[Re] Awakenings
Re Awakenings, an anthology of Speculative Fiction embraces short stories ranging from sci-fi, to horror and fantasy. This comment focuses on the final story, The Dragon and the Rose, by Gingerlily.
I was immediately taken by the easy playfullness and sheer good fun of this story, which bossed my jaded eyes from start to finish. I read the story stretched out in my garden on the hottest day of the year. Its languid good humour suited the atmosphere perfectly.
The Dragon and Rose is a storyteller's story. The story is all. The writing delivers the story and does not get in the way.
I was won early on by the line, 'it doesn't actually have to make sense.' I surrendered to the story at that point. I mean, why must everything have to make sense anyway? I am cool with things that don't make sense, Life included often.
There is a fairy tail feel to The Dragon and Rose. Rose is a 'vain, self-deceiving and bad-tempered' monster, the archetype of a spoilt western kid. Maybe there is a bit of her in us in our craving for a few servants to bully and order around, though of course we wld never admit this. But that is basically how the first world is set up. We click our fingers and get what we want.
Once I started reading the story as an allegorical fairy tale of how we are I was always going to finish it.
I smiled at the casual post-modern humour of 'market gardening and an MP3 player.' Nothing is ever THAT serious in our western lives. It seemed typical that Rose soon tired of the whole adventure trip. I loved the wit of 'second light', by the way.
I thought of the Dragon as a bit like China for a while. Here we are in the west with our cosy princess lives. Snap, eaten up.
The woods -- in the best tradition of telling stories -- seemed to be Life, a place where we can easily lose our way.
Snap eaten up. And then our little helpers are not there either. Oh dear. Now what?
Strang things happen in fairy tales and Mel C was just right. I even -- is my secret safe with you -- felt a little bit envious of him, as I wish I had a bit of 'mystery and magic' in me to sell, sell, sell. Without Mel C Rosies world cld not but, but typically, she groans. Sigh, reality is sooooo tedious, dahling! Get a job? Sell? Moi? (Look number 6).
But Rose is really in the soup now. This is new for her. Maybe a lot of kids feel a bit like this when they can't get jobs today. Times really are tough, very tough now. Yet her response is to try and boss the poor old dragon! Not a great survival strategy in 2012. Ach, how much longer will we have those jacuzzi and French chefs? What great symbols of our doomed lotus eating western ways.
But there is always the enchanted city. Cld the city represent hope, happiness even? And yet what a place it turns out to be, Bling City. 'Maaaaaan, that Breitling watch and that Maserati! you have some cooooool stuff.' Bling, bling!
How telling that Rose clings onto this fantasy with a vengence. And -- I loved this line -- that to Al, 'it hurt his artistic sensibilities'. Yesp, I was square on with Al at this point. Material girl Rose is inedible and far more monstrous than the dragon.
Things really got interesting in the city which seemed to represent the whole way western economies have mushroomed on the back of Emperor's New Clothes Economics over the last 20 years: 'Hey, want some debt? Have some more debt! Debt is guuuuuuud for you! Sign here.'
And so to ~~ for me ~~ the key line in this archly modern fairytale: LET ALL SPELLS CEASE.
I thoght of everything that has happened since 2008 and is still going on: sub=prime, Lehmans, Northern Rock, the slow-mo euro zone car wreck. If you think of it money is just one gigantic spell! But lets not life that spell!
The way the cat and dragon became men again was also fitting. The mad men of the ad industry and TV create such images of how we should be, of what we should want, that we all want THE PRINCE. Their spells blind us to reality. We look for princes and miss men.
I got into The Dragon and Rose and it got me thinking in all sorts of ways. It held me to the end and above all I enjoyed the read. I wld say from this story that you have the storyteller's pixie dust in your wand.
I was immediately taken by the easy playfullness and sheer good fun of this story, which bossed my jaded eyes from start to finish. I read the story stretched out in my garden on the hottest day of the year. Its languid good humour suited the atmosphere perfectly.
The Dragon and Rose is a storyteller's story. The story is all. The writing delivers the story and does not get in the way.
I was won early on by the line, 'it doesn't actually have to make sense.' I surrendered to the story at that point. I mean, why must everything have to make sense anyway? I am cool with things that don't make sense, Life included often.
There is a fairy tail feel to The Dragon and Rose. Rose is a 'vain, self-deceiving and bad-tempered' monster, the archetype of a spoilt western kid. Maybe there is a bit of her in us in our craving for a few servants to bully and order around, though of course we wld never admit this. But that is basically how the first world is set up. We click our fingers and get what we want.
Once I started reading the story as an allegorical fairy tale of how we are I was always going to finish it.
I smiled at the casual post-modern humour of 'market gardening and an MP3 player.' Nothing is ever THAT serious in our western lives. It seemed typical that Rose soon tired of the whole adventure trip. I loved the wit of 'second light', by the way.
I thought of the Dragon as a bit like China for a while. Here we are in the west with our cosy princess lives. Snap, eaten up.
The woods -- in the best tradition of telling stories -- seemed to be Life, a place where we can easily lose our way.
Snap eaten up. And then our little helpers are not there either. Oh dear. Now what?
Strang things happen in fairy tales and Mel C was just right. I even -- is my secret safe with you -- felt a little bit envious of him, as I wish I had a bit of 'mystery and magic' in me to sell, sell, sell. Without Mel C Rosies world cld not but, but typically, she groans. Sigh, reality is sooooo tedious, dahling! Get a job? Sell? Moi? (Look number 6).
But Rose is really in the soup now. This is new for her. Maybe a lot of kids feel a bit like this when they can't get jobs today. Times really are tough, very tough now. Yet her response is to try and boss the poor old dragon! Not a great survival strategy in 2012. Ach, how much longer will we have those jacuzzi and French chefs? What great symbols of our doomed lotus eating western ways.
But there is always the enchanted city. Cld the city represent hope, happiness even? And yet what a place it turns out to be, Bling City. 'Maaaaaan, that Breitling watch and that Maserati! you have some cooooool stuff.' Bling, bling!
How telling that Rose clings onto this fantasy with a vengence. And -- I loved this line -- that to Al, 'it hurt his artistic sensibilities'. Yesp, I was square on with Al at this point. Material girl Rose is inedible and far more monstrous than the dragon.
Things really got interesting in the city which seemed to represent the whole way western economies have mushroomed on the back of Emperor's New Clothes Economics over the last 20 years: 'Hey, want some debt? Have some more debt! Debt is guuuuuuud for you! Sign here.'
And so to ~~ for me ~~ the key line in this archly modern fairytale: LET ALL SPELLS CEASE.
I thoght of everything that has happened since 2008 and is still going on: sub=prime, Lehmans, Northern Rock, the slow-mo euro zone car wreck. If you think of it money is just one gigantic spell! But lets not life that spell!
The way the cat and dragon became men again was also fitting. The mad men of the ad industry and TV create such images of how we should be, of what we should want, that we all want THE PRINCE. Their spells blind us to reality. We look for princes and miss men.
I got into The Dragon and Rose and it got me thinking in all sorts of ways. It held me to the end and above all I enjoyed the read. I wld say from this story that you have the storyteller's pixie dust in your wand.
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