| Author |
Comment |
Christine
Unregistered
(6/21/00 1:51:54 pm)
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Sleeping Beauty as metaphor for depression
This is something I keep meaning to write a short story on but I suffer from perpetual writer's block and lack of time.
Has anyone else ever considered the story from this point of view? Depression can be very mch like being surrounded by an impenetrable wall of thorns which no one can break through to help or save you, to wake you up from a state where you can feel completely dead to the world, locked in. I've never read any stories exploring it from this viewpoint - do any exist?
| Terri
Unregistered
(6/21/00 11:35:50 pm)
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Sleeping
Beauty
You're right, it's a good metaphor
for depression. Off-hand, I can't think of any stories that have
specifically used the theme that way. I've used it as a metaphor
for a woman who is asleep in her own body - creatively and sexually
frozen or blocked - in my next novel, The Moon Wife (which isn't
published yet, sorry)...which is close to depression, but not quite
the same thing. You should go ahead and write your story, no matter
whether anyone has used the theme before. Every telling is different,
personal, and worthwhile.
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Richard
Registered User
(6/22/00 9:52:13 am)
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Re: Sleeping Beauty as metaphor for depression
FWIW, I agree with Terri. I don't think it matters if anyone has used that particular metaphor/image before. The real question is, "What would _you_ do with it?" I've long come to the opinion that a large component of any story, aside from the skill of the teller/writer, is the individual perspective that they bring to the tale. That's almost always going to be different because every teller is different, and it's a big part of what I look for when reading anything.
--
| Christine
Unregistered
(6/22/00 4:04:21 pm)
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Re: Sleeping Beauty as metaphor for depression
Well, I was asking more out of curiosity, as I'd like to read such a story if it exists. There already being something along those lines wouldn't stop me from doing something with it too - what stops me is more a matter of low writing self-esteem!
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Kate
Registered User
(7/18/00 11:45:34 am)
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Re: Sleeping Beauty as metaphor for depression
I think the Romanian writer Herte Muller's novel, THE LAND OF GREEN PLUMS, contains Sleeping Beauty and suicide motifs. Its narrator is depressed and locked in both metaphorically and literally. This is a deeply political, gorgeous book. I don't know if anyone else would catch Sleeping Beauty themes in it, though.
Sleep has been used by other artists in relation to depression too. A couple of years ago I saw an installation by Sophie Calle, a visual and textual narrative that covered an enormous wall: she invited strangers from the street to sleep in her bed, which was contained in a tiny white room. While they slept, she photographed them (thumbnail prints) and wrote in her diary. Sometimes, when the sleeper would awaken, they had conversations that became quite emotional. The exhibit has an alluring, depressive feel.
I used Sleeping Beauty, as well as a Yiddish tale ("The Penitent and the Rabbi of Tshekhenove") this way -- in one little chapter of my novel, forthcoming in a year. In it, sleep and containment are metaphors for suicide more than for depression, though there are obvious links between the two.
Just some thoughts ...
Kate
Edited by Kate at: 7/18/00
11:47:25 am
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