Who doesn't love Lettie Lutz, the Bearded Lady character in The Greatest Showman, who sings the iconic anthem, This is Me ? Yesterday, my daughter took me to a singalong version of the film for a Mother's Day treat, and we both belted out This is Me at the tops of our voices. Both Lettie and the song have become symbols for anyone who feels marginalised or different. It so happens that last week I watched another film about a hairy woman, the very beautiful Norwegian coming-of-age film, Løvekvinnen , or The Lion Woman, based on a book by Erik Fosnes Hanson. It tells the story of Eva Arctander, who is born in a small town in the early 20th century and struggles to find her place in the world. Especially, it concerns her relationship with her stationmaster father, widowed at her birth. I loved this film - which I watched on Netflix - and I definitely want to see it again. One of my best reads of last year was Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Bi...
Like most people, I'd heard of Platonic love, but I didn't really know what it was. I had some vague idea it was about being "just friends". I also knew that Oscar Wilde defended himself against charges of homosexuality by invoking some ancient ideal of a noble friendship between an older and younger man, but I didn't really know what that was about either, or that the two were related. Things only changed the other week when I was reading a book about Leonardo and Michelangelo - The Lost Battles by Jonathan Jones. It says that Michelangelo defended himself against gossip over his male/male friendships by invoking Plato's Symposium. It also quotes a poem by Michelangelo, which says: Well, alas! How will it be heard? the chaste desire that burns the interior of my heart by those who in others always see themselves? This certainly struck a chord with me, and is very relevant for Carlo and Tammo's coming relationship in the next episode of my Angelio tr...
The Red Shoes: The Archers/J Arthur Rank, 1948 The other night, I was watching the classic 1948 film, The Red Shoes. When the film was over, I decided to read up on the original tale by Hans Christian Anderson, which brought me back to the subject of amputation in fairy tales. When I was writing my novel, Silver Hands (based on Grimm's fairy tale, The Handless Maiden) I had to think carefully about how I was going to approach amputation in my re-telling. I decided early on that, in my version, the hands were not going to grow back as they do in my source tale. The 2012 Paralympics made everyone in my country much more aware of the achievements of amputees. In real life, limbs do not grow back; what can grow, however, is confidence and new abilities. This was what I wanted to portray in Silver Hands. Margaret learns new skills in painting and calligraphy, ...
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