In the Night Garden

While I thoroughly enjoyed In the Night Garden, I do have a complaint about her gender roles. I understand why she chose to switch gender roles, of course. It was very interesting to see a story in which women were heroes and men were damsels and/or antagonists. However, I noticed that many people said that she had discarded or ignored gender roles by allowing this to happen. I do not agree with this.
It seemed to me that she took a fully stereotypically feminist stand on her story. A stereotypical feminist is defined in this blog as the feminists that are represented in caricatures: stubborn, butch, and completely hateful of all men.

Rather than being strong or heroic, men are completely helpless. They need women to guide them and they are usually completely idiotic. For instance, the young prince who had to find Beast's skin: He believed that everyone would take care of him and help him along his journey, but when he actually had to do things for himself, he was completely incapable. The only men who were not represented as horribly were Beast and the Marsh King, both of whom had very feminine characteristics, rather than attempts at being masculine.
I think the story would have been more interesting had gender roles been discarded. While I will note that the majority of readers would likely assume that the heroes were male and the damsels were female, I think it would have been a refreshing change from a story in which there are relatively rigid gender roles.
Even more interesting would have been mixed gender roles, where women were antagonists, damsels, and heroes, and men assumed the same roles, depending on the character and the situation.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. However, I have grown tired of stories which many claim have pushed gender roles, when, in reality, they simply seemed to have replaced every "she" with "he" and vice-versa.

Turritopsis Nutricula

The theme of morality is prevalent through Catherynee M. Valente’s In the Night Garden. It is a common motif in mythological literature and fairy tales, to subjectively portray characters as either inherently evil or inherently good in relation to the culture of the story’s origin. Valente transcends such a motif and privies the reader with personal histories, circumstances, and thoughts of the story’s antagonists, “‘You stole her from us!” Imogen cried out miserably, like an infant bird falling from the nest. “She is our mother, not yours, and you took her away! We were happy before we came to this awful place! And now she has another baby- she will forget us completely!”’ (In the Night Garden 131). Iolanthe’s two daughters, Isaura and Imogen, are upset with Magadin, because their mother spends more time with her stepdaughter than her biological daughters. Isaura and Imgoen are not inherently evil for betraying Magadin to the wizard; inflicted with irrationality resulting from their feeling of abandonment, they do what is necessary to omit the source of pain in their lives. Whether or not morality is innate or relative, is a problem philosophers have attempted to answer since the formulation of the question within the human mind. And I believe it can be said with certainty every human being, at some moment in their life, has pondered the question.

The idea of eternal return is an idea which Nietzsche calls “the heaviest of burdens” for it states that, “‘All that is straight lies,”… "All truth is crooked; time itself is a circle…. "Behold," I continued, "this moment! From this gateway, Moment, along, eternal lane leads backward: behind us lies an eternity. Must not whatever can walk have walked on this lane before? Must not whatever can happen have happened, have been done, have passed by before? And if everything has been there before – what do you think, dwarf, of this moment? Must not this gateway too have been there before? And are not all things knotted together so firmly that this moment draws after it all that is to come? Therefore – itself too? For whatever can walk – in this long lane out there too, it must walk once more,’” (Nietzsche, Zarathustra).

The idea of eternal return is indeed burdensome as it excludes morality. According to such a philosophy we cannot condemn any action as all things are momentarily in transit and will return; however, if every action we make is bound to reoccur, it inflicts upon us a responsibility of extreme weight. If circumstances within Valente’s In the Night Garden are addressed with the idea of eternal return, in what manners do our opinions on them differ as opposed to an initial reading with no premeditated goal of action?

Valence addresses morality within a monarchy, “‘Oh, my son, my son. How do you think I became King? I, too, cut out my father’s heart while he slept…”… And so we all begin, determined to better our father’s performances, knowing we can change the very nature of humanity, make it better, cleaner. But then daggers strike in the night, and peasants revolt, and all manner of atrocities become as necessary as breakfast. Only Princes believe in the greater good. Kings know there is only the Reign, all things may be committed in its holy name, “(In the Night Garden 205, 222). The king cares not for morality and is in allegiance to Machiavelli’s quote, “‘It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”(The Prince).The King acknowledges he too sought to change the world for the better but in the position of a ruler it is necessary to disregard morality for the sake of one’s ruling territory. What would occur if the King or the Prince accepted the doctrine of eternal return?

Nietzsche asks, "Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine." If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?"

