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How Little Red Riding Hood Warns Girls to Be Wary of Meeting a Man in the Woods

Man or Wolf?

Photo in the public domain. Originally published in The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang in 1889.

A young girl is walking alone in a forest. Shadows fall against the forest floor, darkening her path. She is miles from home and miles from her destination when she comes across a wolf.

Her mother told her not to speak to strangers, especially wolves and not to stray from the path, but the wolf seems quite kind and even charming. He tells her where some pretty flowers are and asks her where she is going. “To my grandmother’,” she says. Ignoring her mother’s warning she leaves the path to pick the flowers.

When the girl arrives at her grandmother’s house her grandmother doesn’t seem quite right. Her mouth and ears and nose are all too big, but as the girl gets close enough to be sure of this, her grandmother –who is really the wolf from the woods — gobbles her up.

So many of the older versions of fairy tales have dark themes. They were not necessarily meant to be fun, escapist tales like the tamer Disney versions audiences are more familiar with today. Rather, they were meant to help prepare children for a harsh world using metaphor and fantastic elements to help soften the unsettling truths.

The story of Little Red Riding Hood is a warning to children and young girls in particular, not to stray from the path or be distracted by pretty things. It is a warning to listen to one’s parents, and above all, not to talk to strangers in the woods.

Perhaps one reason Little Red Riding Hood has not been made into a Disney film is that its theme of stranger danger is rather difficult to sanitize. Even the 1966 rock song by Sam and Sham and the Pharaohs acknowledges the predatory sexual nature of the Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. The Big Bad Wolf is a potent metaphor for a man with a beastly nature. The confusing and deliberate predatory behavior he exhibits is more like a human than a wild beast. He wants to eat Little Red Riding Hood but he draws the process out. He doesn’t simply attack her. He charms her first. He tricks her. His behavior is predatory, yes, but it is also calculated and deliberate. He distracts her with pretty flowers. He pretends to be a loving member of her family.

Screenshot HQ’s TikTok asking women if they would rather meet a man or a bear alone in the woods was a catalyst for a discussion about women’s safety, but the topic is not new. Society has been discussing ways for women to stay safe since the 1600s and before. Women have always been afraid of meeting the wrong man alone in the woods and caregivers have warned their children to be wary.

While both men and women can be the subject of violence at the hands of men, women are chosen as victims far more frequently. Men who are the victim of violent attacks are also more likely to be attacked by a man than a woman. It’s no wonder that seven out of the eight women who were initially queried by Screenshot HQ chose the bear. A bear doesn’t pretend to be a friend if he’s not. He doesn’t scheme and deceive. It’s not that all bears are preferable to all men, it’s that the worst possible bear is better than the worst possible man.

The Grimm brothers added the woodsman to come save the day in 1812 as if to tell their readers “not all men”. The older version, however, recorded by Charles Perault in the 1697, had no woodsman. Little Red Riding Hood didn’t listen to her mother and death was her consequence. She allowed the wolf to charm her and paid the price for it. There is an element of victim blaming in this. Her safety is considered her own responsibility. Even the title suggests that she is drawing too much attention to herself by wearing red. Perhaps she was asking for it, leaving the house in that. The story warns young girls to be wary and protect themselves instead of warning young boys not to become wolves.

Fairy Tales offer us a unique peek into the collective consciousness of society. The things we tell stories about tell us a lot about who we are as a society and the stories we choose to continue to tell help us shape who we could become. Society has always known dangerous beastly men exist or folklore wouldn’t have so many stories warning children about them. Not just the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, but Bluebeard and so many more. Where are the folktales teaching young boys not to become wolves or how to expose them for what they are? If men like the woodsman are women’s protectors, why is her safety dependent on whether or not she wears red or strays from the path? 400 years and more since the writing of Little Red Riding Hood, why do we still have so many wolves in our woods?

It only took one wolf to destroy poor little Red, and it only takes one man to destroy a woman’s life if it is the wrong man. A man with a beastly nature can destroy her trust in goodness, her faith in not just men specifically, but mankind. The fear is not that it is all men, but that it could be any. Trying to guess who are the wolves and who are the woodsman is difficult because the animals are so good at disguising themselves in order to get close to their prey.

Women have always been afraid to meet a man alone in the woods. We have warned our daughters to be careful for centuries. It’s not a new discussion at all but I wish it were old. I wish this were an issue that was relevant in the olden times. An archaic seventeenth-century danger like cholera and the black death that education and the progress of society has stamped out with time.

Alas, it is not so. There are still enough beasts masquerading as men that women and men alike are at risk when they meet an unknown man alone in the woods. We still warn our children about talking to strangers. In human society friend or foe is not as simple as it is in the animal kingdom. Whether bear or wolf, a wild beast can feel like less of a threat than the risk of the uncertainty of a charming but untrustworthy human.

Perhaps it is time to stop warning young girls to be wary and time to stop arguing about whether or not women have a right to feel fear. Perhaps it is time to start fighting the human beasts who are more frightening than a wild animal, the wolves hiding in men’s clothing.

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Anne Boleyn: The Hunted Hind

Queen Anne Boleyn has been equally demonized and romanticized throughout history. The sordid temptress who broke England from the church. A witch with six fingers. A cold, calculated opportunist. A determined defender of the protestant faith. The victim beheaded for having a daughter instead of a son. The woman who could make even a tyrant like Henry VIII fall in love. Rumors and exaggerated truths about her life abounded during her lifetime and have only been expanded on through fiction and propaganda since her unprecedented execution.

But what is it about Anne Boleyn that truly makes her any more villainous or glamourous than Henry VIII’s other five wives?

Anne was born to Thomas and Elizabeth Boleyn in the early sixteenth century. Her and her sister Mary were both sent to the French court to serve Queen Claude. In Tudor times a courtier’s duties were to charm, entertain and ultimately influence the rulers at court. They had official tasks such as managing the royal wardrobe but their true purpose was to be decorative and represent their families at court. .

Mary Bolyen was moved from the French court to her home court in England to serve Queen Catherine of Aragon where she began an affair with King Henry VIII, her mistress’s husband. Henry VIII seemed very much to treat his wife’s ladies like his own personal harem. Both his known mistresses and three of his wives were selected from the ladies serving at court. Considering the power dynamic these women were hardly in a position to refuse him.

Anne Boleyn soon joined her sister at Henry VIII’s court. By all accounts she was a very skilled courtier, well known for her dancing and wit more than her beauty. She was briefly betrothed to Sir Henry Percy but the king would not approve of the marriage.  Poet Sir Thomas Wyatt was also infatuated with her despite being married and soon he himself.  He wrote in a poem that he could not catch her.

