Unicorns

I went through some things in my room the other day and found my old collection of Bruce Coville unicorn stories, and then several unicorn statues in another box. As I looked them over, I got to thinking about how many happy childhood memories I had with those beautiful images and magical tales. Of the Peter S. Beagle novel The Last Unicorn and its subsequent film, and of recent stories with unicorns in them (like Harry Potter, Legend, and since it fresh in my mind from a recent film viewing, Peter's mount in Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe). Another of my favorites is Elizabeth Goudge's Little White Horse. In most unicorn-centric tales (even Sailor Moon!), I distinctly remember a young girl being the one the creature connects with.

The maiden and the unicorn is a noted historical pairing in many works of art, and in medieval times the unicorn had allegorical significance related to the relationship of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Unicorns could only be seen or tamed by virtuous young maidens so the legend says. Scholars and historians have fought over whether or not unicorns even exist for centuries. They say every girl goes through her "horse" phase, but I guess I'm not quite over mine, since I find myself still wanting to believe :-)

I'm back and "Kilala Princess"

Alas, I have been remiss! Sorry about the lack o' posts as of late—I've been working on graduate applications, studying for the GRE, and just found out my best friend is moving all the way to Denver, CO, so I have been ignoring Smoldering Rose for the past few weeks. Time to make up for my absence ♥

I think the adorable chibi-style princesses in the series' artwork was enough to get me to read Kilala Princess. No lie.

Anyway, this little post features a manga image from Kilala Princess that I colored of Aurora. She's my favorite Disney princess—I can't help it, even though I know she's supposedly all passive and everything. I feel like I have to defend why I like her everytime I mention her (Summary: likes Norse Mythology=likes Ring Cycle=likes Brynhildr=likes Sleeping Beauty fairytale=likes Disney movies=likes Aurora. I basically like her because she reminds me of Brynhildr, the valkyrie, a definitely not passive female character. I wrote a 20-something page paper on it for an Honors course once cause I do stuff like that when I'm defensive).

Despite a lot of mixed reviews (you know, “Kingdom Hearts with a vagina” and whatnot), I found Kilala Princess to be very enjoyable reading. I particularly loved how well-written the excerpts with the princesses are and the story's overall pace. The storyline wasn't horribly predictable, but then again—if you're reading a magical girl manga about Disney princesses and you don't expect it to end happily, you probably don't read much magical girl manga and don't watch that many Disney movies. But if you do, I can pretty much guarantee you'll enjoy this series.

Magical girl is my favorite genre, though I'm not sure how it happened. I always thought magical girl would appeal to the Harlequin-reading, Sex-and-the-City-consuming crowd, not the war-action-film-watching, serious-literature-reading geeky gothy girl. I'm not really into anime/manga otherwise (except Hetalia, as I discovered it right when I was doing my senior thesis in art history on national personifications—it provided well-earned comic relief).

Will post again shortly.

tata,

beatrix

Update and Reading Free!

Recently, I've taken a couple weeks off posting to attend my graduation and also my best friend's wedding, in that order.

Girl Reading by Frederico Zandomeneghi

It went one right after another, so I was away from home and my computer for quite some time. Additionally, I've had some serious issues come up with my bipolar disorder which have kept my away from blogging. (I don't know how many of my subscribers/readers are bipolar or have friends/family who are, but I feel safe enough to admit that when I feel severely imbalanced, I simply cut out any online commenting/blogging/vlogging altogether. It's just easier than saying something stupid and then having to backpeddle with "But I'm manic!")
I'm back now and feeling better :-)
The next couple of days, I plan on posting more (about getting my degree, the wedding experience, and some general inspirational posts) to make up for the lag. In the meantime, I'd love to share a small list of books I'm reading right now. This may sound strange coming from an English major, but I'm really excited about getting to sit down and read a book. For the past four years or so, I've read amazing works of literature. However--nearly every single time--I've ended up slaving over a 20+ page analytical paper in addition to the reading. School consumed so much of my reading time that I ceased to read for fun anymore. Now that it's all said and done, I'm getting back to reading for fun! Here's what's on my reading list atm:

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (I'm a sucker for historical vampire novels like this, reminds me a bit of the Blood Countess by Andrei Codrescu)
  
• Avalon High by Meg Cabot (High school meets Arthurian legend--haven't started it yet, but Cabot's one of my faves since I read the Princess Diaries series when I was younger. I like Arthurian legend, I like Meg Cabot--well, we'll see how it goes.)
• The Casteel Family Series by VC Andrews (1980s gothic family saga, more info here. I've finished the first book and fell in love with the characters. Andrews' series tend to be especially dark, fyi, even for your standard gothic reader. Many say the five book Casteel series is the best.)

And I don't have to write a paper on any of them! Woohoo! >D
Anyone else enjoying a book in their free time this summer?