My Steamboat: A Ski Town Childhood by Dori DeCamillis It’s a basic memoir of living in rural Colorado in the fifties. Nothing really earth-shattering happens. There are no eating disorders or parent deaths. But I got this book because I was hoping it would talk about living in a skiing town, and there’s none of that. Apparently, this was the only person in Steamboat who didn’t take advantage of the slopes. When you don’t have that, it’s mostly amusing stories about getting into mischief and trying to keep from being bored before there was the internet. Gnome Cave by James Rolfe It’s really a novella. A good idea, but poorly…
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More What Ifs from The Little Mermaid
What if Ursula never gave Ariel a vagina? What if she didn’t know what one looked like, since she’s been under the sea for so long and has no interest in humans. So she just left her blank down there, like a Barbie doll, because she didn’t know there was supposed to be something else. That would explains Ariel’s lack of reaction to the new features between her legs (in that there wasn’t anything to react to). Boy, wouldn’t that be a surprise for dear old Princey.
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In Which I Condemn Ariel to Misery
Okay, so I am not a lawyer. But there’s this post by Shon Faye (@shonfaye) that’s gone viral. And I thought it’d be a fun experiment to see if I could argue the other side of it. So, yes, I’d be defending Ursula. 1. Ariel being a minor is subjective, and I disagree this makes the contract any more nullable. I would assume that there are no clearly established laws of consent in this medieval world, either on land or sea. But let’s say there are. Ariel’s still old enough to get married and be emancipated from her father. I would argue that if she’s old enough for that to…
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The Books I Read: July – August 2016
Far Far Away by Tom McNeal Fans of Neil Gaiman will love this book. The closest I can call it is a modern fairy tale, but that word gets thrown around so much it’s become meaningless. I’ve never used it until now (I think). It felt like a combination of Stardust and Holes. Jacob Grimm has become a ghost and, after traveling the ethereal plane, attaches to the only boy who can hear him. A lonely boy struggling with a single Dad with a failing business. The thing keeping this good book from being a great book is that nothing happens until about 66% through. The first fifteen percent, the…
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Mermaid Thoughts After Dark
Okay, I don’t mean to be gross here, but did when Ariel turned into a human, did her carpet match her drapes? I don’t expect Ursula has done a lot of research on humans. Books on physiology are hard to come by under the sea. So I’m not sure how she would know that human hair is all the same color. For that matter, Ursula might have overlooked that whole business and given Ariel an unfurnished basement. These days, trimming the hedges might be commonplace, but it must have freaked Prince Eric out — finding out that his bride doesn’t have secondary sex characteristics. For that matter, does Ariel even have a vagina? Ursula’s…
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Princesses Reimagined as Mermaids
Go here: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/news/a40013/8-disney-princesses-drawn-as-mermaids/ I have a vested interest in this topic and, since it is relevant to my hobbies, I thought I’d share.
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Who is the Protagonist in The Little Mermaid? (Follow-up)
So I got my kids to watch “The Little Mermaid”, and honestly, I hadn’t seen the full film for quite some time. In the context of my last article about who the central figure of this movie is, I began to wonder, what if Prince Eric is the protagonist? Let’s think about this. For one, he’s the first person we see, usually a giveaway. Ariel doesn’t appear until eight minutes in, after two other scenes. Also, Eric is the one who finally defeats the antagonist, not Ariel. Even though he doesn’t know Ursula from Adam, maybe she represents the Mrs. Wrong he’s been trying to avoid — a bride with bad motivations.…
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The Real Mermaid Problem
Let me tell you my pet peeve with mermaids and the movies. No matter what kind of production it is, big or small budget, bit player or star, Hollywood always makes the same mistake. Maybe it’s just ignorance or a limited special effects budget. Probably a bit of both. So let me take the opportunity to enlighten you. Mermaids don’t have knees. If anything, a mermaid’s spine is closer to a dolphin’s. It tapers into a tail with lots of vertebra. There’s no joint that lets them tuck their knees in. If you asked a mermaid to lift her tail, it would curl up like a snake. Right But you…
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Under The Deep Sea (Little Mermaid Parody)
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Is Ariel the Protagonist of The Little Mermaid?
During my Ursula analysis, I came upon this question (also posed by Lindsay Ellis and Doug Walker). Who is the protagonist of The Little Mermaid? Through my studies of narrative, I’ve learned that a protagonist is not necessarily the main character or the hero. Don Quixote is the main character, but Sancho Panza is the protagonist. A protagonist is the person who changes as a result of the story. The protagonist enters the story because of conflict with the antagonist. The protagonist is supposed to be the person the audience mostly identifies with. There are many different kinds. The hero protagonist is the most basic, most common. This is when…