The King and the Prince could be changed or crushed; hence the idea of free will is irrelevant within the idea of eternal return. I don’t believe the King would be changed drastically, as it seems he already has a loose understanding (unarticulated) of the idea of eternal return. It is the Prince who would be changed or crushed. In his action of attempting to murder his father for evil committed, it can be inferred he acts upon a sense of morality. But if free will does not exist, morality is dead, and time is a loop, would his actions differ? I don’t believe so. Not only is his sense of morality thoroughly ingrained in him, it is logical to argue although theoretically morality may not exist, it exists within our world and one cannot escape it as one cannot escape aging.

How does our opinion on their actions change within the idea of eternal return? In my opinion, in relation to the idea of eternal return, neither of the characters are inherently good or evil and neither of their actions are good or evil; their actions are ephemeral and pre-prescribed. The idea of eternal return allows us to transcend morality and focus on other issues often eclipsed by thoughts of morality. I would personally focus on a searching for identical actions previously committed in history, if the idea of eternal return is true and the world has existed long enough for its implications to be seen.

The idea of eternal return cannot be proven, but it is a fascinating one to ponder within any piece of literature whether it be a typical or queer text; any circumstance whereby action is committed, is capable of being looked at in relation to morality.

What do you all think? How does your opinion change of the characters in relation to the idea of eternal return? And if it doesn’t change, why is it? Would you live a different life, if every action you commit has been committed and will continue to be committed throughout time? Or would apathy grow? Is it possible the world can accept such an idea? What might the world look like? Would it be changed or crushed? Would it change at all?

In The Night Garden

I wouldn't say that In The Night Garden was a horrible book just because I didn't like it. There's no way that I can say it was badly written and it was a waste of my time to read because it was complete opposite. It was nicely written and it wasn't a complete waste of my time to read. It was hard for me to get through mainly because of the flowery figurative language. There were so many metaphors and smilies that I wasn't use to hearing that it took me while to get use to having to read them and stop to think about what Vilante meant by it. The way the stories intertwined together didn't make sense until someone pointed out during one of our many discussions that maybe the girl was telling stories about royalty in order to teach the prince something. When that point was made everything just sort of clicked for me and I somewhat began to like the book as a whole. At first I didn't like it because it was based off of Arabian Nights but I couldn't see any connections and once that connection was made I began to like it.

Irony

The traditional fairy tales of the Western World and overwhelmingly male driven. They reflect the norms and standards of gender relations of the time they were written. Valente subverts these norms to ironic effect.

One thing that is mocked is the traditional hero archetype. This is the basic flow of the vast majority of our fairy tales. Much simplified, a hero goes on a quest, faces obstacles to fulfill his destiny, and causes good. At the end, he (as they're always male) defeats the antagonist, reaches apotheosis, and then returns to where he came. Scholars have posited that this plot is nearly universal in our culture's myths.

Valente takes this and turns it on its head. For one thing, most of the protagonists are female, and most of the antagonists are male. This causes irony at scenes like on page 122 where Knife, upon reaching a tower to rescue a damsel cries, "Woman! Come out! I have-' She looked down at the bloodless grass, embarrassed. 'I have come to rescue you,' she finally said, as if admitting that she were covered in boils." This scenes causes humor for the reader because it is highlighting the disparity between what the reader has been trained by our culture to expect, and what the book depicts.

Another irony in the book is that the women are often portrayed as wiser and more rational than the men. Reason is an attribute that has been usually considered male; women were historically considered irrational, impulsive, and hysterical. In fact, hysteria is derived from the Greek word "hystera" which means uterus. Hysteria was considered a female trait.

In Valente's book In the Night Garden, the males, especially the rulers are generally portrayed as less intelligent and wise than the women. An example of this is when Prince Leander impulsively leaves his castle and blindly goes on a quest. He happens upon the home of Knife, who is the one who must inform him and give him purpose. Another example is when King Indrajit unwisely conquers the acolytes of the Serpent Queen. She decides to use him, but he fails to follow her only preconditions and is destroyed because of it. It also did not help that he trusted the counsel of an inexperienced and male Omir the Wizard.

Valente uses her book to bring us fairy tales that are not nearly as male dominated as we are used to. This causes irony, and sometimes humor as we read them.

In The Night Garden

  In the Story The Night Garden, Valente includes many different characters with many different personalities in all of the stories, some good and some evil. But what i like most about her writing is how she puts all of the personalities of the characters and makes a connection to all of them through out the all of the stories. The short story i enjoyed the most was The Goslings Tale.

