mary-masked

Bath!

Published: February 27th 2018, 3:42:12 am

Finally got to take a bath!

Only tangentially related, last night I was at my friend's house and picked his daughter's illustrated Little Mermaid book while she was being put to bed (she's 7, I think) I was surprised to find out that it was the original Hans Christen Anderson version (translated, but still.) And I started thinking about it during my bath.

A couple years ago I read that he was bisexual, which made sense and goes a long way toward explaining why he was so depressed and why so many of his stories are about loving someone you can't be with.

But reading his actual version of The Little Mermaid (as opposed to just having my mom tell me the story) his bisexuality seemed much clearer. It's about a character that's desperately in love with a man, but can't tell him so. The character gives up everything, changes their very nature, and suffers enormous pain, just to be near this man. And then the character dies after watching that man marry an equally lovely woman. 

The mermaid talks a lot about how pretty both the prince and his bride are and she kisses both of them before the end of the story. And, you know, a mermaid is literally two things at once and thought to be mythical so... that sounds pretty bisexual to me.