Skip to main content

Beauty and the Beast

 One reason Howard Ashman's words endure is that they're often about personal change--a universal theme. Everyone knows the difficulty of reforming oneself, how scary and frustrating this can be. It's an idea that Ashman played with, explicitly, in his work.

Change can take concrete forms: "She glanced this way....I thought I saw....For once, she didn't shudder at my paw...." (Meeting the Beast halfway, Belle decides to slurp directly from her bowl of soup. A high-point in Disney animation.)

"Lift up your face. Wash off your mascara. Here, take my Kleenex. Wipe that lipstick away."

Characters in the midst of change tell us directly about the anxiety they're feeling. "Please understand, this is still strange and frightening. For losers like I've been....It's so hard to say....Suddenly Seymour....is standing beside me...."

"New and a bit alarming: Who'd have ever thought that this could be?" And: "Bittersweet and strange....finding you can change, learning you were wrong...."

Of course there is something literally cartoonish in Ashman's work--but it's also striking how he'll reach for the brass ring. He will risk sentimentality. He is well-acquainted with the "water we all swim in." He knows that we tend to be at war with ourselves, and that inner conflict is the source of a great, moving drama.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...

Joshie

  When I was growing up, a class birthday involved Hostess cupcakes. Often, the cupcakes would come in a shoebox, so you could taste a leathery residue (during the party). Times change. You can't bring a treat into a public school, in 2024, because heaven knows what kind of allergies might lurk, in unseen corners, in the classroom. But Joshua's teacher will allow: a dance party, a pajama day, or a guest reader. I chose to bring a story for Joshua's birthday (observed), but I didn't think through the role that anxiety might play in this interaction. We talk, in this house, quite a bit about anxiety; one game-changer, for J, has been a daily list of activities, so that he knows exactly what to expect. He gets a look of profound satisfaction when he sees the agenda; it doesn't really matter what the specific events happen to be. It's just about knowing, "I can anticipate X, Y, and Z." Joshua struggled with his celebration. He wore his nervousness on his f...

Josh at Five

 Joshie's project is "flexibility"; the goal is to see that a plan is just an idea, not a gospel, not a guarantee. This is difficult. Yesterday, we went to a restaurant--billed as "open," with unlocked doors--and the owner informed us of an "error in advertising." But Joshie couldn't accept the word "closed." He threw himself on the floor, then climbed on the furniture. I felt for the owner, until he nervously made a reference to "the glass windows." He imagined that my child might toss himself through a sealed window, like Mary Katherine Gallagher, or like Bruce Willis, in "Die Hard." Then--thank the Lord!--I was able to laugh. The thing that really has therapeutic value for Joshie is: a firetruck. If we are out in public, and he spots a parked truck, he wants to climb on each surface. He breathlessly alludes to the wheels, the door, the windows. If an actual fire station ("fire ocean," in Joshie's parla...