Today I am guest blogging at
I am participating in Nicole Givens Kurtz’s Weird Western Wednesdays!
My guest blog post appears on her blog, Pulp Reports, which can be found on her website, Other Worlds Pulp (http://www.nicolegivenskurtz.com).
I remember the first
story that devastated me: it was a fairy tale and it was Hans Christian
Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid.” A sad
work quite unlike the happy Disney film version, it taught me the world was
unfair, that a kind-hearted person could work hard for a particular and
peculiar heart-loved treasure and yet not receive it. It was not merely the
simple act of not receiving the treasure that bothered my tween heart but the
fact that the treasure had been stolen, willfully, cunningly, and by someone
with a rationalizing conscience. The Little Mermaid had saved the prince from
drowning. The Little Mermaid had given up much in order to win the human
prince. Therefore the Little Mermaid should –if life
were fair—win the prince of her heart. But she had not.
The second story to bother
– but not truly devastate-- me was the film “High
Noon” with Gary Cooper. The hero was loved by two women.
One pale and blonde. The other dark and foreign…and
somehow “used” or “damaged
goods.”
I have always loved and hated
Westerns. To me there is no difference between a cowboy with a rifle and a
warrior with a sword, lance, or quiver. They are often both on quests, they
have a right to wrong, they follow the rules and laws of their times, they
exist in a solitary –often desolate—landscape.
Trouble was, westerns were often upsetting me because of the way they treated
minority characters.
So, as I watched “High
Noon,” I could not see what all was so bad about the
Spanish spitfire. She was quite noble, trustworthy, and honest, and she loved
the hero. Except that there was that taint of being the other and somehow not
being worthy enough. Like the Little Mermaid, she lost her love as well. I
suppose I’ve always been more interested in stories when a
love story and an underdog were involved. And, like all little minority kids
who watched TV in the nineteen-seventies, I developed the art of mentally adapting
the story being told on the big screen. It seemed perfectly clear to me that
Romeo and Juliet were about two lovers from different religions, and that Hamlet’s love Ophelia
was black. That is how we heal ourselves.
Later, when I found out that
Hans Christian Anderson had written “The
Little Mermaid” in order to tell the real-life story about a
Jewish girl’s unrequited love for a Christian boy, I understood
why stories about the rejected, the unseen, the wounded “other” meant
so much to me and why I simultaneously loved and hated westerns.
Weird Westerns are not my
favorite genre but they are in the top ten of my faves. Probably just after
wounded warrior fantasies. Why? Because they combine my love of heroes with my
love of the fantastic. And when the story is multicultural, all things come
together to make the world right again. If not for the Little Mermaid, then at
least for me.
I said earlier that The Little
Mermaid devastated me. There are two genres of devastating stories: those that clearly
open a child’s eyes to the fact that the world is unfair, and
those that utterly disregard some aspect of the child, such as race or disability.
“The Little Mermaid” may
have been a fairytale but it is inherently true. “High
Noon” is about reality but it is not only true but
cruel. Why? Because it is part of a canon that excludes. That is the worse kind
of canon. I think stories help to set the world right. They either set the
world right by not consciously –or unconsciously—ignoring
certain aspects of humanity – such as race and disability. Or
they set the world right by warning us about the evils in the world. In that
way, stories point to the obstacles we may encounter in our path. I hope the
stories in this anthology will help light and right the way.
Carole McDonnell
- Twitter- @scifiwritir
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