I was so happy to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's brief interview in the NYT this Friday. In that piece, Miranda identifies "The Little Mermaid" as one of his favorite movie musicals. So of course I began thinking about Howard Ashman--I don't really need much of an excuse--and it occurred to me that part of his greatness has to do with "writing about The Other." You don't have a story without memorable characters, and it seems to me that Ashman made waves by sneaking eccentric, fascinating pseudo-homosexuals into an array of princess tales. Take "Mermaid." Ariel could be a pretty cipher, but she's not that. She is someone from an alien planet, looking up at our world. She becomes vivid because she is *not* like "the norm"; she struggles with the words for "feet" and "fork," and she actually can't communicate in the English language for a portion of the movie. She wants success in the world, but she is, by de...