SH Comments
Reged: Feb 16 2004
Posts: 1056
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This thread is for comments about Prince Charming, by Helena Bell.
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MorningStar
New user
Reged: Mar 01 2005
Posts: 18
Loc: South Carolina, USA
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This poem was charming. :)
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Hel
Regular reader
Reged: Dec 09 2004
Posts: 41
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Thanks! :)
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I would personally like to see the poem or story that ridicules the whole "prince charming" idea into oblivion, for the same reason that I would like to see an end to inherited succession, institutional sexism, and modern slavery. Then again, maybe this has already been done. It just hasn't been experienced by the right people. Here is a suggestion: Next time your neighborhood church has a showing of Mel Gibson's PASSION OF CHRIST, remove that video and put in Monty Python's LIFE OF BRIAN... or COOL HAND LUKE. "I can eat 50 eggs!"
--José
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MorningStar
New user
Reged: Mar 01 2005
Posts: 18
Loc: South Carolina, USA
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Anon, I don't know what you were expecting from the poem, but I thought the title character wasn't exactly "Mister Perfect" or the traditional image of "Prince Charming." No, it doesn't outright mock the "Prince Charming" idea, but it does offer an alternative version. Or am I missing something?
Maybe I'm being defensive about the poem because the "Prince" sounds like me... except the part about beautiful women chasing him around... *shrug* life's not perfect.
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PickyBastard
New user
Reged: Jul 18 2004
Posts: 21
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A solid poem. Not mind-stretching, but satisfying and warm. (And thank God it isn't another war poem.)
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I wasn't expecting anything from this poem, just commenting on the "prince charming" trope and its variations. I find those as tiresome as apparently PickyBastard finds war poems.
I suppose those poetry editors get inundated with the latest "thing" from time to time, and their selection can reflect this. To buck the trend can be unpopular, and undesirable. Quality poems can be found in slush.
Helena's poem, in the immortal words of John Joseph Adams, "didn't work for me." It would be nice, for once, to find a poem or a story that did: cooking, cleaning, shoveling the drive... but that would be a poet, not a poem; a storyteller, not a story. So much for my opinion of JJA. ("Buy my stuff, man, and I'll wash your dog!")
Soap in the eye of the beholder, and all that.
--José
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Hel
Regular reader
Reged: Dec 09 2004
Posts: 41
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It's a shame that not all poems work for everyone, but I've gotten used to it. This particular poem actually came from the idea that whenever you see a fairy tale poem (particularly from a female author) it's dealing with the princess. A feminist retelling, a defense of the witch or the stepmother. But you never get to see Prince Charming's perspective.
Even within the fairy tales themselves, Prince Charming is barely anything more than a deux ex machina. Poor boy doesn't even have a name.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Now you have me singing "Sympathy for the Devil," Hel.
Prince Charming has had many names. It's an archetype that vulnerable or irresponsible people seem determined to find in the real world, and often they do find it -- in Adolf Hitler, in Charles Manson, etc.
"But you never get to see Prince Charming's perspective."
I have -- in both LIFE OF BRIAN and COOL HAND LUKE.
I can't imagine a world of creative individuals where all poems work for everyone. Perhaps a world of Cinderellas and Sleeping Beauties who fall for their Prince Charming and inevitably swoon when he recites his latest assembly-line, cookie-cutter verse. Pull discord and billions of little light-bulbs go out.
I associate creativity with that little on/off switch in our brains: "I like it" or "I don't like it."
I made the "didn't work for me" comment primarily as a joke on JJA. Regardless of what I actually think of your poem, Hel, it made me think. It made me post. I can only hope that my posts do for others what you poem did for me.
Thank you,
--José
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