(no subject)

[d_aulnoy]

Aaaaaaaaaaand, today, I teach Deerskin.  I'm starting us off with a few cultural referents (helloooooooo, Purity Balls!) (also, Marilyn Monroe's "Daddy," of "Let's Make Love" fame: I remember watching that movie as a kid with my father, and thinking, even at age 7, "Okay, I know from daddies, and that?  Is creepy") before carrying us into statistics and Terri Windling's astonishing, heart-breaking, beautifully honest essay, "Surviving Childhood."  These two works, Deerskin and "Surviving Childhood" are two of the most compelling arguments that I'm aware of for the continuing prevalence of the fairy tale, no matter how many issues I have with Princess Industrial Complex.  Here's hoping my students agree ....

Comments

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

And I MISSED IT? Grr, paneling conflicts. But at least I can look forward to the book ....

[heathencorp.livejournal.com]

this is all true. everyone misses my papers, apparently, so it's no big.

i was thinking that the longer lifespan of the average person might be the start of the idea that death can be got around... previously, death was everywhere, what with disease and injury and childbirth and so on, so it was innevitable, the natural thing. now, with cures and medicine and stuff, people who wouldn't have lived before continue to live and things that were unstoppable are now prevatable, and everyone everywhere is living longer, so death is more of an inconveniance, something that can be handled and moved beyond and negotiated with. but, it's still a fear, still something down there in the subconscious where all this stuff comes from to begin with, so it still requires dealing with and it's still one of the main drives of the genre...

but you know, the idea is pervasive, too. when i'm writing, i try to NOT give in to the deathwish that i feel there all the time, and it makes for interresting writing, let me tell you!

~;)