Review of AWS - "Her Hair" (Part 11)
Jun. 23rd, 2017 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aikateriniSo, after the garbage heap of misogyny that was "Beasts," we've come to "Her Hair," which, like "Poisoned", is a short and inoffensive rest stop after the trainwreck that came before it. It's a retelling of "Rapunzel" and it takes place after the prince has fallen from the tower and is blinded by thorns.
The prince wanders around before finding Rapunzel in a desert shanty, where the witch has banished her. The prince utters a cry and they reunite. Before he and Rapunzel leave for his castle, Rapunzel takes the long braid of hair that the witch cut off (which the witch let her keep...for some reason), which she has hidden in her drawer. For some reason, it is still as shiny and smooth as it was before the witch cut it.
The prince never recovers his eyesight and it becomes a daily ritual for Rapunzel to take out her long braid of hair - which she washes, perfumes, and keeps by her bedside - and pretend that it's still attached to her head. Apparently, the prince was so traumatized by his fall and the loss of her and his eyesight that caressing the braid is a form of therapy for him.
She wonders if the prince knows the truth, since surely her hair can't have grown back that long so soon, but thinks, "he’s either forgotten or prefers not to remember." So, she doesn’t tell him the truth because "it’s a memory that she keeps intact, that she maintains in the present, for him".
Wow, a character actually doing something for unselfish reasons? A character actually being loving and kind? What's happened to Anonymous Narrator (A.N.)? Has he been replaced by a doppelganger?
The last line is, "Why would he want to know?"
I don't know if this is supposed to be some great moral question or something, but whatever the case is, this story is rather nice. Yes, Rapunzel is 'lying' to him in a way, but it's all to make him feel better. Besides, her hair can grow back, so if she wanted her hair to be that long again, she could do so and then the charade would become true.
So, all in all, this wasn't a bad story. It was short and sweet. I'm actually shocked that A.N. didn't go on a diatribe about how Rapunzel's marriage to the prince was doomed to failure or make up some nonsense about Rapunzel becoming bald and the prince cheating on her with a maid. It's just a woman in love tending to her scarred and traumatized husband.
So, why couldn't the other fairytale retellings be like this? Why couldn't the retelling of "Beauty and the Beast", which is also a story about a woman loving a man who's been deeply hurt, be like this? The closest is "Poisoned," which also features a wife doing something that her husband likes in order to make him happy and reflect on their happy times together. That one was also short. Perhaps brevity restrains A.N. from venting about what bothers him?
So, while not a complete antidote, "Her Hair" at least provides some soothing balm from what came before.
The prince wanders around before finding Rapunzel in a desert shanty, where the witch has banished her. The prince utters a cry and they reunite. Before he and Rapunzel leave for his castle, Rapunzel takes the long braid of hair that the witch cut off (which the witch let her keep...for some reason), which she has hidden in her drawer. For some reason, it is still as shiny and smooth as it was before the witch cut it.
The prince never recovers his eyesight and it becomes a daily ritual for Rapunzel to take out her long braid of hair - which she washes, perfumes, and keeps by her bedside - and pretend that it's still attached to her head. Apparently, the prince was so traumatized by his fall and the loss of her and his eyesight that caressing the braid is a form of therapy for him.
She wonders if the prince knows the truth, since surely her hair can't have grown back that long so soon, but thinks, "he’s either forgotten or prefers not to remember." So, she doesn’t tell him the truth because "it’s a memory that she keeps intact, that she maintains in the present, for him".
Wow, a character actually doing something for unselfish reasons? A character actually being loving and kind? What's happened to Anonymous Narrator (A.N.)? Has he been replaced by a doppelganger?
The last line is, "Why would he want to know?"
I don't know if this is supposed to be some great moral question or something, but whatever the case is, this story is rather nice. Yes, Rapunzel is 'lying' to him in a way, but it's all to make him feel better. Besides, her hair can grow back, so if she wanted her hair to be that long again, she could do so and then the charade would become true.
So, all in all, this wasn't a bad story. It was short and sweet. I'm actually shocked that A.N. didn't go on a diatribe about how Rapunzel's marriage to the prince was doomed to failure or make up some nonsense about Rapunzel becoming bald and the prince cheating on her with a maid. It's just a woman in love tending to her scarred and traumatized husband.
So, why couldn't the other fairytale retellings be like this? Why couldn't the retelling of "Beauty and the Beast", which is also a story about a woman loving a man who's been deeply hurt, be like this? The closest is "Poisoned," which also features a wife doing something that her husband likes in order to make him happy and reflect on their happy times together. That one was also short. Perhaps brevity restrains A.N. from venting about what bothers him?
So, while not a complete antidote, "Her Hair" at least provides some soothing balm from what came before.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-12 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-11-13 03:12 pm (UTC)ZeldaQueen noted this while we were sporking this story together. The only way that I could see it working would be if the witch left the braid in the tower as she was leaving with Rapunzel, came back to the tower so that she could use the braid to trick the prince, and then, after he fell, the witch went back to the desert shanty where Rapunzel was to drop the braid off (to serve as a reminder of Rapunzel's punishment? *shrugs*).
Or Rapunzel was still in the tower when the witch tricked the prince and she dropped Rapunzel off with the braid in the desert shanty after the prince had lost his sight and was wandering all over the place.
But that's just reaching on my part. The story never mentions it.