Carter, Angela - The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Sat, Jun. 21st, 2008 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterEr, yes, this is the first time I've read this...
This is a collection of retold fairy tales, and most of the ones Carter chooses revolve around beasts and men: when men are beasts, when beasts are men, and when the two are indistinguishable. The stories I remember most are the retellings of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Bluebeard;" the "Beauty and the Beast" retellings ended up with beasts that are too human for me.
I am sure no one is surprised that I love Carter's prose, how lush and intense and over-the-top it is. I also like that she manages to reset her stories in more modern times without taking away from the feel of the tale; this worked best for me with "The Bloody Chamber."
I want to say more about the constant imagery of blood and red contrasted with white innocence that is also funereal; blood signifies death and danger and decadence, but it's also a vivid mark against overpowering white lilies and waxy white skin. Only my head hurts, and that is all I can come up with. Mostly, it's the men who are the beastly ones, figuratively or literally, which is not a surprise given the fairy tale sources, but that's why I liked the story of Wolf Alice and the vampire woman and mixing of woman and beast.
Anyway, gorgeous prose and proof that you can still transform fairy tales while following the traditional plot—for a while, I've been avoiding fairy tale retellings because they were too familiar or the changes were too trite.
This is a collection of retold fairy tales, and most of the ones Carter chooses revolve around beasts and men: when men are beasts, when beasts are men, and when the two are indistinguishable. The stories I remember most are the retellings of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Bluebeard;" the "Beauty and the Beast" retellings ended up with beasts that are too human for me.
I am sure no one is surprised that I love Carter's prose, how lush and intense and over-the-top it is. I also like that she manages to reset her stories in more modern times without taking away from the feel of the tale; this worked best for me with "The Bloody Chamber."
I want to say more about the constant imagery of blood and red contrasted with white innocence that is also funereal; blood signifies death and danger and decadence, but it's also a vivid mark against overpowering white lilies and waxy white skin. Only my head hurts, and that is all I can come up with. Mostly, it's the men who are the beastly ones, figuratively or literally, which is not a surprise given the fairy tale sources, but that's why I liked the story of Wolf Alice and the vampire woman and mixing of woman and beast.
Anyway, gorgeous prose and proof that you can still transform fairy tales while following the traditional plot—for a while, I've been avoiding fairy tale retellings because they were too familiar or the changes were too trite.
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Sat, Jun. 21st, 2008 05:25 pm (UTC)It's very unusual and neat that the male villain is compared to a flower; it's not only gender-reversing the usual imagery to make you see both the man and the usual gendering of metaphors anew, it even makes you see flowers anew: of course calla lilies are waxy and poisonous.
I liked the story about the sad vampire woman and the soldier too, though it's a bit more conventional. Perhaps the rose is a play on the vagina dentata and the idea of life coming from a woman's womb?
(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 22nd, 2008 12:46 pm (UTC)Like you, I loved the description of the male villain, so cold and beautiful and creepy and dead.