Watching Black Swan again tonight reminded me of my mother, who, years before I was born, used to dance and teach ballet. I remember this beautiful old picture-book she had of Giselle, and when she read it to me and presented the story, she told me it was her favorite ballet. It's about a girl who dies of a broken heart because she loves someone she cannot be with, but in the end is redeemed and transcendent because of the power of her love.
Then, I remembered how she used to read me original Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales, being sure I was well educated as to the real story of The Little Mermaid - not some cheesy Disney crap where women are proportioned like Barbies and everything is happy in the end and the good side wins and the bad side loses. No, that original story was much more like Giselle, and as far as I know, it was my mother's favorite fairy tale. The Little Mermaid never gets her prince, but to try, she willingly undergoes physical and heart-rending torment and is ultimately faced with either killing her prince, and returning to live three hundred years as a mermaid with her family, or dying and turning into nothing but foam upon the sea (while humans are granted eternity in Heaven). She does not kill her prince.
Immersing myself for a while in the memories of these stories as she presented them to me, I wonder if I haven't learned anew a thing or two about her heart.
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