Powers of Creation

Girl, implicated: the child in the labyrinth in the fantastic

2014-09-01T16:52:46Z

Greer Gilman, master of purple involuted mock-Jacobean epics, muses about one of my favorite themes. The girls who have adventures in labyrinths fare differently compared to the boys. [Also she has a bone to pick with Tehanu's crabbed domesticity in Ursula Le Guin's novel of the same name. So do I, Gilman. So do I.]

I like her observation that the girls [Ariadne, Alice, Eilonwy from -- yack! -- the endlessly irritating Book of Three, Arha/Tehanu, Sarah] find their ways out; they know where they're going. Meanwhile, the boys [Theseus, the White Knight {?}, Taran, Sparrowhawk/Ged, Jareth] don't; they get lost and bonk around aimlessly. They're "clueless," Gilman says, which is to say without a clue...or without a clew, Ariadne's map-like ball of thread that knows the way through the passages. ["Clue" as a hint of a guide derives from "clew" qua thread. I love etymology!]

So why do we only hear of the boys getting out and through the maze? Why don't we ever hear of the girls who get to know their labyrinths and walk through the darkness, unafraid of Minotaurs?

Beats me. For some reason, Inanna's descent to the otherworld ain't considered as compelling. Why not???

Pfffffft.

Goin' to read Moonwise again, even though it drives me up the wall.

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Labyrinth news: novelization reissued with bonus material

2014-05-21T16:57:18Z

Janna surprised me a few days ago with a hardcover reissue of A.C.H. Smith's novelization of Labyrinth, [re]published at the end of April. This version contains the same novelization text as the original 1986 paperback, but omits the insert of color stills. It does, however, contain previously unpublished goblin drawings by Brian Froud, as well as pages from Jim Henson's journals, in which he jotted notes about his original conception for Labyrinth in 1983.

I care nothing for the novelization, as it's indifferently written, but the supplemental material intrigues me. I'm most interested in Jim Henson's notes, which I haven't cracked yet, except for a brief glance, during which I caught the phrase "Goblin King = death?" That made me think back to the afterword of the 20th anniversary edition of Brian Froud's book of conceptual drawings, Goblins of Labyrinth, in which he envisions Jareth "with the worms of death eating through his armor." I haven't been able to forget that image, so I'm curious to see how Henson wanted to develop it. I also wonder exactly which fairy tale Froud's referring to.

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Apparently I am stocking up for some Labyrinthian renders.

2014-04-23T17:14:38Z

I took advantage of some discount coupons at Renderosity yesterday to purchase the following items, all of which make me think of my favorite movie.

First there was Beautiful Darkness, a V4 eye makeup resource by PureEnergy and hotlilme74, because Jareth's eyeliner may be thick, yes, but it doesn't make the sharply demarcated swoopy shapes that he prefers. Labyrinthian because the Goblin King has eyeliner as seen in this kit.

Next I started poking around in the "Fairy: Props/Scenes/Architecture" subsection of the marketplace, where I discovered that content creators have a puzzling obsession with making mushroom houses for sprite-like characters. While ignoring the plethora of fungus-based residences, I happened across ironman13 and EmmaAndJordi's Enchanted Bubble, which I quickly snapped up. I can think of all sorts of fun things to do with this: blow soap bubbles, trap people inside it [okay, not so fun], scry with it, repurpose as crystal balls... Labyrinthian because magical balls [hah hah hah] feature prominently in the movie.

Then I clicked on yet another fairy ring set and discovered an adorable figure atop one of the mushrooms. A little research informed me that she was Anceata, one of a pair of figures by my latest favorite figure creator Nursoda. Of course I had to check Anceata and Semil out, and they promptly hopped into my cart. I tried to convince them that they were unwanted, as I already had a scrawny figure with a big bobble head, pointy ears and oversize hands [Telka, also by Nursoda]. However, Anceata pointed out her devastating cuteness, especially with her round and pointy little chin, wide mouth and glasses, so I allowed them to stay. Labyrinthian because Nursoda explicitly cites Brian Froud, designer of many Labyrinth puppets, as an inspiration for his work.

Links to other suggested products on Anceata and Semil's page directed me to Poisen's Eyeball Garden 2 Posable. I've always found the eyeball lichen one of the most memorable and inventive elements of Labyrinthian scenery, but also one of the most revolting. Since I've been kitting out my runtime with fantasy elements, I decided to toss the eyeball plants in there. I have successfully reduced my revulsion by telling myself that these are not actually plants with vertebrate eyes, but instead plants whose flowers mimic said eyes for unknown reasons. I'll bet you money that the slightly sadistic alchemist responsible for other Experiments is behind the eye plants too.

