Maura has it downpat: Michaela Shayne! Maura should send it
to one of the NY houses. The title of course is "Lady Dick."
She has a winner.
"Fantasy is the Great Equalizer," Sue Grafton told Publishers
Weekly last year. (Her new book comes out next month: P is
for Pomp? P is for Ponytail? P is for Pocket Change?) But I
shouldn't tease her. She is after all the most successful of
lady dicks, and she has hit her targets more often than
not.
The lone wolf is myth. Myth is centered in the heart, not the
head. You feel myth. You don't "know" it. Yes, fantasy is
about power. For men, it's the sword battle with the Dragon
over the Maiden in Distress. Very Freudian. The dragon is the
Authority Figure, the Maiden represents the Sexual Conquest,
and the sword is the penis. The Quest is about getting your
first sexual experience.
Women tell Quest stories, too, although minus the sword.
Fifty percent of all books sold in the USA are romances. And
I mean that in the old 13th century definitions. Adventures
with marriage at the end of the book. Women are on the Quest
to find a monogamous mate.
Pornography is about power, too. Male fantasies are great
equalizers. Their "swords" perform with legendary adeptness.
(Spelling?) And the women in porn are dumb enough to agree
"Oh, how long your sword is!" In real life most women
recognize the power of the fantasy, and they justifiably feel
the threat. (For a variation on the theme read a batch of the
Coyote stories from Native Americans -- very anchored in
sexual adventures and misadventures. Coyote as Yuppie Stud:
"Wanna see my sensitive side?" And the Old Women laugh at
him. "Oh, that's just Coyote playing his tricks!")
But consider another ubiquitous fantasy, the Cinderella
story: That fairytale has over 750 variations and is told in
every culture in the world.
(You'll notice the Cinderella story is the secret story
behind almost all of Ophrah's monthly Book Club Choices.
Hmmm. Wonder why??? Do you think Ophrah sees herself as a
Cinderella?)
The story goes like this: Once upon a time -- that means it
happened once in all time and will never happen this way
again -- a girl relegated to being a Kitchen Bitch for her
entire life gets help from her Fairy Godmother -- an old
crone witch who befriends lonely single girls -- and
Cinderella can now
"bewitch" a Prince Charming -- who is so stupid, the only way
he can tell women apart is by seeing their shoe size. Cindy
gets rich, moves to the castle, where she harasses all the
Kitchen Bitches who didn't get lucky.
Look at the Maltese Falcon story again. Brigit O'S thought
she was Cinderella. She thought all Prince Charmings are
stupid fools who would walk up Burritt Alley with their
tongues hanging out. Spade -- the Blonde Devil -- The
Warlock? The Gamester? The Trickster? -- almost fell for it
too.
Compare Brigit's description with the Woman playing dice with
Death in the second boat of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient
Mariner. They are indentical! Both are archetypical. Both are
myth.
Myth you feel in your heart, not in your head.
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