 There is written, her fair neck round about:

Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,

This meaning that Henry VIII had already made claim of her 

It is interesting that while Anne is called a harlot for eventually accepting Henry’s advances, she is also called a vixen for initially refusing him. She is simultaneously shamed for saying “yes” and for saying “no”. Her first reaction at being pursued by the king was to leave court. Henry had by this time been speaking to Cardinal Walsey about replacing Queen Catherine with a younger woman who could produce heirs but there is no historical evidence to suggest that Anne had any knowledge of this. If her initial response was to leave court it is more than likely that she was not, initially, interested in the king.

Anne had numerous reasons to be wary of

Henry’s advances. Loyalty to her sister. Perhaps she had observed how Mary had been treated. She might even have been concerned that being the king’s mistress would make her untouchable to other suitors. 

Henry VIII wrote Anne letters while she was away from court but there is no record of her responses. The assumption that her cryptic replies and hasty removal from court were a game of chase meant to entice him even more is rooted in the misogynistic myth that “no” is a challenge. We do not know how often she replied or how encouraging she was but her refusal does not imply that she was planning to become queen or even saw that as a possibility. Presumably she would need to be careful not to offend the king to protect her family. She could not be forceful in her replies. She would need to flatter him regardless of her feelings or intentions. Her “virtue” may very well have been the only excuse she thought he might accept. 

Perhaps Henry VIII did eventually wear her down with his attention and she developed an affection for him. Perhaps she saw an opportunity to enact the religious reform she believed in similar to Catherine Par, Henry’s last wife who never wanted to be Queen but believed God called her to be. Perhaps she realized that no one else would risk upsetting the king by marrying her. Perhaps she always meant to refuse him and was simply out of excuses when he said he would divorce Catherine. Whatever the reason, Anne eventually agreed to marry the king.

Once she had accepted the King’s proposal, Anne She moved back to his court and accepted special rooms and gifts but refused to be his mistress until the annulment was certain. Their engagement lasted six years. The pope continually denied Henry an annulment. Anne is said to have gifted Henry a book that outlined radical protestant beliefs including a King’s sovereignty over the pope. Henry, who had previously written works defending the Catholic church, founded the church of England and granted his own annulment.

Once she was queen, Anne Boleyn used her authority to further the protestant movement. She was a direct and assertive politician despite still being called “the King’s whore” by most of the court. Anne’s unapologetic assertiveness as queen may very well be what sets her apart from Henry’s wives who came after her. Henry is reported to have told his next wife, Jane Seymour, when she dared to assert her opinion on a subject “Remember Anne”. Catherine Par, his final wife,  also angered him by contradicting his decision but escaped trial by begging for his forgiveness.

 Anne began to find herself in conflict with Arch Chanceler Thomas Cromwell more and more frequently and Henry, now bored with her, ceased indulging her authority. 

 In 1536 Anne was arrested for adultery, witchcraft, and treason. She was tried on May 15 and executed four days later. Henry VIII hired an executioner from France who could behead her with a single blow of a sword rather than the several chops of an ax Henry’s third wife ,Catherine Howard, later endured. He already had a new queen lined up. Jane Seymour who had served both Anne and Catherine of Aragon as a lady in waiting.

There is no historical evidence to suggest that any of the accusations Anne was executed for were true  Almost every man she had a friendship with was arrested for having “carnal knowledge” of her but only one confessed; the only commoner who could thus legally be tortured. In contrast when Catherine Howard was later accused of the same crimes there were detailed accounts of secret communication with the men she was accused of having affairs with.

Perhaps Henry VIII believed the accusations. Perhaps they were merely an excuse to get rid of a wife who asserted herself without another lengthy ordeal to obtain an annulment. It is odd that Jane Seymour is painted by history as the saintly wife when she followed so closely in Anne Boleyn’s footsteps. Jane too said “no” when Henry first pursued her as a mistress. She too agreed to have sexual relations with him only if she were queen. She too took another woman’s place. The woman Jane usurped, however, was not merely divorced and sent away as Catherine of Aragon was. She was beheaded.

So much of what we associate with Anne was told through the eyes of a lover who had grown tired of her and her political and religious enemies. There is very little information written in her own lifetime and even less, apart from her execution speech, of her own words. 

Because she was a woman who, for a brief moment, wielded power and wealth there is no end of criticism heaped on her despite her many similarities to Henry’s other wives. Even her political ruthlessness is barely commented on in her male contemporaries such as Thomas Cromwell who are by contrast admired for their cleverness and efficiency.

Anne Boleyn was not much different than Henry VII’s other five wives. She was chosen by him and ultimately had little choice in whether or not she would marry him. She made the best of the situation and was an assertive politician but fell out of the King’s favor and was executed on false charges. The sensationalized, demonized, and romanticization of her story is based on rumor, exaggeration, and in many cases novels and films created many years after her death. 

Jodie Turner Smith as Anne Boleyn in 2021 mini series

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Jane Eyre was the Original Not-Like-Other-Girls

She’s pretty but she doesn’t realize it. She’s smart but she doesn’t realize it. She’s into cool, practical things, not silly, frivolous ones. She would never use her charms for her own gains because she doesn’t realize she has any. She’s respectable. She comes from humble beginnings. She’s kind and capable and more than a little lonely. She’s a rare jewel in an ocean of flashy skin deep baubles. She’s . . .

Not Like Other Girls.

Bella Swan. Alina Starkov. Katniss Everdeen. YA fantasy is bursting with so many manifestations of this heroine that she is now a cliche but where did she originate and why did she become so prominent?

The rise of Dark Romance as a genre in YA fantasy began largely with Twilight in the early 2000s but if you remove the supernatural element the genre bears a striking resemblance to the works of the Bronte sisters way back in the 1850s. The brooding bad boy who is able to see the Not-Like-Other-Girl’s worth bears a striking resemblance to the Byronic hero of the Romantic Era. Manifestations of the Byronic hero are found in both Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff and Charlotte Bronte’s Rochester. 

The Bronte sisters were unique in their time because they wrote from an underrepresented woman’s perspective. Because of this, their heroines were not the picture perfect paragons of beauty, warmth and goodness that the male gaze of the time expected them to be. Instead of the flawless but unobtainable Estella of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations or Mina, the lovely damsel in distress from Bram Stoker’s Dracula we have the wild, pragmatic Catherine of Wuthering Heights and, of course, the small, plain, practical Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is a textbook Not-Like-Other-Girls. She comes from humble beginnings. She’s satisfied with little and doesn’t expect much. She’s not stunning. She has no special skills or abilities. She doesn’t spend time chasing men or thinking too much of herself like her first rival Miss Blanche Ingim or have dangerous fits of violence like poor Bertha in the attic. She’s moral and would never dream of becoming someone’s mistress like her pupil’s mother, Celine Varens. When Rochester confesses his love for Jane he compares her to all his past lovers, declaring that he had given up finding a woman who could make him happy until he had met her.

