| Women of Glass, Women of Crystal |
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| Glass and Crystal |
| The Story Teller |
| Elizabeth Gwynne |
| Email Me At: |
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| Fragile Hard Loyal Fickle Soft Sharp These are words historically connected to women. Fairy tale women, folklore women, religious stories of women...all of them receive at least one of the above descriptors. Women are either soft, sweet, and malleable or hard, sharp, and uncaring. This can all be seen in stories well and easily recognized. From Eve, blamed for all the sin in the world, to Cinderella, the ideal woman in so many cultures, women are surrounded by harsh, clear stones. Glass or Crystal. Fairy tales use so much glass; Cinderella's slippers, Snow White's coffin, and there are so many, many magic mirrors. Fragile, beautiful, breakable. Is this what women are supposed to be? Yet what about the Snow Queen, Eve, and Little Red? What about these women with passion in their hearts and determination in their eyes? They're not formed of glass, but of crystal. So I offer up these slim stories of not quite poetry and not quite prose to play magic mirror and show women from our written history in a different light. Women of Glass. Women of Crystal. |
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| When I first wrote in this style, I was surprised by what came out. I had always written poetry and short stories almost all of my life but this...this was something different. It wasn't prose and it wasn't poetry. It wasn't personal but it wasn't really impersonal either. It was an enigma. And I was intrigued. The first of these that I wrote was Eve's story entitled "Tainted." I wrote it in September of 2002, shortly before my fiance and I broke up. I hadn't realized that I had put so much of our problems into the piece until two years later when he and I got back together and I read it to him. He told me he saw us and...I had to take another look. It was funny, I'd shown "Tainted" to several people, even had a teacher make me read it in front of her class (not a class I belonged to) but I hadn't realized it was so personal until I read it to him. And it hit me. He was the one who told me I should write more like this. In fact, he thought I might be able to get it published. Now, I'm not so sure about that, but if I ever finish the ones I intend to finish, then there's a chance I might make a slim volume for family and friends. Anyways, this little area is where I can talk about (and around) my pieces. I'm hoping that someone out there gets something out of them. Please, leave a note and let me know. |
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| Follow my Aiden, the dragon above, to my faerie tale works that do not fit into these stories. |
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