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6:40 a.m. - 05/12/02
charm (v.) to induce by using strong personal attractiveness.
The DatingJungle wants to know if I'm looking for Prince Charming. Which is particularly amusing considering that yesterday, I was thinking about Snow-White and it occurred to me that my real issue, in metaphoric terms, is that I never wanted the Prince. I remember watching the Disney version and hating that she just abandoned the dwarves to ride off into the sunset. I would have stayed in the woods with the dwarves, and I always knew this, or so I remember. I mean, in the actual-original story, the prince doesn't even save her. He begs the dwarves to let him have the glass coffin (with her in it) so that he can look at her always. And after all this pressure, they cave. As the men carry off the coffin, they drop it (typical :))- the piece of poisoned apple lodged in Snow White's throat flies out and she awakens. So I guess, indirectly he does save her, but the Heimlich would have been equally effective.

So- considering that the forest of fairy tales generally refers to the dark place one must journey through (i.e. the struggle, the obstacle, adolescence, etc.) and the dwarves in Snow-White provide a safe place for the renegade princess, not to mention bringing her back to life (twice), I would say that the woods was my whole struggle, the dwarves' home was Rogers (I don't know that they'd like this comparison ;)) and the Prince was my return. The Prince symbolizes everything I'm expected to want, everything the journey is supposedly for (in Disney terms), while honestly I'm just wanted to stay with the dwarves. Which is fitting when you consider that nearly every girl-oriented fairy tale is a Persephone story...I don't think Persephone returned to the underworld every Winter because Hades tricked her into eating a pomegranate. I think she went back because she fell in love (you'll remember that Hades the man shares his name with Hades the realm, and that back in the olden days before the patriarchy, all of the dead went to the Underworld; being subground was not synonymous with being in hell) and she needed to return. Persephone is constantly referred to as "proud" (typically characteristic of someone who has *not* been raped...or perhaps someone who has overcome this, but I'll vent on the patriarchal stupidity another day) and in the older books, she was known for helping those in the underworld to find peace. Which is basically my goal, right? I mean...I want to return to the "dark place/ the woods/ the underworld" (without returning to where I was while in it) in order to help others and be with the people I love. The idea that someone could be ok with giving up their entire experience in those woods (basically, their *defining* experience) to shack up with a prince is absurd. In the Grimm version of Snow-White, it actually says that she was "kind" and humored him by agreeing to marriage.

Which is not to say that the old myths aren't as screwy as the fairy tales (because they're the same stories). I mean, the idea that if you don't eat, you won't stay in hell is a bit suspect to me...but then, the whole Snow-White story is that way.

Maybe I'll send this as a reply to the DatingJungle...I would never have written it without their subject line.

chord

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