The Friday before last gave us Fairytale Reflections (10) Cassandra Golds at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles. Golds is an Australian author not well-known in the states, but after reading about her and her books, I hope she starts to get more publicity here.
Her fairy tale of choice to discuss was The Little Mermaid. As always, you will need to click through to read it all, but here is her beginning (in more ways than one):
The first time I listened to it I remember sitting on the lounge in front of the big record player in my childhood home with an aching throat and tears streaming down my face. The Tale Spinners version — which, although dramatised, stuck closely to the Andersen original — was about unrequited love, self-sacrifice and the hope of ultimate transcendence. In other words, it was not the Disney version. And yet, at the age of five or so, none of it seemed foreign to me. Not only did I think this was the most beautiful story I had ever heard — immediately I conceived a passionate allegiance to it. From this point on, for me, “The Little Mermaid” was what a good story should be — sad, noble, uplifting, passionate, desperate, extreme and big, opera-big. And it had to make you cry. It was the first time I was ever moved to tears by a work of art, and I have never fully lost the conviction that that is art’s first duty: the gift of tears.
And the dread hand of fate? Well, from the moment I first heard that record, I was destined to be a children’s author. It changed the course of my life. Or set me on it.
And finally some images of Golds' books with links:
Clair de Lune is also available for the Kindle for a great price
, too. I wish the others were!
, too. I wish the others were!
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