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watched some of cinderella tonight it's striking how subdued and stately it is at any given moment there is typically one thing going on. sometimes there are zero things going on attention is always drawn to the most charming bits of animation https://t.co/LQrzHyBx1m
the setting is established as a fantasy by the exaggeration of scale the backgrounds the nature of a fantasy world may be determined by the things it chooses to exaggerate here it is easy to miss the exaggeration entirely because its emotive affect is quiet elegantance https://t.co/vc2uEn0cEz
the movie is interested in the protagonist and her love interest, but interested from the outside love is fated and inexorable but the character focus is on the people around Cinderella, who move through the world watching the romance from remove just as great as the viewer's
we are not meant to understand the romance of others; we can only react to it when we see it, each according to our nature and our own sentiment, and to enjoy its sight in proportion to our secret virtue there are few things more reassuring than seeing a young couple in love https://t.co/TLnI9hL3H1
the stepmother is the most maturely malevolent of disney's villains. she is not some magically-augmented buffoon; she is an adult and her cruelty impossibly deep yet applied with a light touch https://t.co/52SzjEc7mv
as I watched I found myself imagining a certain type of person complaining in a certain way that cinderella is a morally questionable movie because its female character is not strong, and those imagined people don't understand women (literary entities) like i do
one imagines a heroic story as involving the protagonist's use of agency to overcome a challenge. cinderella does this effectively and bravely. it is easy to miss, because her agency has been nearly totally removed by an adult on whom she is dependent, and who despises her https://t.co/pNsh7nlwgg
cinderella cannot win by beating up her stepmother that does not make her weak her defiance is sneaking out to go to a party rather than raising a sword but it is no less courageous for that she has _no recourse_ against her stepmother's power and she defies her anyway
the prince, by contrast, is a practical nonentity he is doe-eyed, placid, silent, pretty almost beyond masculinity his primary character trait and the only thing that spurs him from inertia is his sudden and complete infatuation with a girl this is reverse objectification https://t.co/J05syhcOay
the personalities of the film's women dominate its tone men are incapable of malevolence or indeed anything worse than superficial cynicism. most stand on hand render aid to the heroine. male conflict is implicitly dismissed as dispositional in origin and ultimately frivolous
cinderella's prospective father-in-law is perfect: wealthy, determined to see his son married, and simply desperate for grandchildren the mother-in-law is somehow even more ideal https://t.co/3Flj3dqQ8H
in short, it is an unrivaled expression of feminine power and of feminine desire so of course this film had to be culturally suppressed psychically, men were not capable of handling it. not so soon after the war. first fdr, then hitler; now they were getting cucked by a cartoon
i don't think these are flaws! let women have their stories https://t.co/5mDiMtSLQb
besides, it's often pleasant to see how others imagine you to be, or how they speak to one another about you when you're not to be in the room consider: in this movie, men are portrayed as universally noble and lovable that's better than we deserve, to be perfectly honest
oh. another thing cinderella and the prince, the thralls of love, are portrayed as gods; or rather as theophonies of the divine lovers watch their motion compared to the other characters. totally different style, much more naturalistic and uncaricatured https://t.co/4BTgtJ2EVA
watched some of cinderella tonight it's striking how subdued and stately it is at any given moment there is typically one thing going on. sometimes there are zero things going on attention is always drawn to the most charming bits of animation https://t.co/LQrzHyBx1m
the only other character so animated is the stepmother herself this mode of animation identifies her as a narrative peer of cinderella and gives her immense gravity modern disney villains are animated in caricatured fashion, which is not at all scary and makes our children weak
the traditional gender dynamic in stories of adventure may be portrayed from the perspective of either gender for example aladdin must prove himself worthy by saving a princess cinderella must prove herself worthy in order to be saved
saving or being saved comprises the gendered component of a romantic, heroic fairy tale. its heroic portion is the demonstration of worth. this, rather than the question of saving, is the heart of the matter: because heroic stories are meditations on the nature of virtue
condemnation of cinderella comes in two classes the first is embittered and broken. such things do not happen. they could not happen. even if it did happen it would be bad. this is surrender to depravity: the denial of the good https://t.co/o6SlFo5zIK
the second is dismay not over cinderella's reward but by the nature of her virtue what is this virtue, glaucon? she is beautiful, yes; but she is most remarkable in her kindness that wins her so much love. she is resiliently romantic in dire circumstances. she is subtly clever.
i want to pause for a moment on the last point by contrasting her with belle cinderella's intelligence is communicated by the timing and intonation of her speech and by subtly-animated expressions and body language she demonstrates excellent situational awareness and poise
hand to god i had not read this apologies(????) to @katrosenfield https://t.co/k8MoyKsnVr https://t.co/2V9MIAwYFM
@eigenrobot you know, somewhere across your threads is a finishing school for those society never let grow up only the ad is kitsch, the dreams were real https://t.co/9x6eQrj6K8
@eigenrobot same bucket of tweets https://t.co/yvs6THGO2m
