Seeds
by Linda Rodriguez
I’m working on a new novel project that I find very
exciting. So as we begin this new year, I thought I’d give you a taste of the
original journal entry that led to this project. These words were seeds that
have grown into a sapling that’s on its way to major tree. As is the way of
seeds, these seeds don’t look much like the sapling and will resemble the grown
tree even less, but this is what the absolute beginning looks like.
exciting. So as we begin this new year, I thought I’d give you a taste of the
original journal entry that led to this project. These words were seeds that
have grown into a sapling that’s on its way to major tree. As is the way of
seeds, these seeds don’t look much like the sapling and will resemble the grown
tree even less, but this is what the absolute beginning looks like.
Living on the surface,
focusing on externals and other people’s needs, instead of the internal world
of images, ideas, imagination, that is my home when working well. And it takes
some time after an external surface period with others to regain that internal
world and its productive state for creative work.
focusing on externals and other people’s needs, instead of the internal world
of images, ideas, imagination, that is my home when working well. And it takes
some time after an external surface period with others to regain that internal
world and its productive state for creative work.
I wonder if Persephone
encountered something similar in trying to adjust to her mother’s above-ground
world and her abductor-husband’s dark underworld of the dead, cycling between
life and death, between worlds, bringing life to the world above when she came
and taking it away when she left. I wonder if she did the same to Hades’
kingdom, bringing light and life when she came and taking it back when she left
for the surface. If so, no wonder he kidnapped and trapped her.
encountered something similar in trying to adjust to her mother’s above-ground
world and her abductor-husband’s dark underworld of the dead, cycling between
life and death, between worlds, bringing life to the world above when she came
and taking it away when she left. I wonder if she did the same to Hades’
kingdom, bringing light and life when she came and taking it back when she left
for the surface. If so, no wonder he kidnapped and trapped her.
Thinking about it that
way, you can almost have sympathy for Hades. That longing for light and life
and warmth that he has never known because the moment he touches a mortal, no
matter how alive and beautiful, she turns stiff and cold with all the life and
life and substance gone. After centuries of that, he would become desperate
enough to chance the anger of the other gods, even that of Zeus himself, to
have his own bit of life, warmth, light, beauty.
way, you can almost have sympathy for Hades. That longing for light and life
and warmth that he has never known because the moment he touches a mortal, no
matter how alive and beautiful, she turns stiff and cold with all the life and
life and substance gone. After centuries of that, he would become desperate
enough to chance the anger of the other gods, even that of Zeus himself, to
have his own bit of life, warmth, light, beauty.
Imagine an epic poem
written about Hades’ abduction of
Persephone, the angry grief of Demeter, the trick with the pomegranate
when Zeus forces a truce, and Persephone weaving back and forth between life
and death, the sunlit world above and the realm in darkness below the surface,
mother and captor/husband, always bringing light and life below and trailing
vapors of darkness and death above, never truly one or the other since Hades
tricked her into that bite of pomegranate, never completely alive or dead,
always outside and forced to mediate between two tyrants who would destroy
their worlds and all within if they lost her.
written about Hades’ abduction of
Persephone, the angry grief of Demeter, the trick with the pomegranate
when Zeus forces a truce, and Persephone weaving back and forth between life
and death, the sunlit world above and the realm in darkness below the surface,
mother and captor/husband, always bringing light and life below and trailing
vapors of darkness and death above, never truly one or the other since Hades
tricked her into that bite of pomegranate, never completely alive or dead,
always outside and forced to mediate between two tyrants who would destroy
their worlds and all within if they lost her.
Perhaps after eons,
someone, perhaps Prometheus on his eagle-high rock, tells her that this all
works only because she unconsciously assented to it. If she decides to
consciously say no to the deal, she can choose to be one or the other, her
mother’s or her husband’s. “Or neither?” she asks. He doesn’t know, that would
take some special working, to make a choice that included neither Demeter nor
Hades, as it would probably bring about the destruction of both worlds.
someone, perhaps Prometheus on his eagle-high rock, tells her that this all
works only because she unconsciously assented to it. If she decides to
consciously say no to the deal, she can choose to be one or the other, her
mother’s or her husband’s. “Or neither?” she asks. He doesn’t know, that would
take some special working, to make a choice that included neither Demeter nor
Hades, as it would probably bring about the destruction of both worlds.
So Persephone begins
to spend her time in each world searching for someone who can show her a way
out of the dilemma she’s impaled upon. And this will mark the beginning of her
coming to truly know each world and its people, out from under the powerful
shadows of mother and husband. In the process, she comes to love and value each
world and those in it and to find that she can be free only with the probable
destruction of each creation.
to spend her time in each world searching for someone who can show her a way
out of the dilemma she’s impaled upon. And this will mark the beginning of her
coming to truly know each world and its people, out from under the powerful
shadows of mother and husband. In the process, she comes to love and value each
world and those in it and to find that she can be free only with the probable
destruction of each creation.
I’m writing a novel and not an epic poem, and many other
characters have and are coming into play. But this little fragment from my
journal was the seed from which this much-transformed book is growing.
characters have and are coming into play. But this little fragment from my
journal was the seed from which this much-transformed book is growing.
I hope you plant a lot of wonderful seeds—and even some
strange ones—in this new year.
strange ones—in this new year.
Very intriguing concept, and true for us all on many levels . . . already looking forward to the fruition of the idea.
Linda, I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this! Brilliant concept!
Love the Persephone myth – it sounds like you're doing something amazing with it. Good luck!
Mary, I have come to think that, in some ways, the myth of Persephone is a story of how women are kept deliberately disempowered and infantilized by society's demands. I see my book as, among other things, a story of a woman claiming her own adult power.
Reine, I'm really looking forward to it, too, even though it's already metamorphosed into something else in the book.
Julie, thanks. I'll need all the luck I can find.