Jane’s first obstacle between her and Rochester’s affections is Miss Blanche Ingram. Blanche is written as a walking stereotype of everything a high class woman was meant to be at the time. Beautiful. Refined. Elegant. Rich. Charming. In contrast to Jane, however, she is also superficial, vain, and calculating. Jane herself expresses compassion for her, recognizing that she was raised to be that way, but the narrative itself paints her as less desirable and silly. Even as far back as the 1800s women like Jane were made to feel lesser for not meeting the feminine ideals of the time while women like Blanche were simultaneously villainized for meeting them. 

Rochester’s apparent affection for Blanche, however, turns out to be a ruse. He casts her aside once he is convinced that Jane is jealous. Jane rebukes him for playing with Blanche’s feelings but he convinces her that she never cared about him anyways. The narrative appears to accept his statement as fact but there is no way he could actually know it to be true. A similar attitude is taken toward Miss Rosamond later in the story when her romantic hopes are dashed. The man who chooses not to marry her despite loving her shrugs it off, saying she is pretty and will have lots of options. From a practical standpoint this may be true but it is callous to both women’s feelings and suggests that Bronte believes women who fit the beauty standards of the time more closely were necessarily more shallow and less deeply hurt by rejection.

The real obstacle standing between Jane and  Rochester is, of course, Bertha Rochester, the wife he is hiding in his attic.Jane herself shows compassion for Bertha when she learns of her. She tells Rochester “It is not her fault that she is mad.” but the narrative still frames Bertha as  monstrous and unnatural. Rochester swears he never loved her, that he was pressured into the marriage, that her ailment was concealed from him. He even goes so far as to call her a “demon”. It is never once questioned that locking a woman with poor mental health in the attic is the obvious thing to do. 

Blanche and Bertha are the primary obstacles between Jane and Rochester but they are not all the other girls that Jane is not like. There is also Adele’s mother, the actress Celine Varens along with his other mistresses he has taken since his marriage to Bertha. Rochester expresses nothing but contempt for these women and even the usually compassionate Jane does not rebuke him for this. His complete lack of respect for these women is why Jane decides that she absolutely will not live as Rochester’s mistress and flees.

Ultimately Rochester does not go unpunished for his poor treatment of the women in his life. While Jane receives an unexpected inheritance Rochester’s house burns down. Even though Bertha dies and he is free to marry Jane he is blinded by the fire. Jane marries him not as the powerful employer that she had fallen for but a humbled older man who is dependent on her for basic needs. It is not unremarkable that a story that is so focused on the male gaze ends with the man in question unable to see. It could be argued that the narrative is more aware than it first appears of how much of a villain Rochester actually is. His sins are not unpunished and he must repent before he can be allowed to have happiness with Jane. 

Despite this retribution, the reformed Rochester still presents a dangerous message. In the narrative Jane is not like all these other women in his life. She is special enough to cause him to  repent. The fantasy that a woman can be kind and good and wonderful enough to tame a monster is an old one. It makes an enticing and powerful story but not only can this narrative encourage women to stay in a relationship with a chronic abuser it also perpetuates the idea that the women who came before deserved the abuse in one way or another. Because they were shallow. Because they were crazy. Because they were sluts. Don’t be like those girls. Behave and everything will work out in the end. 

Jane marries Rochester. She says she is happy but is she? Is it not only a matter of time until she becomes Bertha, trapped in her husband’s home while he pursues a younger upgrade? 

All girls are not like other girls. The paragon of feminine perfection does not exist. The reason this trope has become so prominent is that it is relatable. All girls feel they fall short of the standards of perfection they are constantly compared against. 

Jane’s ordinariness is what makes her such a badass heroine. She doesn’t have to be pretty to be amazing. She doesn’t have to have special talents or good fortune. She is worthy of love and she knows it. This is what makes her so iconic and why she is a stronger character than later Not-Like-Other-Girls. From the very beginning she defends her own worth.

Still, there is a danger in the way Jane is constantly compared against the other women in her story. It is satisfying to see the underdog win but there is still that undercurrent of competition between women rather than support. Jane sees her worth from the beginning. Does she really need Rochester to validate it? Could she not celebrate herself while also celebrating Blanche, Bertha, and Celine? The paradox of the Not-Like-Other-Girls is that rather than free women from unrealistic expectations she represents a different set of expectations. 

Ultimately whether someone is Like or Not-Like Other-Girls is irrelevant. People of all genders should be free to express themselves and enjoy themselves the way they choose. We could all learn something from Jane and choose to own our worth regardless of others’ expectations of us but perhaps we can learn to do so without pitting ourselves against each other and trading one kind of comparison for another. 

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Cottagecore and Transcendentalism. How Photos of Girls in Flowery Fields Have Roots in a Gentlemen Only Philosopher’s Club.

The cottagecore aesthetic has taken the internet by storm. Our feeds are teeming with photos of flowers, picnics, baking, rolling fields, and girls in flowy summer dresses. The images are a lovely break to the constant onslaught of stressful articles and distressing world events but where does this new craze come from? Why do so many of us seem to be craving the quiet simplicity of nature and stillness right now? 

It is commonly said that the stress of the covid 19 pandemic combined with the necessary stillness it has required of us has awakened this longing for an idyllic, comforting stillness. This may be part of what has allowed this trend of romanticizing a past that never existed to blossom but it’s roots go much deeper.

Historically artistic trends have always flowed back and forth between the two extremes of structure and form to feeling and wildness. Neoclassicism fades into Romanticism which fades into Realism which fades into Impressionism. Each generation gets tired of what the previous generation’s preferences and swings back in the opposite direction. The same could be said for historical periods of music and literature as well as visual art. We constantly teeter back and forth between the extremes of Reason and Emotion. Our efforts as human to balance Reason and Emotions go back as far as Plato in western traditions.*

One major literary and artistic movement that favored emotion took place on the British Isles during the industrial revolution. Romantic Era combated the utilitarian mindset of factory owners and an increasingly prominent urban lifestyle with ideals of beauty, feeling, and a return to nature. It was an antithesis to the rigid utilitarian mindset brought on by industrialization. 

