Fantasy Quote of the Week

"The dark muse," Kane went on. "Carved from onyx, black as the starless night of sleep, the night she dwells within, the night from which she calls. She lives in the shadow of unfinished dreams -- the dreams from which we awaken and never return to. Their ghosts wait forever in limbo, incomplete visions that man will never realize."

"Her attitude is one of beckoning."

"She invites you to cross the portals of dream."

"Her face has a strange smile."

"She suggests the secret wisdom that lies within the veil of dream."

"I see mockery, too."

"For the false wisdom and inchoate images that delude the dreamer as truth."

"There is cruelty in her eyes."

Kane laughed bitterly. "Cruelty? Yes for much of dream is nightmare. Join her in her embrace, and instead of the wonders she seems to promise, the dark muse may draw you into some fathomless vortex of black terror."
--Karl Edward Wagner, "The Dark Muse"

Cuento de Mi Id

“I Don't Want to Start Any Blasphemous Rumors, But I Think That the Muse Has Got a Sick Sense of Humor”

Alondra was dreaming again when she had the vision. It was a white palace adorned with purple pennants and there were servants throughout the place, dressed in green and gold. On a balcony overlooking the countryside, there stood a princess clad in a purple dress looking up at a full moon. She was gazing at a silver lake and chanting words that seemed quite familiar to Alondra...

It was then that she woke up. She reached for the notebook by the bed to write down the details of the dream while it was still fresh in her mind. But before she could write down the first words, a baby started crying.

It was her sister's baby but her sister was not home. So Alondra had to get up and see what was wrong with the baby. Did it need a new diaper? Or a fresh bottle?

Alondra could not tell. But she changed its diaper just in case and then she gave it a bottle when it kept fussing.

By the time the baby went back to sleep, it was almost time for Alondra to get ready for work. Alondra really wanted to write down her story first but she just knew that she had to take her shower now or else she would not get a chance to take one this morning.

Besides, the story was still intact in her brain. She just had to get it down on paper.

After her shower, there was no time to write because then she had to get dressed. Then she had to brush her hair. And do her makeup. Then she had to eat breakfast, only no one else was up yet so she had to cook her own breakfast first. Finally she had time but no, she didn't because she had to leave for her job at the local coffee shop or else she would be late. And her boss hated it when she came in late.

Oh, well, Alondra thought. I'll write at the coffee shop.

When she got to the coffee shop, there was no time to write because she had to wait on customers. It seemed unusually busy this morning -- not just during the morning breakfast rush and the lunch rush but in-between as well.

Ironically, one of her customers was herself a writer. She was a middle-aged redhead who continually stared at her laptop as if it held the answer to all the mysteries of the universe. Alondra thought about asking her for advice about writing, but every time she had the chance, the expression on the woman's face always discouraged her.

At long last, Alondra's work was through and she had the chance to go home. Now she finally had time to write.

But as Alondra opened her notebook and started to write down her dream, she had trouble remembering little details. Had it been a large palace or a small one? Purple pennants or green? Silver lake or blue?

Was this story really worth writing down? Alondra wondered. It had seemed so vivid this morning but now...

As Alondra read over the few words she had written, it was all she could do to keep from weeping.

xxx

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the redhead who had been in the coffee shop was in her apartment trying to think of a story to write in order to justify her art grant.

But for some reason, the words would not come.

Indeed, no words had come all day.

And all week.

And yet people all around her seemed to find plenty of stuff to write about.

Life is so unfair, she thought. Why does everything always happen to me?

R.I.P. Julie Adams

American actress Julie Adams -- most famous for her role as Kay Lawrence in the 1954 horror film Creature From the Black Lagoon
as well as for a recurring role on the TV series Murder, She Wrote -- took one final dive on February 3, 2019, at age 92.

She will be missed.

Movie Song of the Week: "I Won't Say I'm in Love"

The Greek myths go Motown -- so to speak.

The Muse Wears a Shoulder Holster in Detroit City

I am often haunted by the suspicion that the same older cousin who once showed me a radio script he wrote -- and thus taught me that people like me that I actually knew could write stuff worth reading -- is the same cousin doing time in the Michigan prison system for murder. I would like to believe that my memory is wrong about this. But I doubt it is.

In fact, I have several cousins who are either doing time or have done time for murder. One of them is dead; the others are still in prison as far as I know. They are all people with whom I grew up. People I considered surrogate siblings. I find it difficult to talk about this aspect of my family without sounding like Michael Corleone talking to Kay Adams about his family. Granted, I would like to think I'm a long way from being a Michael Corleone. None of my relatives are members of organized crime as far as I know and I certainly don't aspire to live the gangster lifestyle. But I do have relatives in prison and I am continually haunted by the notion that it is only by the grace of God and a few lucky breaks on my part that I never ended up there myself. I don't aspire to break the law -- though I would be a fool to deny that there were times when I was tempted. And while I consider myself smart -- well, the cousins who went to prison weren't exactly dumb either.

