Sunday 13 May 2012

Her rise is glittering. Her fall sordid.

So I figured I'd not really get around to regular blogging, if I kept striving to be theme and thought oriented. Here's a bail out in the meantime that I acquire the knack of those desired "blogging" virtues.

I seem to come across way too many lines and verses and prose, and just words, that make me stop, and smile. Occasionally frown. Mostly always think...

So food for thought today? The title itself. A sentence that I caught in an article on the Guardian (UK) about Anne Boleyn.

Her rise is glittering, her fall sordid. 

I don't know if I comply to defines of normal - I don't care much either way - but words excite me. Especially when they're put together in strings of mutual amiability. Like they're entities thrown together by someone, who sits back to watch them at play.

In case of the title of the post, the words have bonded marvelously. There's just nothing ingenious about what they claim. Yet, there's some degree of genius in the way they do it.

For me, anyway. It makes me think. Initially and primarily of the subject in reference, Anne Boleyn - a character in history that always elicits a range of reactions, none too mild! And then eventually, my line of thought strays from the focal subject. Forays into the generality of the words, the way they can apply to more than one...

I try to recall names that fit this description and they jump at me, from annals of various times... the sheer range of exploits leaves me in revelation - women seem to take this generic cue too seriously while making history, it would seem...

Marilyn Monroe. Britney Spears. Amy Winehouse. Whitney Houston. Virginia Woolf. Mary Nolan. Princess Diana. If hers can be termed as rise as at all, Monica Lewinsky...? And not so much sordid as news-making, but Elizabeth Taylor?

I can't seem to to think of enough of the top of my head, but I know there are more. Many more. 

And I wonder, what part of "rise" and/or "glittering", causes the fall to be sordid. Almost compulsively... Not so rare it seems, is the occurrence of the process reversing itself with some alteration. A sordid living and death. A glittering rise to fame after. Not so romantic as the original, but accountable all the same.




2 comments:

  1. "if I kept striving to be theme and thought oriented"
    On the above written words... Why does it always have to be a theme? or thought oriented ? The idea or example i have in my mind is far too deviating from the topic but still .... as the saying goes "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life" ... On a general point of view,"she" is a girl and hence I always wondered why she was always asked to live a life with themes, being a daughter, well-mannered in front of the society, study well, stay away from boys and then she will be asked to get married, be a wife then a mother.... Why doesn't "she" have time to be herself or least given sometime to discover herself ... And some fortunate/unfortunate girls lives are transformed into glittering stars, a famous persona and again she is compelled to live a life with yet another theme. But all that glitters is not gold. Then tired of living life according to the themes but now deviating is not so easy.... and hence brings in the fall, in pursuit of finding oneself.... just a thought...

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    1. Hiya Bhavna!!! Seeing you here is a pleasant surprise - and I have to say for someone who keeps telling me I ramble too much, you lady think a lot yourself! I see why the blog title made sense to you :D On another note also (this is off context) you were so right yesterday about my "essay" on Mohan/Kunal. You probably didn't read the post but I did say it officially there too, and agreed to eat my words of counter claims before watching for dessert after dinner *sheepish* In sufferable I am!

      Anyyyway! Coming to what you said here. While I do agree with your example as "one possibility" - I don't think it can apply in a generic sense. In a very objective manner, I'd think any kind of rise to be glittering, and any kind of fall to be inevitable unpleasant business. It seems to get more glittering and more sordid though, it seems, where women are concerned, because somehow the bars they're expected to measure upto are usually quite fickle. So if you end up being just another girl who did nothing much with her life - well, you're a girl. For whatever notions, it is okay for you to not accomplish feats. If you do make a mark - wow, but you're a girl! And there's something demeaning about the "unexpected" element that relates to a female achievement - like even if it is implied in a pleasantly surprised manner, a part of you wants to be free of being treated like the "other kind of people" for whom accomplishment is harder, or bigger, as and when... right? So for an equivalent accomplishment as a male counterpart - your glitter would almost stand out as more glittery, because you did it as a girl. And I think the theory can similarly apply to a fall. Like it is "okay" to not accomplish feats for a "girl" it's not okay to "fall" from whatever bars measure your integrity and virtue. Like an accomplishment is an extra glitter... the fall is inevitably extra sordid...

      And that of course is also, just one more theory. I'm sure there can be more than many takes on how to look at this statement. It's a potential loaded remark at that! =)

      Good to see you here, and hopefully I still will...!

      xx

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