Just as Romanticism began winding down on the British Isles, the colonies experienced a literary and philosophical renaissance of their own. Transcendentalism shares similar characteristics to Romanticism such as appreciating nature and rejecting an overly industrialized life. However, while Romanticism focuses primarily on emotions, art, and aesthetics, American Transcendentalism focuses more on political discourse, simplicity, and rejecting worldly goods. 

The most prominent and well known piece written on Transcendentalism, which unlike Romanticism was conscious of being a movement, is Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. In it he reflects on his time living in simplicity in a place called Walden Pond. Some other writers from the movement include Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote the House of Seven Gables, a gothic novel in which a girl from the country brings a dreary village back to life in manic-pixie-dream-girl fashion and Ralph Waldo Emerson whose poetry collection Leaves of Grass celebrates nature, contemplation, and quiet. Margaret Fuller, a prominent feminist writer was the only woman amongst them and worked several years as editor and writer for their Magazine The Dial.

A lesser known writer who belonged to the Transcendentalist movement is Amos Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May Alcott the author of Little Women. Louisa, however, was critical of her father’s philosophy. His commitment to poverty and simplicity left her, her mother, and her sisters to fend for themselves to make an income in a male dominated world. This suggests a lack of awareness of the practical ramifications of his intellectual purism.

Similarly, while Thoreau wrote Walden in a period of isolation from society he did so at a wealthy friend’s cottage. Food was brought to him while he wrote and his mother continued to do his laundry. Both scenarios show the limitations of the movement as it was cultivated by those who had the means to survive comfortably at a slower, simpler pace rather than those who needed to work constantly to survive.. 

Similar criticism has been applied to modern movements meant to counter the constant pressure of hustle culture in a data driven society similar in many ways to the industrial revolution. The criticism is valid. Not everyone is able to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. However, that does not negate the value in taking things slow when possible.  Recognizing that one does not always need to achieve more and taking time to experience and appreciate what one already has fosters gratitude and contentment rather than stress and anxiety. 

Another criticism of cottagecore is the supposed hypocrisy of appreciating nature and savoring the moment while posting about it online. However, an aesthetic that represents a state of rest and appreciation of simple things can allow its participants to post about those moments if they enjoy doing so. That enjoyment is part of the appreciation.

In this way allowing these images to exist in a digital space suggests more awareness than the original Tandensendalist movement. The idyllic world flowers and picnics and homemade bread does not claim to actually exist. It’s a place for one’s tired mind to rest before returning to nine to fives and frustrating phone calls with automated voice systems. Society now exists in digital form and in order to interact with it we all must eventually return to that reality in some form or another.

While the popularity of cottagecore may be partially brought on by the isolation of the pandemic and the mental fatigue and stress of an international crisis it is also influenced by the desire to escape the rapid change of the digital world, the collective stress of globalization, and the data driven push of hustle culture.  It cannot be a coincidence that the onset of both Romanticism and Transcendentalism were also preceded by a massive change in technology and push towards standardization and optimization. The natural counterbalance to such utilitarianism is a craving for simplicity and stillness and appreciation of beauty and purposelessness. 

*Presumably other traditions of thought also grapple with the seeming disconnect of Reason and Emotions but, unfortunately, I am less familiar with specific writings of those traditions and would not like to comment on them without further research. If you know of a non-western writer who wrote of this subject please share! I would love to learn more about how other cultures have explored this topic. 

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Bisexual Representation in Fantasy Literature

Bisexuality is a largely underrepresented and often misrepresented identity in fiction. At first glance it’s easy to pass judgement on writers for not writing more bisexual characters. In some cases that judgement might even be warranted but how easy is it to depict bisexuality in the short span of a story? Is it possible to represent bisexuality accurately and avoid harmful stereotypes?

Bisexuality is hard for a lot of people to wrap their minds around. We tend to want to see things in definitive terms. Having a fuzzy answer like “Sometimes” to questions like “Do you like girls?” tends to make people uncomfortable. People assume that either you haven’t figured out what you like yet (rude) or that you’re polyamorous or hypersexual. There is nothing wrong with being polyamorous or hypersexual but those two things do not necessarily coincide with bisexuality. A person can just as easily be bisexual, monogamous, or demi sexual. These same assumptions made about bisexuals in real life are likewise projected onto bisexual characters in fantasy novels. 

The very first fantasy book I read with an LGBTQ+ protagonist was Wolfcry by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. In this novel Olizia, heir to the throne must choose a pair bond but there are a lot of political considerations that make the choice difficult. Lots of men are vying for her attention and the throne when she meets Betia and falls in love. It turns out a marriage to a woman with no possibility of an heir takes a lot of the political pressure off of the decision and allows her to choose her pair bond for love.  Still, it takes her some time to realize that the deep friendship she has formed with Betia is romantic love because she has never considered falling in love with a woman. 

 I loved this book. It was well written and had an underrepresented protagonist. Looking back it was probably the first positive exposure I had to lesbianism. I think I was seventeen when I read it. I distinctly remember thinking that I was supposed to be weirded out by it but actually quite liking it and that was a big step in discovering my own sexuality. Unfortunately, however,  stories like Wolfcry where a protagonist must discover their sexuality can contribute to the idea that a bisexual character is a “confused” character who hasn’t completed their story arch yet. That’s not to de-validate the experience of discovering your sexuality. In a heteronormative world a lot of us assume we’re heterosexual before we’re old enough to have a preference. But, for some, on the other side of discovery is an attraction to both genders and the “gay discovery” narrative does not always address this possibility. 

A well loved fantasy series that features mostly bisexual characters is Ellen Kushner’s Riverside books, Swordpoint, The Privilege of the Sword, and the Fall of Kings. It’s an exciting series, brimming with duels, affairs, decadent parties, and strange ancient magic. The first book, Swordpoint, follows Richard as he fights duels for hire. He is a dangerous, charming swashbuckler who appears to have had many lovers of both genders throughout his life. His current lover is a mysterious and somewhat rude man named Alec whom he appears to be especially besotted with. Their romance is not the central plot but it is very well written with a lot of nuance and complex character development.

Alec appears in the next book, The Privilege of the Sword, as the uncle of the new protagonist Katherine. He is no longer with Richard but instead has many lovers including an actress who is impregnated with his child.  Katherine, a young adolescent girl, challenges a horrible rich man to a duel for raping her friend and while she is training for it learns some things about her own sexual desire  She has a brief crush on the aforementioned actress  and ends up fooling around with her best friend Marcus. It’s unclear whether this relationship lasts. Katherine appears as a minor character in the last book in the series, The Fall of Kings, unmarried with Marcus nearby as an old family friend. This book is full of sex positive messages as well as caution against too much naivety.