It would be nice to blame their sins on society but then I would have to ask myself why society did not push relatives of mine who grew up in similar circumstances to do the same thing that they did. Moreover, I don't believe that it's all that useful to society to forever use it as an alibi for the sins that one chose to commit. And I certainly don't believe that it's useful to me.

The last few times I went to the hospital, I stopped breathing while under observation. By all rights I should be dead right now but the hospital staff managed to revive me and get me breathing again. And yet despite my many health problems, I managed to outlive my younger sister and my best friend -- both people who seemed sure to outlive me. As a result, I often feel a bad case of survivor's guilt -- especially around the winter holidays.

And yet it could be worse. I could be in a prison cell. I could have blood on my hands because I took another person's life. I could feel the guilt that comes with making a very bad choice that could never be undone.

Then again guilty people don't always feel guilty. One of the cousins I mentioned above was notorious for never taking responsibility for the life he took. As far as he was concerned, she was just some lady who got in the way. Who should have minded her own business. Who did not understand that it was none of her business whether or not he took a loaded rifle over to his ex-wife's house...

I really wish I didn't have stories like that swimming around in my head. And I wish to God they weren't true. However, they are true. And they'll probably be swimming around in my head till the day I die.

The Muse and the Murderer: Art School Confidential

You really captured my otherness.
--Sophia Myles, Art School Confidential (2006)

I must admit that I really like this quote. It comes from the original screenplay for the 2006 film Art School Confidential yet it never appears in the actual movie, director Terry Zwigoff instead choosing to go with a less verbal approach.

For that matter, I also like this quote:

You know, nobody ever gives the model any credit, but in a way, they're just as important as the artist. It's really much more of a collaboration than people think.
--Max Minghella, Art School Confidential (2006)

However, I can see why Zwigoff also left that quote out of the actual movie.

That said, there was not much else to say about this movie. On one hand, it had some amusing visuals in the opening segment as well as a great parody of the nude scene from Titanic. On the other hand, it seemed to spend a lot of time beating what most people outside the artistic community -- and no doubt, many within it --would consider to be a dead horse. After all, it was not like the pompousness of modern artists has never been ridiculed in pop culture before.

Anyway, just because many real-life artists have a well-deserved reputation for being arrogant and pretentious does not mean that it seems very sporting to devote a whole movie to pointing that out. Especially when we live in a country when all too many artists are stranded in obscurity.

If we lived in a country where artists had more power and more prestige, then they would be more of a valid target. But unfortunately, we don't.

The movie itself was best appreciated as a character study. The protagonist was a young art student (played by Max Minghella) who wished to become a famous artist, only to become derailed on his journey when he developed a crush on a beautiful artist's model (played by Sophia Myles). There was a brief subplot involving a series of murders involving local residents but Zwigoff seemed to be not as interested in the resolution of that subplot as he was in showing repeated images of ridiculous artwork. He did manage to include a few nice scenes as well -- for example, the way the artist's model winced when kissed by an ex-lover said more about the character than a more vocal reaction would have -- and it was also nice to see Anjelica Huston appear once briefly as a sympathetic art teacher even though she was not given a lot to do.

Ironically, the movie's climax made our hero look less sympathetic than he was at the beginning of the movie. On one hand, he was accused of a crime of which he was obviously innocent. On the other hand, it seemed obvious that the artist in question was guilty of an even bigger crime for which he was never punished. And of course, said crime went unmentioned at the movie's end even though it led to a loss of life. Of course, it could be argued that the artist's crime was unintentional and that it ultimately punished a murderer who might have otherwise got away scotfree. But I suspect the filmmaker would rather have us concentrate on his film's final image -- one that is ultimately more attractive than the moral issues one might otherwise think about.

Black as the Pit from Pole to Pole

Funny how stereotypes change over time. Back in the first century A.D., Germans were considered synonymous with chaos and barbarism. Today they are more often identified with order and efficiency. The Scandinavians horrified Western Europe with their Viking raids back in the Middle Ages but nowadays, they are known primarily for their pacifism. The Englishmen of the Elizabethan era were considered to be rude, crude individuals as were the Spaniards of Cervantes's time. Yet by the Victorian era, Englishmen were known for being anything but rude and crude and today we are more likely to associate Spaniards with foppish mannerisms than with the rude behavior they displayed in Cervantes's day.

In short, stereotypes are not engraved in stone and they tend to change over time. The average historian knows this quite well. The average chauvinist should know it as well but he tends to deny it -- even when the popular culture proves him wrong time after time.

