Ain't we just?

Comic Relief

My first celebrity crush, when I was four, was on Alfred, the butler in the Batman tv show and comics. Bruce Wayne always struck me as a bit of a too-tortured soul. I felt sympathy for him, and wanted to be his friend, but I never thought of him as desirable. His superpowers are money (which is only interesting when you don’t have it) and finding the right people for the job like Lucius Fox, who designed and built all the gear on the famous utility belt and also built the batmobile (god, how I wanted a batmobile and a cave to go with it), but Alfred knew everything. Bruce would be sitting in front of his computer, head in hand, lamenting the inscrutability of the puzzle of the moment while Commissioner Gordon was ringing the Batphone off the hook and Gotham lay in peril. Up would waltz Alfred, a towel draped over his suit-clad arm, and say “But young Master Bruce, wouldn’t you just do thus-and-such?” and Bruce would stare in amazement as the pieces fell into place and exclaim his thanks. Alfred, ever unflappable, would reply, “My pleasure. Vichyssoise?” proffering a china bowl and silver spoon. Elegant, collected, and analytic. And he made soup. What’s not to love?

My mom didn’t approve of me reading comic books, so I had to sneak them home from the library. She was afraid that reading them — or reading science fiction or watching horror movies or playing sports of any kind — would make me a lesbian. I begged for comics anyway, not knowing at seven years old what a lesbian was but promising cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die that I would never ever be one, and she relented, allowing me to buy Wonder Woman (but only Wonder Woman, because she’s a girl) when we passed the comics rack at the grocery store. She had never so much as flipped through the 70s rendition of the amazon of justice, or she would have nixed Wonder Woman in a hot minute: pages filled with colorized pen drawings of scantily clad amazons engaged in vigorous athletics on Paradise Island or of jack-booted Nazis who routinely bound our heroine in ropes and chains would have realized the worst of her fantasies.

I found comic book collections—and all the other things I wasn’t supposed to have—in the library, from A Wrinkle in Time to Alfred Hitchcock’s collections of short stories featuring the horror of daily life, or the movie The Omen on VHS (I slept with the light on for a week). When I was in high school, I met friends in the school library to play D&D for a year before the librarian found out what we were doing and kicked us out, saying we couldn’t meet for satanic purposes. “But I’m not a lesbian!” I wanted to tell her, even though I knew it wouldn’t help.

Chiron

Chiron is a centaur in Greek mythology, (sired by Chronos in horse form)  unlike the usual frat-boy centaurs (born of a cloud that Zeus made to look like Hera, because Zeus is perpetually, like, fourteen). He's wise and kind and moderate, known for his peacefulness and as a paragon of justice. He gave us the notion of court, saying "Decide no suit, until you have heard both sides speak". 

 

He was taught the art of medicine and herbs by his foster-father Apollo, and the ways of archery he learned from Artemis. He took an arrow to the thigh ("to the knee" perhaps?), the tip of which had been dipped in the blood of the Hydra, and it will never heal, but because he is immortal it doesn't kill him. He is oracular in his knowledge, understanding astrology as well as being possessed of a wisdom so deep that he is the mentor of heroes.

 

He taught Achilles the lyre (as well as geography, javelin, and archery) and Asclepius (whom he raised) medicine. Dionysus was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations. He taught Heracles, Ajax, Aneas, Actaeon, Theseus, Jason, Castor and Pollux, Perseus, Odysseus, and pretty much anyone else who's had an epic hymn written about him.

 

Chiron had Heracles strike a bargain with Zeus (Chiron's half brother) in which Chiron's immortality would be exchanged for Prometheus' liberation from the agony on the rock (his eternal punishment for stealing fire, which belonged to the gods, a theft I'm grateful for every time I make tea).  Zeus revered Chiron so much that he couldn't let the centaur's death be his end, and placed him as a constellation in the night sky.

The Hero's Deed

"Original experience has not been interpreted for you, and so you've got to work out your life for yourself. Either you can take it or you can't. You don't have to go far off the interpreted path to find yourself in very difficult situations. The courage to face the trials and to bring a whole new body of possibilities into the field of interpreted experience for other people to experience -- that is the hero's deed."
-- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Fight Like A Girl

Because I needed to see Antiope launch herself and fire three bulls-eyes at once just one more time.

#playlikeahero

On a list of the top 500 films of all time, ranked by box office success, only 1% of films star women of color. That’s six in 500, and the only live action movie of the six, Sister Act, was released in 1992.

Think about that: It’s been almost twenty-five years since we’ve had a top grossing live action film that was led by woman of color.

And only one film – not 1%, but just one single film – out of 500 was directed by a woman of color.

Our girls deserve action heroes with flowing hair and combat boots. Our girls deserve to see themselves onscreen as well as calling the shots behind the scenes. Our girls deserve more.

#playlikeahero

Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones is the latest installment in the superhero television shows. Set in Hell's Kitchen, the Marvel location for the Daredevil narrative, Jessica presents an anti-hero, possessed of super strength matched only by her jaded resignation. At the core of her altar of disillusionment is a history of mind control, and the themes of domination, captivity and power loom large in this latest Netflix original.

It's not even PG13, as far as I'm concerned, but it's worth watching, because it's worth discussing. If you need something to binge away the rainy day, light a fire and spool up this foray into a universe where women explore power. You'll find not only Jones, who makes many a decision and statement concerning men, society, and humanity at large, but also Jeri Hogarth, an ambitious corporate lawyer hell bent on winning; Hope Schlottmann, a victim of rape and mind control who has a lot to say about freedom and options; Trish Walker, Jessica's best friend and foster sister, who crafts a cultivated life as a shield against the abuses of her mother; Dorothy Walker, Trish's mother, who can't seem to help herself.

Through all the fist fights, Machiavellian machinations, hard liquor and sex, it is love and friendship that have the power to save the day. Don't miss this one.

Thought of the Day

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

Arthur Ashe

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/arthurashe124531.html#eZX3WGFgiW6VyW33.99

Vivian's favorite things are songs, stories, drawing and playing superheroes.