The Wolf's Postcript to 'Little Red Riding Hood'
By Agha Shahid Ali
First, grant me my sense of history:
I did it for posterity,
for kindergarten teachers
and a clear moral:
Little girls shouldn't wander off
in search of strange flowers,
and they mustn't speak to strangers.
And then grant me my generous sense of plot:
Couldn't I have gobbled her up
right there in the jungle?
Why did I ask her where her grandma lived?
As if I, a forest-dweller,
didn't know of the cottage
under the three oak trees
and the old woman lived there
all alone?
As if I couldn't have swallowed her years before?
And you may call me the Big Bad Wolf,
now my only reputation.
But I was no child-molester
though you'll agree she was pretty.
And the huntsman:
Was I sleeping while he snipped
my thick black fur
and filled me with garbage and stones?
I ran with that weight and fell down,
simply so children could laugh
at the noise of the stones
cutting through my belly,
at the garbage spilling out
with a perfect sense of timing,
just when the tale
should have come to an end.
--------
This poem is meant to go with "The Good Gray Wolf".
Insanely busy day. Had cancelled lunch with
While I was sitting in front of the computer struggling, I distracted myself by putting on TV across the room my new-used Proof DVD, a belated birthday present from my husband's grandmother, bought because I had to have the commentaries by Jocelyn Moorehouse and Hugo Weaving. I only watched Hugo's, which I enjoyed enormously. He talked about having been warned about Russell Crowe by other people who had worked with Russell but how he liked him very much and they got on very well, both on set and just hanging out. Apparently, since Russell thought Andy might read to Martin, Russell took to reading to Hugo every day, mostly a book about the French Revolution...he insisted on doing this each day even when they weren't working. Also, Hugo's favorite scene to film is the one where Martin and Andy are laughing hysterically in Andy's car, which he described as cathartic after so much heavy stuff and said they did so many takes that they were both delirious afterward. This charmed me utterly. Hugo also had a lot to say about studying to play a blind person, including how he would let his eyes unfocus for longer and longer periods each day until the DP complained that he looked too cross-eyed. Oh I love this movie and I must write more fic if I ever have time to breathe again.
If it's Friday, you get memes instead of photos.
1. Describe the condition of your keyboard: The D, S, A, H, L, U, I, O, C, N and E have completely worn away on top of the keys; the R, W, M and V have mostly worn away, and the > on top of the period is getting pretty hard to see.
2. Can you sing, or are you always out of key? Always out of key. I have a very good ear and can pick out melodies on the piano, but I can't reproduce the sounds for anything.
3. What keys do you carry with you? House, both vans, parents' house. Plus a pewter traveler's prayer in Hebrew.
4. What is the key to personal happiness? Stop, take deep breaths and look at how magnificent this planet is. Then think about ways to keep it that way.
5. What gets you keyed up? Kissing, velvet, anything that vibrates, naughty little promises, Alan Rickman's voice...
1. What is a fond holiday tradition from your childhood? Being Jewish, we often had Christmas dinner with Catholic friends across the street who always made Swedish meatballs and we brought latkes; then I married the son of a Lutheran pastor of Swedish descent, and every Christmas Eve I spent with his family, we had Swedish meatballs and I made latkes (potato pancakes). So I now associate Swedish meatballs and latkes with each other and love eating them together.
2. If you could start a new holiday tradition, what would it be? Big community multicultural songfests with carols, Chanukah songs, Kwanzaa songs, Buddhist chants and whatever anyone else wants to contribute. I've yet to encounter a form of spiritual music I don't like...well, except for bad pop Christmas songs (see below).
3. What is your favorite Christmas song and who sings it? Any traditional instrumental version of "What Child Is This," since it's "Greensleeves" and therefore I feel no guilt about enjoying it. I love "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" but am more ambivalent about humming along, though I know all the words from my in-laws' Christmas Eve church services (and lines like "veiled in flesh the godhead see" are powerful whether they're relevant to one's own beliefs or not). "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time" is the equivalent to me of listening to a dentist's drill.
4. Is there a certain event, food, television program, etc. that makes your Christmastime complete? Does the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year's count? Otherwise it's probably Christmas at the movies; it's a Technicolor Christmas when you're Jewish.
5. Does is traditionally snow where you live at Christmastime? If not, do you wish that it did? About 1/3 of the time. This year the forecast is for cold but not snow; if the canal freezes over and we can walk on it, I will not complain about the absence of snow.
1. Name a fic author slash/gen/het/whatever that you like that you feel doesn't get enough recognition. I am not sure what "enough recognition" is, given that some fandoms by their very nature attract more readers than others -- seems like there are three Remus/Sirius fans for every Remus/Severus fan, for instance, so some wonderful Lupin/Snape writers have much smaller friends lists than a lot of Lupin/Black 'shippers, which are still much smaller in turn than the well-known Harry/Draco writers. In LOTR it's Aragorn/Faramir vs. Aragorn/Boromir, when Frodo/Sam seems to get far more readers. So I can't think of any one writer who is being sadly overlooked in my favorite fandoms, though I can name a few everyone should fangirl, like
2. Name a fan artist whose work you truly enjoy.
3. Name a vidder whose work you really like.
4. Name someone that you feel deserves recognition that does things behind the scenes like a con organizer or a list or LJ Community owner/moderator. The first one who comes to mind at the moment is
5. When was the last time you read/looked at/watched something and actually took the time to contact the fan who created it to tell them you enjoyed it? About five minutes ago when I left feedback for
Actualized type: ENFP
(who you are)
| ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population. |
(who you prefer to be)
| ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population. |
| ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population. |
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