The Riverside series depicts a lot of bisexual characters but most of these characters are also hypersexual and many of them have multiple partners at once. Polyamorous representation is great and so is destigmatizing hypersexuality but coupling those two things with bisexuality does reinforce the the idea that bisexuals are more promiscuous than those attracted to a single gender.

A book I read recently featuring a bisexual protagonist is The Wolf and the Hawk by Julian Greystoke. In this book the plot focuses on a heterosexual romance but it is mentioned in the narrative that the protagonist has slept with women in the past. Her sexuality is not a part of the plot at all, just a minor detail about her character. I actually really liked this casual, underwhelming approach to bisexual representation, but it could be argued that reducing that part of her character to a throwaway comment about her past could be read as dismissive. She ends up with a man after all. Doesn’t that mean her dabbling with women was just a phase?

The same could be said of Rose in my own Snow Roses. She ends up with Snow but she is bisexual. Yes, she is using Boris as a distraction because she and Snow are drifting apart, and yes, he ends up being a horrible monster, but her attraction for him is genuine. Unlike Snow who has no attraction to Otto even when she agrees to marry him for political reasons  It’s surprisingly hard to make sure that comes across in the narrative. Something we often forget when we talk about tropes, stereotypes, and representation, is that readers project their preconceived biases onto characters. Unless the writer takes a lot of care to subvert certain assumptions most readers will see them as if they were written into the narrative.

This makes bisexuality particularly difficult to represent. The focus of any romance story is going to be on the end game couple. Any distraction from them getting together can be read as a mere dalliance or experiment if the reader is predisposed to see it that way. On the other hand if a bisexual character does not have an end game partner it reinforces the idea that bisexual people are necessarily more promiscuous than those attracted to exclusively one gender.

Bisexuality is hard to represent for the same reason it’s hard for a lot of people to wrap their minds around. People don’t like their definitions of people to be hazy and inconclusive, sometimes one thing and sometimes another. Bisexuality is by definition two things at once and that ambiguity not only makes some people uncomfortable it is difficult to convey to those who aren’t looking for it.

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What is a “Penny Dreadful”? The Origins of Sweeney Todd and Victorian “Shiping”

A “Penny Dreadful” or “Penny Blood” is a sensational story published in serial pamphlets and newspapers and sold for a penny during the 1800s and early 1900s.They share the dark, thrilling themes of many famous gothic novels such as Dracula and Frankenstein and the same serial format as popular fiction of the time such as Great Expectations and Tess of D’Urberville. but were considered much less literary and often blamed for causing crime due to their violent and sometimes sexual content.

Humans have always been fascinated by their own darker nature. Tales of murder and mayhem have been whispered in the dark since the very first campfire. The forbidden can be as intoxicating as it is frightening. Before “Penny Dreadfuls”, however, most of these dark tales were told orally. Printing books was costly and reserved only for the elite. As a result, literature from the enlightenment age was largely philosophical and moralizing. This changed when the printing press became industrialized. The stories people had always whispered to one another on a cold winter’s night could now be printed and serialized in mass to be clutched by a maid in her room after dark or a stable hand between chores.

Novels of all kinds were serialized in the 1800s. Classics such as Tess of D’Urberville by Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations were published one chapter at a time in popular newspapers. People would anxiously await the weekly installments and discuss them with strong opinions. It was said that hosts of dinner parties would make sure not to put certain guests next to one another for fear that an argument might erupt over whether or not Tess from Tess of D’Urberville was a lady and Dickens rewrote the ending of Great Expectations when there was public outcry that Pip did not marry Estella. These serials, however, were much more costly and read mostly by the upper and middle classes.

Novels featuring the sensational and supernatural were nothing new. What is often regarded as the very first novel, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, was a parody of such romances (here meaning a long tale of adventure popular in the renaissance) such as The Faerie Queen by Edward Spencer, La Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory, or Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Dracula and Frankenstein both came from a resurgence of such tales during the romantic period (see more on romanticism here). These gothic novels have stood the test of time but many other novels of the genre such as The Mysteries of Udalpho are less acclaimed and regarded as inferior literature.

Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey is a parody of gothic novels. Unlike the rapturous beauties in  a gothic novel the heroine, Catherine, is described to be quite ordinary. The hero, Mr. Tilny, is not drawn to her out of any unbridled passion but simply because she was pretty, relatively level headed and seemed quite fond of him. The story takes a humorous turn when  she  spends page after page wondering what the origins of a mysterious slip of paper is only to discover that it is an old laundry list.

However much derision gothic novels and romances received for their sensational content and less sophisticated themes it did not compare to the derision heaped upon the “Penny Dreadful”. The earlier “Penny Dreadfuls” focused mainly on “true crime” but then began to focus on fictional criminals such as the Barber of Fleet Street. Soon more fantastical stories began to join them such as the Vampire Varney and Wagner the Weir-Wolf. These stories featured riveting beauties who both killed and required rescuing, murders, kidnappings, love affairs, duels, robbers, vows, lies, and nobles in disguise. They were violent melodramas focusing more on plot and device than themes or character development. Literary critics called them “trash” and they were cited in police reports as the cause of murders and suicides. There was more than one attempt made to have them banned but they continued to be written and circulated in droves .

Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, wrote more “Penny Dreadfuls” -or “Blood and Thunders” as they were more often called in the states- under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard, than polite novels about young girls. Her novel A Long and Fatal Love Chase was commissioned by a publisher but ultimately rejected for being “too sensational” and not published until 1995, more than a hundred years after her death. It is often suggested that her “Blood and Thunders” were written for money while Little Women and her other similar stories were her true voice.. However, quotes such as an admission that she had grown “tired of providing moral pap for the young” after the success of Little Women suggests the opposite or, at the very least, that all her stories were written for money.

Much like today, sex, as well as violence sold in the Victorian era. Sexual content was less direct than it is today but it was very often implied. In A Long and Fatal Love Chase the heroine lives with a married man not knowing he is married. When she learns the truth she flees in horror of what she has done, implying that their relationship had not been a chaste one. Nicida, the murderous lover of Wagner in Wagner the Weir-Wolf is kidnapped by pirates and almost “possessed”  by the pirate captain before she is rescued. She and Wagner then live together on the Island for months and the narration refers to them as “husband and wife”, again implying that their relations are not chaste.

The public’s craving for thrilling, sensational stories has never gone away nor has the critic’s assesment that such stories are inferior literature. In later years “Penny Dreadfuls” and “Blood and Thunders” gave way to “Pulp Fiction”, mass produced paperbacks made with cheap pulped paper. A modern equivalent to a “Penny Dreadful” might be a  TV show such as the True Blood or Supernatural. It’s not meant to be high quality storytelling. It’s not meant to make it’s consumers reflect on social issues or come to terms with pieces of their own nature. It’s pure entertainment meant to provide escape and an outlet for the natural human fascination with darkness. It may never take the place of more sophisticated and meticulously crafted stories but it will also never stop being popular.