By this time in my order, I was only cents away from $40.00, which would make me eligible for a 20% discount. I wondered if there was anything I could that would put me above that threshold. I went with Schurby's Landscaping Hedges, mostly because, in a Labyrinthian mood, I was thinking of hedge mazes. They'll also be nice for putting in front of digital houses, though.

Speaking of digital houses, I got another item recently that reminds me of Labyrinth: the Ant Farm's NeverHome. This neighborhood of narrow, peaked houses resembles the ramshackle structures of the Goblin City in their brownness and pointiness. I like how they look realistic enough to be interpreted as standard residential buildings, but stylized enough to be slightly uncanny.

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Look who I found in the Daz store!

2014-02-05T18:32:20Z

"Underground King for M4." Bulge-related morphs included, much to my amusement. Hair not included, much to my disappointment.

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The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver: take your huge talking rat and go home.

2013-10-02T14:31:37Z

Yesterday I picked up Lauren Oliver's Spindlers from the library. As I could tell from the cover, it involves a brave girl descending into darkness to rescue someone she loves from creepy monsters. I always have loved stories of girls going underground, the modern Urtext of which is that book that people today think is Alice in Wonderland, but is really Alice's Adventures Underground by Lewis Carroll. [Sidebar: the ancient Urtext is that possibly of Persephone or maybe even Inanna.] Anyway, such a basic story of transformation is very difficult to do justice to, and, unfortunately, The Spindlers fails.

The Spindlers follows protagonist Liza as she goes underground to save her younger brother from arachnid creatures that have stolen his soul to eat. Oliver writes well, even beautifully at times, but she can't plot, can't pace and can't tie anything together. Guided by a large nervous talking rat, Liza trudges from event to event. There's a market of lost things, a seductive palace dance, a ridiculous kangaroo court, a river of knowledge, a forest of evil trees, a rickety bridge guarded by a keeper who demands a fee, a drugged smorgasbord, a threat of being devoured, a helper who turns traitor, a distraction of monsters by throwing rocks to set them upon one another, a hall of misleading mirrors, an invitation to stay in the dream forever, a traitor turning back into a helper in the nick of time, a showdown in which the ruler falls to pieces along with the castle, blah blah blah.

I can handle threadbare elements if they're well executed, but these here ain't. Modern tales of girls going underground tend to be about the messiness of perspective, the slipperiness of life and the challenge of maintaining one of the few constants -- love, affection, loyalty, family, one's own moral compass -- in such a promising, threatening morass. I, however, have no idea what The Spindlers is about, but it's not that. Why does Liza have these particular experiences? Instead of being Liza's own psychological landscape, the underground functions as a vacuous adventure dispenser. There are no unifying concepts or themes, just a serialized circus of oddity without significance. The Spindlers takes a nifty concept and runs it into the ground with triviality.

It's really a Labyrinth ripoff. It's like Oliver discarded all the good parts of the movie [the context provided by Sarah's room's contents, wonderfully designed puppets, the odd, very British flashes of humor, that dude with the balls] and, for some reason, decided to run with the concept of a whiny kid fighting some royal villain for custody of her little brother. The Spindlers really jumped the shark when Oliver, for no particular reason, gave Liza a penchant for saying, "That's not fair!" -- which is, of course, Sarah's refrain in Labyrinth. I then became distracted, imagining Liza's words in young Jennifer Connelly's petulant whine. Ugh.

This is not a book that pisses me off. This is just a book that disappoints me. Clearly it's time to cleanse my mind by reading all of Alice's adventures.

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Shirley Bassey covers Get This Party Started

2013-09-25T14:14:11Z

She makes me actually like the song. I always thought that the lyrics were, "I'm coming out, so you'd better get this party started."

The mist, masks and mirrors are making me think that someone needs to mash this cover up with images from the ballroom scene in Labyrinth.

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Chthonic Jareth

2013-05-24T23:16:58Z

I love this piece of fan art, Evil King 2, by MarylinFill on DeviantArt. She accurately captures the menacing underworldly power that emanates from him when he first appears. Reminds me of the Major Arcanum the Magician. Also the kind of air I was trying to evoke with Timonium.

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While I'm on that subject...

2013-05-24T14:59:16Z

...I will put this in a new entry, so as not to detract from Sarah's triumph. After Sarah says, "You have no power over me!" I just love David Bowie's final facial expression. He looks wrung out, worn down and deflated. He's not angry at all, just disappointed and hopeless. He knew it was coming; he knew it a long time ago, all the way back in the ballroom in a bubble when Sarah wrenched herself from his arms and escaped. He knew it when she ran after Toby in the stair maze, instead of him. It's the ineluctable trajectory: dude is goin' down.

( Read more... )

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"You have no power over me!"

