Writing Alchemy Fairy Tale 4 Summary
Activist and writer Jessica Miriam Littenberg joins Fay for the reading of part 1 of “Tala and Prince Hart,” which focuses on Prince Hart’s experience of being asexual in a society that does not recognize asexuality. Jessica then reads one of her powerful poems about transphobia. The following discussion focuses on the experience of not being what you are supposed to be according to society, racism and ableilsm in language, and using art to communicate the experience of oppression by connecting to identifiable feelings.
Tala and Prince Hart: Prince Hart is asexual, but his parents and many suitors are having a hard time accepting that. When the trickster Tala decides to come to his aid, chaos naturally ensues in this exuberant story that is a playful response to the all too common romanticization of boundary-crossing behaviors!
Story: Tala and Prince Hart
Guest: Activist and writer Jessica Miriam Littenberg
This is an illustration of the Musical Creature Band done in an abstract style. On the left is a bear playing a horn while standing on one foot. In the back is an elephant plucking the strings of a harp with its trunk. On the the right is a golden-brown rooster dancing by flapping its wings and strutting. In the front is a donkey with a white nose standing next to a blue drum.
Show Notes:
Today’s story
Tala and Prince Hart: https://writing-alchemy.net/fairy-tales/tala-and-prince-hart/
Fay’s Links
You can become my patron on my Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/WritingAlchemy
The RSS feed of this podcast is: https://writing-alchemy.net/feed/podcast
The black woman author whose name I could not remember during the discussion is Toni Morrison. The specific book I read in which she deliberately manipulates the imagery of whiteness is Song of Solomon. This link has a section which discusses that imagery: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/solomon/themes.html
Jessica’s Links
Read more of Jessica’s work (an announcement will be posted when her book is released): http://www.freaksoftechnology.com/
Octavial Buttler: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butler
Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23129839-octavia-s-brood
Music Credits:
Intro: Kickin’ in the Turbo (Alasdair Cooper) / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Transition 1: Another Version of You (Chris Zabriskie) / CC BY 4.0
Market noises: whitechapel market 1.wav by Walter_Odington | License: Creative Commons 0
Market noises: 140802_Greenwich_FoodMarket_F.wav by blaukreuz | License: Creative Commons 0
Suitor’s theme: Thatched Villagers (Kevin MacLeod) / CC BY 3.0
Crowd noises at the contest: 072510_crowd_04.wav by sagetyrtle | License: Creative Commons 0
Musical Creature Band: Bird (Rod Hamilton) / CC BY-ND 3.0
Transition 2: The Place Where I’ll Return To (Alasdair Cooper) / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Outro: Everybody’s Got Problems That Aren’t Mine (Chris Zabriskie) / CC BY 4.0