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Frozen 2 and The Hero’s Journey

Frozen 2 is not based off of a fairytale but it uses an old format steeped in mythology as the structure of Anna and Elsa’s adventures. 

WARNING: MAJOR FROZEN 2 SPOILERS.

In 1949 Joseph Campell described seventeen stages of what he called the monomyth, or the Hero’s Journey in his book “The Hero With a Thousand Faces”. The monomyth is the story of a hero or heroine who leaves home for a quest and returns changed. Campbell based the structure off of his observations and the observations of scholars who came before him of myths across cultures that have been told for centuries and contain motifs that consistently repeat themselves. According to Campbel not all stories use all seventeen stages of the monomyth –in fact few do–but all stories contain at least one.

The Hero’s Journey offers a clear skeletal structure that has been taught in film school and literature classes for years. Hollywood has long used it as a template to manufacture their films and Disney’s Frozen 2 is no exception. In fact, I have seldom seen a more direct and literal manifestation of the monomyth. It encompasses at least eleven of the seventeen stages and contains a song (or two in some cases) to represent seven of them.

The monomyth begins with the “status quo” or ordinary life. This is where we meet the hero or heroes and learn what their life is like, who they are, and what they care about. They have no idea what is about to change their lives and push them into their great journey of discovery and self actualization. One could almost say that they believe that “Some Things Never Change” as Anna so blissfully sings in Frozen 2’s second musical number. Elsa and Kristof join in, clearly chronicling their goals and desires. Anna wants merely to frolic and enjoy life with her friends, Kristof wants to propose to Anna, and Elsa wants things to remain stable as she enjoys each moment. All three characters want to hold on to the hard earned connections with each other that they won in the first film. This theme of connection vs separation is repeated throughout the film.

Next comes the call to adventure (also called the unknown), often accompanied by a refusal to the call. These stages are woven together in Elsa’s flagship ballad “Into the Unknown”, in which a voice quite literally calls her out of her castle into the cold night air for reasons she can’t explain. She resists at first but in the end succumbs to the siren pull of the voice. This surrender enacts dangerous elements that quickly threaten the life she knows and send her and her sister off on a quest to seek answers. Here she has already taken the first step toward transformation and there is no going back.

The stages meeting the mentor and crossing the threshold are not sung about but they can be very easily identified in the moment Anna speaks to the troll king and the moment when Anna, Elsa, Kristof, and Olaf cross into the magic forest. The troll king gives Anna valuable advice that she will need later when things are at their darkest and and once the characters have entered the forest they are literally sealed in until they finish their quest. Both moments are very literal. Olaf even says as they cross into the forest “Forests are a place of transformation.” This cheeky, direct acknowledgement of the film’s format is another motif that is repeated throughout, creating a literal representation of things that are usually more metaphorical and symbolic. 

The stage tests, allies, and enemies, is divided into two songs. In Olaf’s “When I’m Older” the snowman meanders through the dangers of the wood unable to make sense of it all without his friends near him.This is an ironic representation of his naivety as he becomes acquainted with darkness.  He believes that his fear is because of his immaturity but in reality he is barely escaping destruction at every turn. Kristof’s “Lost in the Woods” is another metaphor turned literal turned metaphor again as he laments feeling lost without Anna while he is also, of course, quite literally lost in the woods. In both songs the real enemy seems to be division and separation as the trials only appear when the characters are separated from one another. This separation is in direct opposition to their mutual desires expressed at the beginning of the film to hold on to each other.

The stage known as the dragon’s lair is where the hero faces their biggest danger yet and gains wisdom.This stage is capsulized with Elsa’s song “Show Yourself”, a moment of self-actualization in which she uses her powers to find out the truth and the source of the voice that had been calling her -herself. Here she begins to come to terms with the idea of separation and change as she realizes how powerful she really is. She listens intently to her own voice and gains knowledge. At the end of the song, however, in another metaphor made literal Elsa goes too far and freezes herself to death with the cold, bitter truth.

Next comes the moment of despair. Anna takes this one with her dark, almost depressing, number “The Next Right Thing”. Here she remembers the advice the troll king gave her and rallies herself literally from the floor of a cave, completely alone, and finds the strength to make things right again. Not for herself but for the new friends and allies she has met in the woods. This marks a very real moment of growth for her as she must rely completely on herself for, possibly, the very first time. This growth and independence is the ultimate treasure. Both sisters have now undergone a complete internal transformation. They have traveled all this way to seek the truth of a mysterious voice but what they have really discovered is truths about their own inner strengths.

As Anna uses her new strength to set things right she enters the homeward bound stage of the sisters’ shared journey. She must return to the rest of the world with her new gift -her own independence. It is interesting that the phrase “homeward bound” is used in the only song in the film that does not correlate directly to a stage of the monomyth. “All is Found” is a lullaby sung by Anna and Elsa’s mother at the very beginning of the film and is, in a sense, the riddle the girls are trying to solve. So the story ends where it began. With both girls coming back home to themselves by learning self reliance from the very source that nurtured them in their infancy. 

Finally, there is the resurrection and final transformation stage. When Anna puts things right Elsa is restored to life. She emerges with more power than ever and saves her kingdom from eminent destruction. This is the final threshold. The final ordeal. The transformation is complete and she kicks ass. As the film comes to a close both Anna and Elsa have overcome their fear of separation with independence and self trust and can now work together with their very different strengths. Because even though independence is their treasure interdependence is how they can use it. Elsa needed Anna to bring her back to life just as Anna needed Elsa to stop the raging waters from destroying their kingdom.

Frozen 2 is not the first or only film that uses the monomyth format but the directness with which it uses the archetypical story structure is charming and more than a little bit meta. It’s almost as if Disney is saying to its audience, “Yes, we know you’ve seen this story before but we also know you want to keep seeing it.”

Not every manifestation of the monomyth is good. There are plenty of flat and lackluster versions of the hero’s journey but there is also a reason we keep telling it over and over. We use stories to better understand ourselves so watching a character learn about themselves through an epic journey is already meta. We all want to understand the world and ourselves better so that we can be transformed and kick ass too.  Perhaps that is why the monomyth has been frozen in time.

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The Importance of Darkness in Fairy Tales

I did not intend to write a sequel to Snow Roses. When I finished the book five years ago, I thought Snow and Rose’s story was finished. But stories have a mind of their own. I am only the oracle after all, not the decision maker. Snow and Rose had more to say about their lives, and it became my duty to record it.