In the short story, The Gosling's Tale, The goose has to deal with being an outcast. The Goose knew she was not a bird, she just tried to fit in with the others that were "normal." Being an outcast she had to teach herself how to survive because without no mother or friends, eating and living was an everyday struggle . That all changed one day when " A bird bigger than any other, bigger than a falcon, found me up in my tree, my wings pulled up over my head." the Firebird inquired what was wrong and offered her the opportunity come with him so neither of them would be alone. The Goose lucked out but the Firebird, who is also known as the "Zhar-Ptitza" and they were "the best of all possible birds. I really enjoyed how the Firebird opened up the the goose and put the goose under its wing. He cared for the goose showed her and helped her learn new things while also telling her stories. I enjoyed how the Firebird took on as a leader and looked out for the Goose. In addition, I feel that I can relate to the Firebird my my life by being a leader and captain in hockey for many years of my life. Similar to what the Firebird had done for the goose, I had to take first year teammates and take them under my wing showing them the ropes and daily routines. For example, I would drive some of them home because they were not old enough to drive and i also would invite them to hangout with me and the older guys on the team to help them, make them feel welcome, and introduce them to new people so they could make new friends.

not only can i relate myself to the Firebird, i can also relate our group discussions in class. During our group discussions we always have five main contributors to the discussion. These five help and guide the others would do not contribute as frequently (myself included) by simply asking our opinions of the topic at hand. I believe this helps in the way that it breaks the ice to the quite people in class (and to the people who may not have read) by them showing their interest in our opinions. Them asking us questions gets us involved and makes up more involved in the discussions.

Marsh King and Leucrotta's Relationship

In the story In The Night Garden, Valente slowly reveals how each character is related to each other. She shows the reader how each of her characters interact and how they are important to each other. Their relationships are abstract which fits into the rest of the stories, yet you are surprised by them constantly. There are several instances where the relationships might be what you would think of as queer especially between Leucrotta and the Marsh King.
The relationship between the Marsh King and the Leucrotta is especially odd. In class we had the discussion on whether or not their relationship was more than just a friendship. In the Marsh King’s reaction to Leucrotta’s love for the Witch you can see that he has feelings for him. He says, “At any rate I think you like her better than me. I don’t recall you ever giving me your skin, even when I wanted to kill that wretched salamander.” You can hear his jealousy because the Leucrotta is in love with the Witch who is a human being and is unnatural. Though the Marsh King has those feelings for the Leucrotta they are not returned in the romantic way. He views their relationship as more of a deal where they take care of each other. He seems to be more willing to keep the Marsh King satisfied by saying things that keep him at bay. When he says things like, “Poppet! You know I like you best of all. I chose to be your courtier.” With the nicknames he throws out he shows that he genuinely cares about the Marsh King. Then he follows up with the statement that he chose to be his courtier, which is a person who is often in attendance in the court. So he views their relationship as more of his commitment to serving him and respecting his rule. There is obviously a difference in their tone of how they view each other.
The relationship between the Leucrotta and the Marsh King is just one of the many that are odd in this book. There are many other instances that you might not expect from an interaction between two people. The Leucrotta and Marsh King was one that especially stood out to me because of their living arrangements and how they react to each other in a bantering way.

In the Night Garden

While reading In the Night Garden I was intrigued by all of the different stories. When it changed from story to story I wanted to keep reading in order to find out what happens next. It reminded me of a movie with multiple main characters. The challenge of following every story and how they related to each other really motivated me. At some points of the book it was hard to follow every tale. The most confusing part for me was when Knife's grandmother was telling Knife the story of the wolves. I was hoping to find out what happens with the girl in the garden telling the stories. I didn't read the whole book, so I wonder if the short stories come back and relate to the girl in the garden at the end of the novel.

Growing up you always hear of fairy tales where the man is the hero who saves the women in distress. I found it quite interesting how the roles were switched in this book. When the prince kills the goose (Knife's daughter) it was his duty to journey off and fix the situation. Also, from the Native American myths that I have heard it is always the men who see the magical visions. Comparing this to In the Night Garden, Knife's grandmother has the vision of the fox and the wolves. This is when she gains the power to transform Knife's daughter into the goose. It did not bother me that the roles were switched. I found it rather interesting to see it from a different perspective. I wonder why she felt the need to switch the roles around, when the common myth has the male as the hero.

After we discussed the pictures in class, I went back and took a second look at them. My imagination drew up a completely different image of the horse and the fox while reading the text. I was confused in this part of the story so the image helped me understand what was going on in the text. The reading described the women as a fragile and scared person when she encountered the massive horse. In the picture it was almost as if she was fasinated by such a beautiful creature, and it looked like she was fearless. The images were a small part of the book but in someway they helped me. Overall, I really enjoyed the reading.