How do you move in a world of fog that's always changing things?

[sovay]

I don't know what the photographer intended this composition to signify, but it looks like a male-male Little Mermaid to me:



I haven't seen Hans Christian Andersen (1952) since I was in middle school at the latest. It was almost certainly one of my introductions to Danny Kaye, the other, more lasting imprints being The Court Jester (1956) and my grandmother's stories. I recognize but do not entirely remember most of the songs by Frank Loesser, although I make an exception for "Wonderful Copenhagen," which can get stuck in my head for weeks. I don't know if it would hold up to rewatch (I worry less about the Suck Fairy per se than the Twee Fairy). In any case, while I know the musical explicitly represents itself as fantasia rather than biography, from the time I learned anything of Andersen's actual biography it has always burned me that the film has Kaye's Andersen composing "The Little Mermaid" out of unrequited love for the ballerina played by Zizi Jeanmaire, when the real-life Andersen found some romantic fulfillment with the ballet dancer Harald Scharff. I recognize it's not every day that someone's life gets more tragic when it gets more straight, but still.

It's not that I am not aware of the current politics; I am not posting much about them because I am trying to survive most of them. In things I have read today in news outlets which pleased me, Anthony Lane has checked his usual distaste for anything resembling science fiction or fantasy and loves The Shape of Water (2017).

Comments

like a moth to a flame, this is

[spatch]

I haven't seen Hans Christian Andersen

THAT'S MEEEE

[moon_custafer]

I had the LP as a kid, but never saw the movie until my twenties.

[poliphilo]

Zizi Jeanmaire is such a wonderful name.

[lauradi7dw]

I know most of the words to "I'm Hans Christian Andersen" as well as "Wonderful Copenhagen." As I reflect on it, I think the reason is that we sang a medley of songs from the musical in 5th grade chorus (which would have been 1965-66). If you had asked me yesterday what we sang, I don't know that I could have called it up, but after this reminder, I'm pretty sure.

[coraline]

So I have still never seen Hans Christian Anderson, but one of my heavy rotation LPs when I was tiny and had my own record player for falling asleep to was the soundtrack, so I know every song by heart. Maybe someday I will watch it :)

[landofnowhere]

I only know "Inchworm", which I discovered during my Charles Aznavour phase when I looked up his Muppet show appearance on YouTube. I have no idea how accurate any of the show is, but the character from that song seems to fit with the person who wrote the "math makes you heartless" bits of The Snow Queen. (I differ on both counts, but then I'm an arithmetician.)

[kindkit]

If you ever rewatch Hans Christian Andersen, you may be surprised by how queer it is.

[thisbluespirit]

but it looks like a male-male Little Mermaid to me:

It does rather.


This has nothing to do with anything here, but I keep meaning to say and waiting for an appropriate place to say it, but would you like a recs list for interesting & good S&S fic? (I have a very thorough set of bookmarks fully maintained from 2012 to at least 2015 and am a frustrated librarian, so this is not a problem for me, quite the reverse, but obv. you may not want such a thing!)

[asakiyume]

Wow it ABSOLUTELY looks like a merman, yearning after the man in the portrait.