I often talk about what I call the “story pull”. The gravity of a story that pulls me toward it, insisting that I discover it and write it. I don’t create, I just follow, allowing the story to speak through me. When Night Briars first started pulling at me to write it it was merely a concept of two lovers after they became lovers. Too often a story ends once a romance begins, but in reality, choosing to live a life together is the beginning of a story, not the end. I wanted to explore the challenges and joys of two people building a life together, and the more the idea pulled at me the more it felt like it belonged to Snow and Rose.

One of the reasons Snow Roses wanted so badly to be told was that it was high past time we had a fairy tale with lesbian princesses. Fairy tales are such an integral part of our culture. So much that we often say things like “It was like a fairy tale” or It was fairy tale perfect” or “This isn’t a fairy tale.” It’s almost as if “fairy tale” meant “perfect”. So why shouldn’t “perfect” include a lesbian love story? Why didn’t we have a lesbian fairy tale?

Still, I sometimes wonder if people who talk like that have ever read a fairy tale. Even our most cleaned up, kid friendly versions of the old stories include multiple counts of child abuse, food poisoning, kidnapping, theft, working without wages, hunger, and numerous other misfortunes. The older darker versions of these tales are worse, containing body mutilation, starvation, beatings, cannibalism, and even rape. So why would we say “It feels like a fairy tale” when we mean “it feels idyllic”?

Phycologist Carl Jung explored the concept of the “collective consciousness”. Universal dreams, so to speak. The same fears and desires that are in all of us manifest in stories and dreams that span across time and across cultures. These are ideologies and symbols that are innate to us as humans. It is no coincidence that there are so many different versions of the same fairy tales and folklore. The youngest son who beats the odds and earns his place as a king. The old woman at the well who gives strange but wise advice. These are stories that manifest ideas and concepts that are universal to us as humans. They resonate so strongly to us that we cannot help but tell them over and over in as many versions as we can imagine.

So when we say “like a fairy tale” we are not saying “perfect” or even “idyllic” so much as “innate to us as humans”. All the more reason to continuously examine the stories we are telling each other and ourselves. What are we, as a society, dreaming of? What do we fear? It is important to be aware of these things and continuously explore ourselves and each other through telling and retelling these stories.

In one of the oldest versions of Sleeping Beauty, The Sun, the Moon, and Talia by Italian writer Giambattista, Talia is raped by a wandering king while she is in a magical sleep. She wakes when giving birth to his son. The king’s wife then tries to kill Talia and her child but they are “rescued” at the last minute by the king who then has his wife executed. There is a reason this is not the version we tell our daughters today. As a society we now recognize that the deeds of the story’s “hero” are wrong. Our values have matured over the centuries and the stories we continue to tell reflect that.

It’s important to acknowledge where the sometimes dark places the stories we tell come from, in addition to constantly asking ourselves where we want them to go next. The dark side of fairy tales is every bit as important as the “happily ever after” because we all have dark spaces inside us. That is a fundamental part of being human. The need to confront and come to terms with that darkness is part of why we are so drawn to fairy tales. We have to sludge through the starvation and kidnapping and getting lost in the woods before we can reach our true potential. Our happily ever after. The darkness is part of the magic. That’s why Snow Roses in not only a lesbian fairy tale retelling, it is also a dark fairy tale retelling, containing many of the darker elements from the older versions.

It seemed very fitting that a story exploring the darker side of a relationship like Night Briars would wind up being a fairy tale. I was so glad that that meant I got to revisit Snow and Rose because I missed Rose’s temper, Snow’s bad cooking, and their mutual commitment to being themselves. Writing this book has been a major journey for me and I am so thrilled that I can finally share it with you. May it join the dreams of our collective consciousness and inspire you to reach your highest potential. Your very own, unique, happily ever after.

Photo by Elizabeth Arenas

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Sacred Ground: The Tombs of Pere Lachaise

The tombs of Pere Lachaise are grandiose. Towering. Severe. Many great men and women are buried here. Some, like the ill fated lovers Heloise and Abelard were originally buried elsewhere but brought here from other burial sites. Others, like rock star and poet Jim Morrison and French writer Collette have simple, modern graves rather than the big stone monuments that fill most of the cemetery. As one meanders through the peaceful green hills, cluttered with tombstones and lost tourists clutching maps as they search for their heroes, one cannot help but wonder what makes a man or woman great. What makes a man or woman worthy of being enshrined with such reverence?

One of the most visited tombs in the cemetery is the resting place of Oscar Wilde. His tomb is encased with glass to protect it from the hundreds of lipstick kisses left by visitors swarming around his burial place by the hour.

  • Oscar Wilde’s Grave

Oscar Wilde was a playwright, a novelist, and a poet. He also wrote fairy tales but he was most well known as a high society dandy in the nineteenth century and for his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas at a time in history when homosexuality was punishable by law. In 1895 he was arrested and tried for “sodomy”. As a result of the arrest he was sent to prison for two years of hard labor. After being released from Prison Wilde was reunited with Douglas for a brief period before he was forced to separate from him under the threat of having his meagre funds withdrawn. Apart from a piece about the brutality of prison and some edits to previous works he stopped writing. He died three years after being released of meningitis complicated by an ear injury he got in prison.

The hotel in Paris Oscar Wilde was living in when he died

Oscar Wilde was a great man. I admire both his literary accomplishments and his bravery in living his life the way he wanted in a culture of suppression. The wit and integrity of emotion in his writing is phenomenal. His works are unfailingly entertaining while maintaining a tongue in cheek satire on society. Some are full of light hearted tomfoolery like the Importance of being Earnest while others, like The Picture of Dorian Gray, explore the darker side of humanity and the desire to create. He had the ability to say things with such succinct clarity that he is hard not to quote. For me, visiting his tomb was truly like standing on sacred ground.

Still, among the great tombs and towering monuments covered in kisses and flowers and letters, there is another kind of grave scattered throughout Pere Lachaise. These tombstones have been knocked over by trees. They have been overrun with moss. The names once engraved with care into stone have eroded and are now indecipherable or gone completely. What forgotten lives rest here? Why were their graves neglected when so many others are celebrated and remembered? Who loved them? Who did they love?

For the religious a graveyard is sacred ground. A place blessed by priests so that the souls laid to rest there can find their way to heaven. Because of his prison sentence Oscar Wilde was only permitted to be buried in such a space because he was buried amongst unbaptized children. I am not religious but I have always found graveyards to be peaceful spaces. Quiet. Mournful perhaps to those who have lost someone but still. Quiet in a way that is almost sacred. A place of rest.

