Tag Archives: snow white

A hand holding a red apple.

The apple

A hand holding a red apple.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez

I was never a poison, but a potion. A portal to the darkness that snow-white humans are so eager to deny.

The queen reached her own dark side through a Saussurian mirror of signifier and signified—the shiny glass signifying beauty and brilliance, the dark metal absorbing the signified envy. The apple, a gateway to a world beyond the toxic dualities of bright/dark, good/evil, life/death, through the labyrinth of unconscious signifying, into the world as it is.

I’d have stayed lodged in the human’s mouth for longer, feeding her the Earth’s true language, protecting her from the lies of signification as she made her journey into the silent unknown.

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Fairest

Antique mirror resting on a bed of satin partly covered by gold tulle
Photo by Sarah Penney

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

Not this again. 

Who’s the fairest…

Let me interrupt. Fair is not a gradable adjective. Something’s either fair or not fair. It’s not a sliding scale. So you can stop with your superlative forms. 

Who’s the most beautiful…

Oh, please. Now your couplet doesn’t even scan. And saying ‘fair’ to mean ‘beautiful’ is so 16th century. 

But while we’re here, my Queen, let’s take a moment to discuss the perils of taking into mirrors. Ask Alice. Ask the fools who summoned Candyman. There’s a reason they’re called looking glasses, not talking glasses. 

When you talk to a mirror, you’re speaking to Language itself. Everything gets meta. Everything comes out backward. Out backward everything comes haha. 

Who’s the fairest…

We’re back to ‘fairest’ now? Let me make this easy for you. The girl who sells posies at the market, she’s fair. Your sister the duchess, she’s fairer than the posy seller. And you, my superlative Queen, are the fairest of these three. 

Who’s the fairest of them all? 

What is it about superlatives? It’s never enough to be better than two. When there’s three, there’s a multitude. Where there’s a multitude, there’s the one. (The best, the most, the greatest.)

Who’s the fairest…

I heard you the first time, most hapless of highnesses. How do I break it to you? There will always be someone who’s prettier than you. Go forth and destroy them with your poisoned words.

Would you like to know more about this story? I discuss it in Episode 98 of Structured Visions, ‘Linguistic singularities.’ You can also sign up to the Grammar for Dreamers newsletter to get monthly updates on the ideas that inspire my work.