This Be the Verse They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And…
Author: Bex
Shifting Ideologies of Sleeping Beauty through the Voices of Perrault, Grimm, and Carter
Morality, to the world at large, has always hinged on cultural perspective. In the western world, there is presently a widespread inclination toward more liberal ideologies like feminism, open and diverse sexuality, and universalistic faith systems, which is a shift from its generally conservative perspectives on morality that were common even 100 years ago. Through…
Re-Visioning Angela Carter’s The Erl-King Against Its Origin
The tale of the Erl-King originated from a popular Scandinavian folklore telling of a seductive and mischievous elf-king and his daughters. The tales were modified as they spread to various countries across northern Europe, and in the late Eighteenth Century, a German writer named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe pieced together a poem-version which he titled…
A Critical Article Response: The Bloody Chamber from Italy and France
Diana Bianchi and Catia Nannoni present an intriguing discovery of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber in their article, “Back to the Future: The Journey of The Bloody Chamber in Italy and France.” Within it, they reveal intricacies and challenges involved in translating literature into foreign languages, explaining that it requires the synergy of “the source…
Comparative Manifestations of Chaos in the Dynamic Narratives of To the Lighthouse and The Sound and The Fury
In his 1907 autobiographical narrative, The Education of Henry Adams, Adams observes an emergent scientific and philosophical tenet growing in popularity among his contemporary generation of scholars.1 In his own summation, it claims “Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man” (Adams xxxi). Imbedded in this statement is a notion that…
Gaslight
Your eyes, they darkenUnder the gaslight.The shadows danceAcross your lips.“Truth,” they say, butThe room whispers lie;“Day,” they say, butI swear it’s night. After all this time,Somehow dark is lightTo my adjusted eye;Right is not, andWrong is right. I start to speak,But your shadowSwallows the raysUpon my lips.And there you stand — youBetween the flame and…
Language
A phrase in one, no sense in another;By a graceful tongue, foreign ears shudder. Avec origine pas jeune, mais oui pour une autre;Un douce chanson, ou une forte morsure. Son misterios ya, revelados solo con rigor;Veces imitados por ruido, como el sol que abre la flor. Se lasciato nel sfondo, ammuffito l’oro;Se davanti la pongo,…
Idyll
I know these woods–They raised me.I feel the dry mossOn my fingertips as IBrush the rock’s face.I feel it as if caressingThe face of one I love.The rock is coldAnd the air still, onlyBroken by the soundOf falling limbs; the limbsOf oak and ash and elm.My old friends. Hello again.I drink your breathAnd it invigorates…
Double Death
A life poorly-lived,And then its end.What is the differenceBetween the two?Monotony is death,Slow and numb.Potential unfulfilled,Is death too,Cold and irretrievable.But a life well-lived—Well, there it is. November 17, 2021
Siren
Water like wind against my skin, my scales.I glide with each flip, each flicker; My tail,Long and waving like seagrass in soft current.I drink deep the salt around me; the saltThat moves in curls and swirls around my face,Between my fingers and fluttering fins.I slow, then stop to float. My hair lifts and spins about.The…