(no subject)

[deliriumcrow]

I have thought of a CD that I must obtain. I haven't heard it in years, and I loved it, and I think my mother used to play parts of it on her violin, and I loved listening to that. Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Actually, I think one of the recordings I used to listen to of that was my mother's College performance of it.

There's something about houses on chicken legs that just makes me shiver. I always loved stories of Baba Yaga, though I never pictured her quite as everyone else did -- Partly this is because when I was little my mother got me Jack and Jill Magazine, which had stories of Baba Yaga in them, and she was still ancient, but served more as the Crone archetype than as a source of Evil. And then there's the fact that in stories like that of Vasalisa the Wise, she was still the Crone. Scary as fuck, but not evil. Just a test. Sort of like my grandmother, if my grandmother had control over all sorts of interesting magic. Hell, I'd run from that ... But how can you learn sstrength if you don't have to stand up against anything? How do you learn wit if you don't have to outthink something a million times smarter and more experienced than you? I like Baba Yaga. I don't much care to meet her, but I respect her. And hey, flaming skulls are just nifty.

So yeah. Pictures at an Exhibition. I must find this, and must remember to do so.

Comments

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

And then there's the fact that in stories like that of Vasalisa the Wise, she was still the Crone.

*nod* That's how I first encountered her, and it definitely colors my interpretation of her.

[deliriumcrow.livejournal.com]

I think I first heard of her in Jack and Jill, but she was so very different there. Outwitting things, solving problems, being generally wiser than everyone else, when everyone else was just making trouble. She was very much the Wise Woman in those tales. :)

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I heard about her in Tales of a Russian Grandmother -- I think it was originally my Grandmother's, as it was published in 1933. It's a story about a Grandmother telling stories to her two grandchildren, and the stories are interspersed between the snippets about the family. Lovely illustrations, too.

That book is why I was convinced Russia still has Tzars for most of my childhood, though... (fairy tales gave me a distorted but positive view of a number of other cultures, actually)

[forestfire.livejournal.com]

I like Baba Yaga, too. I was trying to explain the whole house on chicken legs thing to V recently. She thought it was a riot.

[deliriumcrow.livejournal.com]

*giggle**

I think, for her birthday, I shall write a more crone-like Baba for Viv, and illustrate it for her. Or maybe Christmas ... :) either way, it's seeming like a good adea at the moment.