Visiting Oscar Wilde was a sacred experience for me. I love him because of the words he left behind. Because of the brazen way in which he lived his life regardless of what others thought. I love him because I know his story. Because he told it to us with all its vulnerable unflattering bits. I love him because I see pieces of myself in who he was and remembering him makes me feel stronger.

But why do we celebrate some lives and not others after they are gone? Because some lives are worth more than others? Certainly not. But there are a few lives whom we have been privileged to know about. They have left a piece of themselves for us to explore and learn from. A song or a poem or a play. Knowing these lives gives us insight into ourselves,

When we pay homage to another life we are really paying homage to ourselves. To the piece of ourselves we see in that other life. That piece that they have helped us understand more deeply.

It is almost certain that many if not all of the souls lying beneath the tombstones of Pere Lachaise lived vibrant, beautiful lives regardless of whether or not they have scores of tourists stampeding through the hills to visit them. They almost certainly loved as wildly and deeply as Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde and Collette. The only real difference is that we don’t know their story. We don’t know what pieces of them would teach us to understand ourselves more.

What makes a life great? What makes a death worthy of homage? The greatest gift a soul can leave behind is their story no matter what it entails. The story of another life allows others to know themselves more deeply so that they can find beauty and strength in who they are. So that they can pay homage to themselves.

All lives are worth celebrating. Anywhere you live is sacred ground.

Little slab of stone
Solid like a storm
Do you remember the life you were?
The breath you breathed?
The heart you beat?
Where is the homage to the dance you danced?
The music you sang?
The fingers you touched?
Only in silence is your story enshrined
Only in stillness is your monument held

Little slab of stone
Solid like a storm
Where are the stampeding feet of tourists
Incanting your name?
Did your pulse not quicken with the same fears?
Did your mind not melt with the same love?
Is any life so small that it can erode the name of death?
Is any death so great that it can eclipse what has lived?

Little slab of stone
Solid like a storm
Rest deep
Sleep like a king
Inside the same damp groanings of the earth
Your life is your homage
Your own remembrance is your name

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The Vulnerability and Authenticity of Poetry: A Case Study With Cesar Yuriar

I first encountered Cesar’s poetry at the Lyrical Exchange open mic at Queen Bees in North Park San Diego. Attending an open mic is a bit like taking the pulse of a city. Dozens of vulnerable artists stand up in front of you and lay their souls at your feet. To be mocked. To be loved. To be understood. And –with any luck –to help you feel more understood. To connect. To be real. It’s a direct channel to the city’s heart. Why it beats and why it bleeds.

This is true with any performance art be it music, comedy, dance, or theater. Each is a unique and beautiful expression of the human soul but listening to someone read or recite their poetry in front of a live audience is particularly raw and intimate.

Perhaps because there is not the safety of fiction, humor, or melody for the poet to hide behind. Perhaps because poetry is so unmarketable that any thoughts of fame or fortune must be banished from the poet’s motivation. Regardless of the reason, having someone trust you with the words in their heart –not on paper or screen with time and distance to protect them but right there, in that room, at that moment –is a true honor.

Not all the poetry you hear at an open mic is good mind you. Not in the literary or performance arts sense. It doesn’t always have clear cadence or distinctive metaphors. Still, it’s a piece of a person who is willing to stand up and share and that by itself is beautiful.

Sometimes, however, –often even –the poetry you hear is masterfully crafted poetry in the literary and performance arts sense as well as the raw, vulnerable sense, and that’s when the real magic happens. These are the jewels that stay with you for weeks or even months after they have been performed.

What puts magic in poetry? It’s hard to say. Each poet –each poem really –has it’s own unique rhythm and flavor. Any rule you try to ascribe will quickly be discredited by an example of when it was broken successfully. There are no, and never will be, any rules to art. Art is anarchy. It is authenticity. It is a willingness to give up anything you think you know and experience life as if for the first time every day. It is abandon. It is surrender.

Still, one can abstract what one loves about a particular poem or poet in an attempt to understand what makes it it’s own unique kind of magic.

In spoken word or performed poetry there are two elements: the presentation and the poem itself. The performance is equally as important as the poem if not more. Some spoken word poets don’t even call their pieces poems. They call them scripts or simply pieces. These pieces don’t necessarily contain any of the traditional poetic devices like alliteration or simile (although, of course, they can). They tend to be more direct with a repetitive rhythm and many spoken word poets have a background in rap or hip-hop. Each word is conveyed with emotion and conviction like an actor’s monologue with an emphasis on engaging and entertaining the audience. A good performance can be downright sobering to watch as the poet takes you with them into every crevice of their piece.

I was drawn to Cesar’s poetry because it contained many of the elements from traditional poetry that I love, like lyrical phrasing and obscure metaphors, while still maintaining the directness that lends itself so well to performance. His work deals largely with themes of love and mental health with deep echoes of longing for connection and healing. He wrote his first poem in high school when he entered a deep depression after almost becoming a father. Traces of “what if” and “what could have been” still make appearances in his pieces today.

In Amanda Palmer’s book The Art of Asking she talks about how artists create with pieces of themselves. You are the raw material of your art but the degree to which you blend and puree that raw matter before sending it out into the world is up to you. Cesar says his work his mostly just him with only a moment or two in the blender before it is released. Perhaps that is another element to the charm of his work. His openness in relaying his own struggles in the hope that they might help others face theirs.

After all, isn’t that what artists have been doing for centuries? Giving voice to the things that keep us up at night. Speaking the truths that we don’t dare tell our parents and bosses and sometimes even our friends to remind us that we are not alone. That we are all human. That at the core we are all fighting the same monsters and none of us are instagram perfect.

The best poetry gives us permission to be broken along with the freedom to heal. It finds beauty in the darkness instead of trying to hide it so that we can become strong enough to create our own light. Our own magic.

A beautiful example of this comes from one of Cesar’s poetic heroes, T.S. Elliot. Elliot’s poetry about his life as a bisexual helped Ceasar come to realize and accept that he himself was pansexual. This is a brave thing to own about yourself even today but in Elliot’s time the stigma was far more universal and pockets of acceptance were much harder to find. Writing about his sexuality and then proceeding to publish what he had written was nothing short of heroism and Cesar is not the only person who I’ve spoken with who has found it easier to be themselves because of Elliot’s work. My first girlfriend admired Elliot for the same reason.

In the end it all goes back to the rawness that even the “bad” poetry has at a reading. Without that underlying current of vulnerability and authenticity none of the metaphors or rhythms or even stellar performances have any real meaning. Without the feeling and honesty behind the words they are only sounds. It is the humanity that makes them magic. It is me. It is you. It is us.

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