The Bride Stripped

Share this post

Prudence in Hell 053

thebridestripped.substack.com

Discover more from The Bride Stripped

Slowly, then all at once.
Continue reading
Sign in

Prudence in Hell 053

Aide-mémoires in Power, Part IX: On Glamour

Mónica Belevan
Jul 24, 2022
6
Share this post

Prudence in Hell 053

thebridestripped.substack.com
1
Share

Share The Bride Stripped


It has been suggested I write about glamour.

Very well.

As a social aesthetic, glamour is a counterpart to sprezzatura. Both are courtly talents.

One is made —no one is born— glamorous.

Glamour puts the G in l’amour.

In myth, a quality of the trickster.

Glamour entails theatricality, dress-up. It is the set and the set-up.

TURN ON

TUNE IN / TUNE OUT

Baldr is not glamorous, he is virtuous. Loki, taking different shapes to have sex with horses giantesses and goddesses, is glamorous. Glamour is used for seduction.

(And what is seduction used for?)

The Ladies of the Lake that capture men are either glamorous and can seduce them, or they kidnap them. The song of the siren is glamorous, and Vivian’s seduction of Merlin is too. Hylas’s kidnapping is as unglamorous as Apollo chasing after Daphne.

Zeus’s seduction of Leda is glamorous; Persephone’s rapture is not.

Glamour is for shapeshifters (although Proteus is not glamorous, because there’s no seduction in his overcoming, only outwrestling him).

The birthstone of glamour is time.

The fairy world seems glamorous to outsiders. It is neither beautiful nor unbeautiful, as beauty is accessory to glamour. Glamour can emulate it without being imitative. It is the suspension of time from the inside.

Suspense is the genre of glamour.


Still of Lauren Bacall in Dark Passage (Warner Bros., 1947).

6
Share this post

Prudence in Hell 053

thebridestripped.substack.com
1
Share
1 Comment
Share this discussion

Prudence in Hell 053

thebridestripped.substack.com
Stage Fright
Jul 24, 2022

It is 3:43 AM as I am reading this -- Night is glamorous.

Expand full comment
Reply
Share
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 MB80
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing