SurLaLune Header Logo

This is an archived string from the
SurLaLune Fairy Tales Discussion Board.

Back to July 2004 Archives Table of Contents

Return to Board Archives Main Page

Visit the Current Discussions on EZBoard

Visit the SurLaLune Fairy Tales Main Page

Author Comment
Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(7/17/04 5:55 pm)
15 Kinds of Desire
I've recently been recommended a book called Fifteen Kinds of Desire as a fairy-tale revision, but it's out of print and not in my library. I'm fairly sure I can run it down via the magic of the internet, but I wanted to find out what the surlaluners thought of it! So...what do you think?

midori snyder
Registered User
(7/18/04 12:33 pm)

ezSupporter
Re: 15 Kinds of Desire
Veronica...I am n ot finding much on this--although it sounds really interesting. But on another plane. it reminded me of a rather interesting (and probably quite an interstitial treatment of a beast tale) play written by Lisa D'Armor--called "16 Spells to Charm the Beast." She performed it in Minneapolis (and got a rave review from UTNE magazine as a new playright to watch)

Here's D'Amor's statement about the play from a Minnesota
website: www.mnartists.org/work.do?rid=11996


"16 Spells is a play in 17 scenes. Lillian Davis is a mature, metropolitan housewife living on the 42nd floor of an upscale, rent-controlled building in a city that could be Manhattan. She takes great pride in the view of the skyline as seen through her sliding glass door, a view which is becoming more and more obscured by incessant construction and skyscraper expansion. At age 55, Lillian Davis sits down to write her will, outlining the contents and distribution of her earthly possessions. As she writes, a beast, a bona fide beast, spies on her through a telescope in his crappy, Cro-Magnon apartment across town. As Lillian writes, a crises ensues: Does she really have anything that is truly her own? The beast packs his bags. Does she have the capability to own anything ? The beast creeps across town. Has she ever done anything in her life that is worth writing down? The beast scales her building, approaching the 42nd floor.

Over the course of 17 scenes which leap back and forth through time, the audience comes to know the depth of Lillian's identity crisis, and complex emotional stakes hiding just beneath her deceptively simple surface. The play offers the audience a multi-faceted view of Lillian?s world. Sometimes, the audience is outside the window, examining Lillian from afar. Sometimes, the audience telescopes in, witnessing the private terrain of her hopes and fears. At almost any time, people watching the play may feel they are riding the wave of Lillian?s subconscious, viewing her life from the inside out.

As Lillian's very own beast gets closer and closer to her home and heart, the source of her pain becomes more difficult to disguise. By the play's end, characters have removed masks, revealed hidden children, shattered spells and confessed their deepest fears. Only then can the dastardly building that obscures Lillian?s view magically disintegrate, and transform into a peaceful, wondrous terrain

Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(7/18/04 10:15 pm)
Re: 15 Kinds of Desire
Interesting. Very interesting. Did you see it?

I've further found that the author of this novel is Mandy Sayer. Does that help?

SurLaLune Logo

amazon logo with link

This is an archived string from the
SurLaLune Fairy Tales Discussion Board.

©2004 SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages

Back to July 2004 Archives Table of Contents

Return to Board Archives Main Page

Visit the Current Discussions on EZBoard

Visit the SurLaLune Fairy Tales Main Page