Thinking on the beast

One of the dangerous things about blogs is the sometimes uneven quality of thinking that goes into posts. The emphasis on being current sometimes suppresses the need for carefully thinking out what you want to say before you write.

Case in point: my musings on Beauty and the Beast below. Someone mentioned to me how they read the poem differently than I did, and when I went back to re-read my thoughts, I realized how I didn't make myself clear (or maybe I didn't need to, since there isn't a right or wrong way to read a poem?)

Much of this blog is inspired by random moments in my life, sparks of ideas, grains of feelings that nag my brain until they emerge, either as splinters I've finally forced out, or pearls of inspiration. It's usually more like splinters, since I tend to write as I go and rarely revise...just wanting to get the idea out before I forget about it.

I think I was pursuing two different ideas with the poem La Belle et la Bete. One was the question of why the Beast needed to shed his ugliness. This question would make more sense if one has seen the movie this poem is based on. The movie ends with the Prince enveloping Beauty in his arms and saying, with a patronizing tone, "Oh, my silly Belle!" as they soar upwards towards wherever the kingdom in the clouds is.

The other idea was simply how powerfully the poem captures the sense of that moment of transformation. For me, it evoked the memory of falling in love--not that romantic "head over heels" feeling, but that moment when I realized that Jon had become part of my life, as deeply woven in as my family. It was an odd moment of joy and pain, for I realized that I couldn't go home again even as I realized that I was beginning to form a new home.

I end my post here with my thoughts mostly out, but still needing to be expanded. Such is the dilemma.