Consider the way Poles were portrayed in the 1935 movie The Wedding Night. If you were to ask the average American nowadays what ethnic groups they most associated with arranged marriages, agricultural labor and domestic violence, neither Poles nor Polish Americans would be among the first few ethnic groups to come to mind. Ironically, they would be more apt to associate Mexicans or Mexican-Americans with these traits -- and yet, in this movie, there were no characters of Mexican descent that I could see. Instead it was the Polish characters in this movie who acted out the type of stereotypes that most people today would associate with Mexican immigrants. Indeed, the Poles in this flick were depicted as rural folk who are hot-tempered, prone to arranging marriages and obsessed with controlling women. Moreover, they were also depicted as being so different from mainstream Americans that one would hardly associate them with today's Polish-Americans.

So is this a good thing? Not necessarily. Then again The Wedding Night told its story so convincingly that it never occurred to me, the son of a Polish-American woman, to question its image of Polish-Americans. If anything, I found the movie quite convincing in its heartbreaking portrayal of the problems faced by a young immigrant woman named Manya Novak (played by Ukrainian-born actress Anna Sten) who struggled to reconcile her loyalty to her Polish roots with her attraction to the modernity of the American way and I could not help but wonder how often the same story could be told today about many non-Polish immigrants.

But enough about that.

The movie started out in New York City as bored author Tony Barrett (played by Gary Cooper) found out that his latest novel was such a flop that even his best friend and publisher chose to have nothing to do with it. He talked his wife Dora (played by Helen Vinson) into vamoosing back to his family homestead in Connecticut where he discovered that he had a family of Polish immigrants as neighbors. He became intrigued by their quaint ways and in return, the family's oldest daughter (the above-mentioned Manya) became intrigued by him and his quaint ways. Nothing came of it though until Dora departed for NYC and Tony was forced to rely more and more upon his Polish neighbors for supplies. Along the way, he learned something about the work ethic from Manya and before long, she was performing as the unofficial muse for his new novel.

Then Manya's father caught on that Manya was spending a little too much time at the Barrett household for an engaged woman. Tony found out that Manya did not love the man she was engaged to marry and that the engagement was part of an arrangement between her father and her husband-to-be. However, Tony was powerless to stop her from going through with it.

Things got worse when a snowstorm stranded Manya at Tony's place and she was forced to stay the night. Even though Manya and Tony spent the night in separate bedrooms, that fact did little to spare Manya from the wrath of her father the next morning. Then the audience discovered that Manya was not necessarily going along with her father by choice. At the first sign of defiance, Manya's father showed no hesitation in slapping her and reminded her that she did not have the same freedom as an American girl. After all, she was a Polish girl, which meant Manya had no choice but to obey her father's wishes -- whether she liked it or not.

Then Dora returned and learned of the relationship between Manya and Tony. Though Tony insisted that everything was innocent and that Dora was the one who should be explaining her social activities in his absence, Dora suspected differently. She read Tony's unfinished novel and realized from his written words just how strong the bond between writer and muse had become. But Dora was not yet ready to step aside from her marriage and poor Manya was already in enough trouble with her father as it was. Once Dora spoke to her, things just got worse.

Soon afterward, Manya got married and it looked as if everything would be finally settled. But, alas, Manya's wedding night had one last nasty surprise left for the Novaks and the Barretts. And someone ended up paying a big price for said surprise...

I don't know what I expected from The Wedding Night but I found myself far more moved by it than I had expected. Perhaps it was because I identified a bit with Manya. Perhaps it was because I identified a bit with Tony (though I hate to admit that). But most likely it was because I liked the rather complex relationship it depicted between Tony and Dora. Dora was hardly the ideal wife but she was not unsympathetic either. A bad movie would have portrayed her in shades of black, but this film just settled for portraying her in shades of gray and as a result, I actually felt for both her and Manya. Tony had his moments too but I could not help thinking that if he had been a more responsible person and not so intent on putting Manya in an impossible position, things would not have gotten so bad.

It said a lot about the movie that although Gary Cooper played Tony as a sympathetic character, he too had scenes in which he was less than sympathetic. For example, the time he acted so priggish to his returning wife was not one of his better moments. Nor was his attempt to hit on Manya as if she were just a woman whose sole reason for existence was to please him and only him.

Towards the end of the movie, it became obvious that Tony felt strongly about Manya and that Manya felt strongly about him. But ultimately his feelings for her appeared to do her more harm than good. While it would seem naive to believe that Manya's life would have been happier had she never met Tony Barrett, it seems equally naive to believe that Tony bore no responsibility for Manya's fate. Perhaps this last part was why he was so quiet at the end of the movie. And why he was so eager to remember Manya as she had been in the comparatively happy past -- and not as she was in the present.

Quote of the Week

History is a muse you glimpse bathing between leaves. The more you shift your point of view, the more is revealed.
--Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Doña María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana, 13th Duchess of Alba!

