Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Review Turbulence / Quest

Cinderella dancing with her broomstick - Painter IX based on a photo of a ballerina.

The whole week was definitely one of turbulence... my quest to find my soul essence card may have been completed or maybe not... I'm just not sure... its close... but is it really me? Well I'm not showing it anyway!

And so onto Cinderella...

One of the types of cards that I've been making are story cards.

I've done Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are both all too relevant to someone who has had M.E. and spent half her life asleep... but what has Cinderella to tell me?

Here, in no particular order, are some of my associations with the story:
  • Cinderella dances with a broomstick and calls up a magic helper - but no-one calls her a witch

  • In British Pantomime both Cinders and the Prince are played by young women - is their final union a symbol for both the feminine and masculine sides of a woman becoming one?

  • Does "Happy Ever After" mean enlightenment? Or, as in the Terry Pratchett book, Thud!, endarkenment?

  • How could only Cinderella's foot be the only one to fit the shoe - I've always thought the Prince was lucky not to end up betrothed to a four year old...

  • Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (or if you have no Austen consider this set - I've got it and love it - Jane Austen 6-book Boxed Set) is a clear Cinderella story - I've always thought it funny that Sir Thomas gets to be the Fairy Godmother as he provides the white dress and carriage... a little sexual role reversal worked in and only apparent if you see the connection... and of course Prince Charming (Henry Crawford described as "though not handsome, had air and countenance") turns out to be unworthy of her and she ends up marrying her cousin instead which is also a good twist if you are reading it as Cinderella; Edmund Bertram is more like Buttons in the pantomime and I always feel sorry for kind, helpful Buttons.

  • On a more personal note, as a teenager I went to London, with a friend and her mother, to see Twiggy in Cinderella but Twiggy wasn't on that day so we saw her understudy and felt cheated!
Words for this card are on my card blog.

This review is a bit late in being published - I started writing it yesterday but only posted it today (Wednesday)... blame it on the turbulence.

5 comments:

steve said...

Job well done here Caroline! You so make me wanna get some decent art software. The "endarkment" thing intrigued me--I never heard of or considered such a word before and now it makes me think of the whole idea of how without the darkness there is no light--how the two are opposite sides of the same coin--a yin and yang type of thing.

Anonymous said...

LOVE the card. LOVE the thoughts it brings up. LOVE the word endarkment. GREAT post!

Caroline said...

Steve - thanks! I'd be lost without Painter these days - really. Endarkment is an intriguing word isn't it. I only read it last night.

Tammy Vitale - thank you too! I found it rather hard to write though looking at it I can't see why now.

Leah said...

hehe, more cool synchronicities...elizabeth gilbert talked quite a bit about quests...and the piece of art i'm working on is about rapunzel, a re-telling of her story. hopefully, i'll finish it up tomorrow. i love this card!

Caroline said...

Leah - I love that we are working the same gold seam here!

I was wondering if I should do Rapunzel... I once lived in the top of a castle and Jim came and saved me from the frightful (and very parental) landlords who lived below...