Don't Be a Bitch... You'll Make a Witch

In the short stories The Cinder Maid, The Baba Yaga, and The Wicked Stepmother there is one very obvious common thread. This is the presence of an evil stepmother who marries the man of the family after the mother either dies or is cursed. There are very few male characters in any of these stories and these men tend to be mostly absent from the story. The main characters are women and the main antagonists are women. In most of the stories, the mentor is also a woman.

                I found these stories a lot more interesting after our class discussion about how witches are generally removed from mainstream society. Witches tend to live outside of a typical family group and out of a patriarchal society. The best example of this is probably Baba Yaga, who lives with a servant in the woods, but has no husband or children to speak of. She is the antagonist of the story and seems to be feared by the society the main character inhabits. In The Cinder Maid, there isn’t a specific witch character, but the Cinder Maid herself uses magic to fool the prince. She is also removed from a typical family group, however this time it is against her will. Due to her being rejected from her family, she is able to access the power from the tree behind her house. In The Wicked Stepmother, the woman who possess magic is cursed and therefore, removed from her family. She cannot remain as a mother figure because she is a goat and is, therefore, replaced by, you guessed it, an evil stepmother. However, as a goat, she is able to provide for her children using magic.

                I find it interesting that all of these characters that live outside of what would be considered a normal living situation possess magic. However, I am most interested by the characters that deliberately do not have magical powers until after they are rejected from society. While the woman who becomes a goat may have powers prior to being a goat (how else would she become a goat?), it is not until she breaks her vow that she is able to provide for her children in supernatural ways. This is similar in the Cinder Maid tale. The Cinder Maid does not have powers until she is unable to attend a party with her family. These tales paint a woman living outside of society as a woman with power and influence.

                The casting of the evil stepmother is also fascinating to me. This seems like a deliberate choice to emphasize that a woman who chooses to live in a typical family unit, or invades a typical family unit, is one who is evil and ultimately loses. It seems that the trend in these stories is ‘Live beyond a woman’s typical role and become powerful. Live in a family unit and become loved by your children. But do not invade someone else’s family unit.’ While each stepmother in these stories is obviously evil, I also think maybe, in a effort to release woman from the patriarchy and empower them to live how they want to live, these stories are also informing women of where to do not belong, which may be a little counter-intuitive.

A Book About a Girl Who Measures Plates

First of all, the best part about The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett are the names of the Nac Mac Feegle. My personal favorite is probably Slightly Mad Angus, but he only beats out Not-As-Big-As-Medium-Sized-Jock-But-Bigger-Than-Wee-Jock-Jock by a hair. I really enjoyed the language and slang terms of the Nac Mac Feegle, as well as the way Terry Pratchett wrote their accents. This humor and world building is what originally drew me to this book.

                From the start, the character, Tiffany Aching, captured my attention. I love that we are introduced to her in her attempt to use her brother as bait to hit a lake creature with a frying pan. Her journey from deciding to become a witch, to being chosen as the Kelda, to saving Wentworth from the Queen, makes her even more savvy than she is at the start. Tiffany is frequently underestimated. What surprised me most about this story was that the public’s perception of Tiffany doesn’t change much, despite how much she herself changes. In the end, when Roland receives all the credit for saving Wentworth and defeating the Queen, I was sure Tiffany was going to come forward and defend herself. I think that the Tiffany Aching at the beginning of the book probably would have. But, after she assures Roland that she would be watching, her change in character and maturity became even clearer.

                I really enjoyed the themes of family and home in this story. Tiffany is driven to create normalcy in her home again after Wentworth is kidnapped. She also has a very strong connection to her Grandmother, evident in her imagining of Grannie’s chewing tobacco. It is her ancestry and dedication to her family that ultimately saves her, as well as assures her that she will become a full witch someday. The Nac Mac Feegle are also very family motivated, as they are a clan of warrior who are dedicated to their Kelda. It is their willingness to sacrifice their safety for the good of their Kelda that aids Tiffany the most in her quest.

                Ultimately this is a tale about personal growth and finding strength in family. Also, there’s a frog lawyer in this story. How can it not be good?

Growing Pains

Upon first reading of the short story, Flesh and Mirror, I was confused. This piece reads very much like a stream of consciousness run-on sentence, which, while very fun to experience, ultimately left me questioning if certain events really happened or if the narrator simply imagined them. The narrator seems to disguise her real feelings in flowery language and romantic description. Furthermore, the narrator begins her story by referring to herself in the first person, but at some point in the story she refers to herself in the third person and then switches back again. This disassociation threw me off a little bit and I found myself trying to find my footing, only to be blown around by continuous poetic speeches from the narrator.

Upon second reading, I found that the narrator, herself was confused and questioning what was happening to her. Her romantic descriptions of the world made a lot more sense. She is a character that acts as if she is in a romance film, wishing for the love of her life to find her and sweep her off her feet. She creates her own narrative for her to act in, instead of confronting her true wants and desires. When her own actions deviate from what she perceives as the narrative she is supposed to follow, she loses herself and is unable to see herself in the mirror.

When reading this I found myself swept up in her resistance to change. The narrator seems like she wanted to be someone in a romantic film, but as she gains life experience, she realizes this is not the person she is turning out to be. This is evident when she says, “I think I know, now, what I was trying to do. I was trying to subdue the city by turning it into a projection of my own growing pains.” As someone about to graduate college, I saw myself in this character, afraid that I won’t turn out to be the person I want to be and missing who I was in the past.

Silence of the Lambs... but with pottery.

The short story The Tale of the Porcelain God from Lafcadio Hearn’s Chinese Ghost Stories: Curios Tales of the Supernatural has a very interesting introduction. While the story itself is only a few pages long, a surprising amount of time is spent listing and describing the different types of pottery made by the followers of the god who created porcelain. While the style of writing used in this piece is somewhat unfamiliar to me, I think this section is meant to emphasize the all-knowing power of gods as well as show Bu’s skill with all forms of porcelain making.

                While I do not intend to say that I myself am as skilled in my chosen field of study, nor do I wish to imply that I would walk into a literal fire for the sake of making a flesh vase, I find the theme of putting your true self into your art relatable.  I am sure that with most passions, the passionate feel that they themselves are becoming a part of their art as much as it is becoming part of them. And I appreciate that this piece concludes with the Emperor finding that Bu’s gift really did come from the gods as opposed to the demonic. While the Emperor mourns at the loss of a skilled artisan, I think the ultimate moral is a positive one that rewards the pursuit of one’s passion.

                Here I am saying that the sacrifice of one’s self for one’s art is a positive, but Bu gave his soul with reluctance, only after crafting failed vase after failed vase. Furthermore, the vase utters the name of its creator and pulses with the life of Bu’s soul and, while he is said to be the Porcelain God at the end of the story, part of me wondered if he was trapped in the vase itself. Perhaps the same story which I read with an uplifting eye may, to someone else, appear more horrid and regretful. The sacrifice of someone too talented to live among humans may imply that, while we may strive to achieve greatness, we cannot appear too great, lest we be forced to become a god. Also the image of a vase made of flesh is not exactly charming; especially one that says “BU”.