AKA Doña María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Álvarez de Toledo y Silva Bazán, décimo tercera duquesa de Alba de Tormes, décima primera duquesa de Huéscar, sexta duquesa de Montoro, octava condesa-duquesa de Olivares, décimo primera marquesa del Carpio, décimo tercera marquesa de Coria, novena marquesa de Eliche, décimo segunda marquesa de Villanueva del Río, sexta marquesa de Tarazona, marquesa de Flechilla y Jarandilla, décimo primera condesa de Monterrey, décimo cuarta condesa de Lerín, décimo tercera condesa de Oropesa, décimo cuarta Condestablesa de Navarra, décimo segunda condesa de Galve, décimo cuarta condesa de Osorno, de jure duquesa de Galisteo, décimo primera condesa de Ayala, novena condesa de Fuentes de Valdepero, condesa de Alcaudete, condesa de Deleitosa, señora del estado de Valdecorneja, señora de las baronías de Dicastillo, San Martín, Curton y Guissens.

It is the official birthday for the late Spanish aristocrat who was the alleged muse of the famous Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. She was born June 10, 1762, and lived until July 23, 1802. She might be missed but at least we still have the opportunity to view the paintings which she inspired. However, I doubt that she is related to actress Jessica Alba in any fashion.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Thomas Mann!

Born June 6, 1875. Died August 12, 1955.

He was a famous German writer of mixed ethnic ancestry who wrote such novels as The Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks. He also wrote the novella "Tonio Kruger", which indirectly inspired my blog name, and in 1929, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Needless to say, he also inspired the creation of this blog. Which makes him my muse, so to speak. Or at least one of them.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Bettie Page!

AKA Bettie Mae Page, the Queen of Curves, and the Dark Angel.

Born April 22, 1923. Died December 11, 2008.

She was one of America's most favorite pin-up models as well as one of Playboy Magazine's earliest Playmates of the Month.

She later converted to evangelical Christianity and spent most of the latter part of her life in less than happy circumstances. Then again, she was alleged to have begun the earliest part of her life in less than happy circumstances.

However, unlike so many members of her former profession, she is still remembered today for her iconic features and her enigmatic wink and smile. Indeed, she is one of the few female celebrities of the 1950s whose name can still be recognized by people under the age of 30, and despite her less than happy life, she still inspires women of a certain profession even today. Hopefully, this is a good thing, right?

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz!

AKA Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana.

Born November 12, 1651. Died April 17, 1695.

She was one of the the most famous writers, playwrights and poets in the history of Mexican literature as well as a key contributor to the Spanish Golden Age. She was once referred to as Mexico's tenth muse. She was also a self-taught scholar.

Unfortunately, she died after caring for fellow nuns who had been stricken by a plague.

She has been missed.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Doña María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana, 13th Duchess of Alba!

AKA Doña María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Álvarez de Toledo y Silva Bazán, décimo tercera duquesa de Alba de Tormes, décima primera duquesa de Huéscar, sexta duquesa de Montoro, octava condesa-duquesa de Olivares, décimo primera marquesa del Carpio, décimo tercera marquesa de Coria, novena marquesa de Eliche, décimo segunda marquesa de Villanueva del Río, sexta marquesa de Tarazona, marquesa de Flechilla y Jarandilla, décimo primera condesa de Monterrey, décimo cuarta condesa de Lerín, décimo tercera condesa de Oropesa, décimo cuarta Condestablesa de Navarra, décimo segunda condesa de Galve, décimo cuarta condesa de Osorno, de jure duquesa de Galisteo, décimo primera condesa de Ayala, novena condesa de Fuentes de Valdepero, condesa de Alcaudete, condesa de Deleitosa, señora del estado de Valdecorneja, señora de las baronías de Dicastillo, San Martín, Curton y Guissens.

It is the official birthday for the late Spanish aristocrat who was the alleged muse of the famous Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. She was born June 10, 1762, and lived until July 23, 1802. She might be missed but at least we still have the opportunity to view the paintings which she inspired.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Thomas Mann!

Born June 6, 1875. Died August 12, 1955.

He was a famous German writer of mixed ethnic ancestry who wrote such novels as The Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks. He also wrote the novella "Tonio Kruger", which indirectly inspired my blog name, and in 1929, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Movie and Pop Song of the Week: "I'm Alive"

It's Olivia Newton-John, Sandahl Bergman and company celebrating the fact that they enjoy being a muse in the opening number from 1980's most notorious musical guilty pleasure Xanadu.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Doña María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana, 13th Duchess of Alba!

It's the official birthday for the late Spanish aristocrat who was the alleged muse of the famous Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. She was born this day in 1762 and lived until July 23, 1802. She might be missed but at least we still have the opportunity to view the paintings which she inspired.