'...from the nineteenth century onward, Cinderella conveyed the explicit message that personal goodness and virtue merit reward, and that goodness and virtue are, and will be rewarded. As a generality, it is fair to say that most people believe themselves both good and deserving; thus the message that goodness will be rewarded is well suited to the hopes and needs of the large part of every country’s population that does not live in comfort. Furthermore, stories like Cinderella, in which magical assistance plays a prominent role, foster an existential belief in eventual assistance, whatever the presenting problem may be, and support hope for a happier and better future. For poor girls in the nineteenth century, for whom so few opportunities for social rise from the depths of misfortune to the highest imaginable joys existed, Cinderella could stand for a way out and a way up.'
Ruth B. Bottigheimer, 'Cinderella: The People's Princess' in Cinderella across Cultures, ed. M. H. D. Rochere (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2016).
There are roses in your cheeks
and violets in your eyes --
all devotion to the setting skies
It’s quite nice to spend a while dancing through time
suspended in its ticking hours and days
forever a breath away from endless moments
This numbness wails against the silence of my lips, my mind haunts the existence of my abyss...................
everytimeyousaygoodbye ©
Thursday, 23rd September 2021
We are captured by a subconscious searching for recognition and a meaning that is found beating through everything - like the arteries and veins twisting along the ground where walks our feet.
'The earliest Cinderella figures emerged within aristocratic milieus. Basile’s was prepared for academicians or their highly placed friends and acquaintances; Perrault’s was written for a princess of the blood; and d’Aulnoy’s was crafted for fellow salonières. In all three seventeenth-century tellings, Cinderella reproduced and represented aspects of aristocratic imaginaries.'
Ruth B. Bottigheimer, 'Cinderella: The People's Princess' in Cinderella across Cultures, ed. M. H. D. Rochere (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2016).
Why do I keep myself hidden in layers of self-control
Afraid of the dark whilst summer lines my curtains
Choking back these haunting fears, and numb
Is the only feeling that's certain
What joy can be felt today? Frozen yet
In feigned sensibility, I ask myself...
Historian, writer, and poet | proofreader and tarot card lover | Virgo and INTJ | dyspraxic and hypermobile | You'll find my poetry and other creative outlets stored here. Read my Substack newsletter Hidden Within These Walls. Copyright © 2016 Ruth Karan.
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