2013-05-24T14:43:23Z

Though generally not a fan of Jennifer Connelly's one-note performance as Sarah in Labyrinth [where that one note = HUH???], I do love the way she delivers that line. She starts off reciting the little climactic speech from the play that she was struggling with in the beginning.

As she begins, you can see her speaking pro forma, mouthing the words because that's the function of the Protagonist during a Showdown with the Antagonist. Staring into middle distance, not really at Jareth, she goes through the motions necessary to achieve the Climax...

...And then she stalls on "kingdom as great." While she's wracking her brains, Jareth takes the opportunity to butt in with a truly ridiculous show of groveling: the "Do as I say, and I will be your slave" speech that has launched a thousand kinky OTPs.

Sarah continues to try to remember the next Step in the Formulaic Process, but then you can actually see the moment where she stops. She looks up at Jareth and really perceives him for the first time in that scene. You can see her realizing that, for all his bluster, he's terrified of her. You can see her deciding that he's no longer worth it. You can see that weight of terror lifting from her shoulders. You can see her confidence blooming as she looks straight into his eyes, standing up a little taller, even smiling a bit.

At that moment, she's finally full of herself and her own power. You can see her pride and her hope and her determination when she states with calm finality and some amazement, "You have no power over me." Those words happen to be the Next Words in the Spell of Confrontation, but, more importantly, they are the words with which Sarah seizes her own agency after an entire movie of being a whiny, reactive, powerless girl. HURRAY!!!!

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Best vampire novel ever!

2013-02-03T03:53:48Z

Mary Downing Hahn's Look for Me by Moonlight tells the story of 16-year-old Cynda. She spends the winter at her remarried father's isolated Maine inn, where she feels left out of his new family. She ignores the overtures of friendship from a fellow loner her age, Will, in favor of the only person that she feels understands her: the elegant, cultured Vincent, who is at least twice her age [well, actually more like 31.25 times her age, but he looks 30].

Vincent plays on Cynda's crush and enthralls her so that he may drink her blood. She finds herself powerless to resist his commands and even to tell her family how he is sapping her will to live. The climax occurs when Vincent manipulates Cynda's 5-year-old half-brother Todd into becoming his next victim. Wrenching herself from her enchantment, Cynda enlists Will's help and, with some supernatural aid from the ghosts of previous 16-year-olds that Vincent has drained, eradicates the vampire.

I fucking love this book! As a novel for kids from 9 to 13, it's written simply, but evocatively, with the usual mastery of creepy atmosphere demonstrated by Hahn in most of her stories. At the same time, even though it's a YA book, Hahn directly engages with the combination of sex and death that makes seduction by vampire so peculiarly potent. I mean, everyone in the entire book [including Cynda] worries about Vincent taking advantage of Cynda and even raping her, though, thanks to Vincent's machinations, Cynda's parents end up believing that Will represents a sexual threat to her. After reading so much YA paranormal romance bullshit [oh hey there, Twilight saga!] that doesn't seriously address the power differential between the mortal female protagonist and the vampire male love interest, I am so glad to read a well-written exposition of the temptation and also the supreme, cold ickiness of finding out that your fantasy is made of ice that wishes only to penetrate you and kill you to the core.

Look for Me by Moonlight reminds me strongly of Sarban's Doll Maker, another nearly allegorical, simply written, evocative novel in which a young woman dances with, goes under and then, finally, resists and pulls free from, an older man who sexually dominates her and prefigures death. As Cynda almost becomes Vincent's icy object, so Clare in the Doll Maker almost becomes Niall's doll, but they both end up overcoming those men who would occupy them. Interestingly, both of them use the ambivalent, cleansing power of fire to effect their final transformation from thrall to independent agent. [Kill it! Kill it with fire!!]

Look for Me by Moonlight also reminds me of Labyrinth. I mean, heck, it's about a 16-year-old girl [Sarah] who feels displaced from her family due to her mother's absence and her father's remarriage. She resents her half-brother [Toby] and spends much of her time living in fantasies [that damn play] where she is convinced that an older dude [Jareth] cares for her. Ultimately, though, she realizes that the older dude means death, so she must rescue her half-brother and herself from his clutches. Of course, Look for Me by Moonlight lacks the added layer that Labyrinth has of occurring entirely within the protagonist's mind. Therefore Cynda needs to neutralize Vincent, while Sarah, in my interpretation, should be doing something more complex than that with Jareth. In any event, I will never tire of reading feminist tales of girls kicking oppressive patriarchal ass and coming into their own power based on warmth, love and connection.

Jareth is such a pedophilic vampire. I mean the one in the movie.

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Sticky balls

2013-01-21T18:23:40Z

I've been a fan of contact juggling ever since I first saw it in Labyrinth. This individual does a stellar job of it, accompanied by smooth cinematography and pleasing score. I've always liked how the balls appear to stick to the jugglers and/or defy gravity.

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