through time and in many cultures. It seems that the version that we know was written by Charles Perrault (1697). Perrault presents Bluebeard as a serial murderer of great wealth and superficial charm, who deceives, exploits, and kills fatuous women (his brides); they are driven by greed and craven curiosity.  Perrault blames the murdered women for their fate. This includes as well Bluebeard's new bride, who is about to become his next victim. Perrault gives the young woman no inner strength; she behaves in a helpless manner.

She impetuously disobeys her husband's command, thereby learning that she has married a murderer.  And she will be next. Luckily, her brothers save her just in time.

 

Perrault does not criticize Bluebeard's murderous behavior. However, Perrault does scold the young wife. both in the story and in the Morals that follow. Perrault's motivation for writing in this way remains a quandary for scholars. 

 

 

Angela Carter, inspired by the Bluebeard legends, wrote a wonderful new story, The Bloody Chamber. It is very different from Perraut's story and appears in her book, The Bloody Chamber.

 

The illustration is by Nadezhda Illarionova.

....................

 

Angela Carter -- Metamorphosis and Empowerment 

 

 Beauty and the Beast and Bluebeard inspired new stories in Angela Carter's exceptional book, The Bloody Chamber. . . " 'The Bloody Chamber' is like a multifaceted glittering diamond reflecting and refracting a variety of portraits of desire and sexuality - heterosexual female sexuality - which, unusually for the time, 1979, are told from a heterosexual female viewpoint. . . The Bloody Chamber is often wrongly described as a group of traditional fairy tales given a subversive feminist twist. In fact, these are new stories, not re-tellings. As Angela Carter made clear, 'My intention was not to do 'versions' or, as the American edition of the book said, horribly, 'adult' fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginnings of new stories'. . . Carter regarded them in this light, using them as a way of exploring ideas of how things might be different."

Guardian article re Bloody Chamber by Helen Simpson.

The illustration for The Bloody Chamber is by Kate Meyrick.

...........................

New Stories

The writing in Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber is brilliant. It flows easily. The places and characters are vividly described.

The stories pull you in to a fantasy world that becomes quite real for the reader.

The style, appropriately, has a sensual quality with darkness lying beneath the surface of events. 

Metamorphosis and transition are integral to the stories.

The young women protagonists become empowered; they are no longer victims.

 

The illustration by Angela Barrett is from Beauty and the Beast .

...................................

Acts of Imagination 

"A great writer of fiction both creates — through acts of imagination, through language that feels inevitable, through vivid forms — a new world, a world that is unique, individual; and responds to a world, the world the writer shares with other people but is unknown or mis-known by still more people, confined in their worlds: call that history, society, what you will."

Excerpted from At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches by Susan Sontag 

The photo of Angela Carter is by John Mahler/Toronto Star.

.........................

Soul Lives On

Soul has now won the Academy Award. Soul has received  a multitude of very good reviews worldwide. Here is the Critics Consensus from Rotten Tomatoes: "A film as beautiful to contemplate as it is to behold, Soul proves Pixar's power to deliver outstanding all-ages entertainment remains undimmed."  Soul is streaming on Disney+.

Here is the Link to the trailer for Soul.

 

...........................

Exceptional Independent Animation

.........................

My Galactic Twin Galaction Trailer

Surreal, Hyper visual, Tongue in Cheek

Director Sasha Svirsky, Composer Alexy Prosvirnin

Producer Alexander Gerasimov, Master Film Movie Film Company, Russia

Link : My Galactic Twin Time 45 Seconds

 

....................

Storm

HIgh drama, huge storm, man on boat

Outstanding. Emile Cohl Ecole student film by Nicolas Bressonat

Music/sound by Max Ollier

Link: Storm Time: 2.01

...........................

End The Death Penalty

Chilling, difficult. True story

By Jonatan Hodgson

Produced for Amnesty International

Link: End The Death Penalty  Time: 5.35

 

............................ 

"HI, WE'RE SARA AND BRITTANY!"

"We’re folklorists, teachers, and writers, and together we're the founders of The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic! We teach online courses that celebrate traditional tales and everyday magic. Our goal is to re-enchant daily life, one story at a time. . . Myths, legends, and especially fairy tales are our passion."

 

These two women are passionate in their love of myth, wonder tales, and folklore. They have brought their broad knowledge (they both have PhD's) to the Internet and are teaching and sharing with award-winning, interactive, original courses on the Internet. Here is a link to information about these women, the courses, and their remarkable Carterhaugh School

.......................

King Soopers Murders

In the USA, we are in a continuum of mass killings of innocent people and children. We can only hope that President Biden has success in passing some gun control laws. The two young people in the photo have come to an informal, spontaneous memorial for their friend Nevin Stanisic, 23. He was murdered, as were nine other innocent people, in Boulder, Colorado. on March 25, 2021.

Credit:Michael Ciago/Getty

 

...........................

Ottawa Therapy Dogs

Ottawa Therapy Dogs provides invaluable care and support through animal-assisted interventions. We serve people of all ages struggling with physical and mental health challenges. Our teams visit over 60 health care, educational and social services facilities regularly throughout the National Capital Region. The wonderful work done by Ottawa Therapy Dogs  volunteers and their dogs includes working with teachers and kids in the excellent  R.E.A.D. program , where kids with problems become readers.

 

..............................

The Infinite

I just ordered this book

When I read that Phillip Pullman said that The Infinite, a book about a 12 year old girl time traveler is: " Vivid, funny, exciting and inventive", I wanted to read it. High praise from the master. It was written by UK poet, Patience Agbabi.

I'll review it in next month's blog.

 

........................

A Woman's Life With a Pack of Rescued Dogs

"The second book, following Born without a Tail, is if possible better than the first. The author brings alive the small pleasures and also the pain of those who live with a pack. Rescue people have some of the most extraordinary stories to tell and this book tells them well. The pain of loss and the unexpected beauties of life are shared in this book and I'm the richer for the reading. . . The author has spent a lifetime in exploration of the terrain where human and non human lives intersect and left us this treasure map. Read it, you'll be glad you did."

Excerpted from an Amazon reader review of C. A. Wulff's wonderful book, Circling The Waggins. Wulff also designed the cover.

 

...........................

"Fairy tales also face up to the facts of life: nothing is sacred or taboo. Meanwhile they glitter with beauty. I work at the weirdly fascinating intersection of beauty and horror.” Maria Tatar, Harvard Magazine

...............................

Castle In The Mist

“Do you think that it is possible for dogs to stop a war?"

"Author Robert J. McCarty has created a charming fantasy-allegory that can be read and understood on at least two different levels.  Children will enjoy the story about dogs who come from another planet to help people on earth.  But under the surface are the important messages of friendship, love, loyalty, and how to overcome evil with good.”  The same things are true as the story continues in Castle in the Mist.  The book is well written and easy to read.  It will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next..." 

From a review by Wayne Walker -- Stories for Children Magazine, Home School Book Review, and Home School Buzz. To read sample chapters of the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email at [email protected] and we will send you the books. 

The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty

........................................................................................................

"My father worshipped dogs, hunting, fishing, the state of Maine, and the complete works of William Shakespeare, in that order."
Susan Conant True Confessions (1995)

....................................................................................................................................