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Sally's avatar

Oh,my! I'll have to re-read this after the weekend. Perfect sculpture to complement.

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

Ps https://www.pw.org/content/the_kingdom_of_surfaces_by_sally_wen_mao

A dream of a fox is the second poem, she reads!

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

I really love this: Her bones give away to mycelium

kingdoms. Wildflowers cover her limbs. Heather and heart’s ease. Mushrooms feast on her body,

worms feast on the fungus, birds feast on the worms.

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Greg Pringle's avatar

"hmmmm, why can’t I think of any castle toppers apart from the four historic beauties of China?" Well, the most commonly cited parallel in the West is Helen of Troy.

(Googling, I found "Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore" by Bettany Hughes, which has a catchy title that perhaps explains why these women are both fascinating and scary; their beauty exploits men's fatal weaknesses, leading to the fall of great patriarchal kingdoms and empires. Give me Boadicea or Himiko any day.)

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

Ps “The value and delicacy of white//women is priceless/A White woman’s tears enough to burn Troy…If a white woman cries/Every tear reaps the sentence.”

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

Sorry about the typo—but maybe castle toppers works too!! So yes, of course, of course, Helen of Troy!!! she has another poem with the tears of a white woman, and mentions Helen of Troy. Just a few weeks ago someone was mentioning the power of the tears of a white woman, and I had never heard of that before, but I understood immediately what they meant. And by the way, I love that book Helen of Troy, goddess, princess whore. Agree it’s a very catchy title, and it was a very catchy book!

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Greg Pringle's avatar

I found this on the Internet. https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/616395/6th_Grade_Social_Studies-_Lax__Illoski__Lavelanet.pdf

It lists a number of powerful women in history with useful summaries of their stories: Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Boadicea, Wu Zetian (most hated), etc. Not necessarily Yang Guifei's but definitely an interesting bunch.

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

Definitely an interesting bunch! None of them are castle topplers. They are castle toppers! I love the sound of the name himiko ❤️

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Greg Pringle's avatar

Trust you to have read it! :D

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

Last one, I promise https://poets.org/poem/belladonna-sadness

I had never heard of that story or the movie before

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Greg Pringle's avatar

The first thing I noticed was her red lipstick.

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

I was fully expecting you to say something like that!

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Leanne Ogasawara's avatar

Loved that book!!!!

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