Wisdom and Woe

"Cinderella" is one of the best-known and loved stories in the entire world. By some estimates, there are well over 1,000 different variants of the tale bearing its essential features: a neglected or orphaned heroine, a magical reversal of fate, and an epiphany involving (often) a telltale article of clothing.

But it endures in no small part due to its adaptability and versatility, reflecting the peculiar time and place of the cultures that adopt it. Charles Perrault left his literary stamp on the tale in 1697 when (quoting Italo Calvino) it "flourished in Versailles at the court of the Sun King" as a story of "elegant fantasy counterbalanced by formal Cartesian rationalism."

"Thanks to the Brothers Grimm it flourished again, somber and earthy, at the beginning of the nineteenth century in German Romantic literature." For the Brothers, folklore "meant bringing to light the fragments of an ancient religion that had been preserved by the common people and had lain dormant until the glorious day of Napoleon's defeat had finally awakened the German national consciousness."

Whereas 20th century Freudians "salvaged... a repertory of ambiguous dreams common to all men," including Oedipal taboos and evidence of ancient totemism (in the form of Cinderella's animal protectors).

For this meetup, we will read and discuss both the Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm versions of Cinderella.

Cinderella version #1 (Charles Perrault):

Ancient Greece's greatest legendary hero, Heracles, is away on an adventure when his wife, Deianira, hears reports of his unfaithfulness. So she sends him a magical robe, enchanted by the blood of the centaur, Nessus, that will allegedly charm him away from ever loving another woman.

This myth, dramatized by Sophocles in "The Women of Trachis" (c. 440 BCE), was the origin of "the shirt of Nessus": a once-popular metaphor defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "a destructive or expurgatory force or influence."

Sophocles was one of the most celebrated playwrights in ancient Athens. He composed over 100 plays, only seven of which survive in their entirety. As Aeschylus is remembered as the inventor of Greek tragedy, so Sophocles is remembered as its perfector.

Women of Trachis:

On January 9, 1826, an American brig was boarded by a canoe at Poverty Bay. Upon seeing an incongruous figure step out (heavily tattooed, dressed in cloak and feathers, and armed with a battle-axe) the captain exclaimed, "Here is a white New Zealander!" The figure (John Rutherford) corrected him: "I am not a New Zealander. I am an Englishman." Rutherford then proceeded to unfold the astonishing adventures which had befallen him.

Rutherford had arrived in New Zealand some ten years previously aboard the American brig Agnes. After an initial show of friendliness, the natives attacked the ship, slayed the captain and two of the crew, and took the others hostage. On being brought ashore, six of the captives fell immediately to the Māori ovens, while Rutherford and five others remained prisoners.

But as Rutherford's precarious situation evolved, he was able to befriend and eventually earn the respect and trust of his captors. Living among them, he adapted Māori customs and lifestyle, including having himself tattooed, and was even elevated to the rank of Chief, until his eventual escape a decade later.

On his return home, Rutherford produced quite a sensation. At a time when most Europeans knew nothing of New Zealand and had never even seen tattoos, he went on a touring exhibition--wowing crowds with his exotic body art and the wild story of his capture by "savage cannibals."

Just as Melville's excursion to the Marquesas earned him the moniker, "the man who lived among the cannibals," Rutherford became renown as "the white New Zealander." The stories of both men were met with skepticism. But Rutherford (unlike Melville) had allowed his face to be tattooed in the native fashion, and moreover he was illiterate. So the account of his experience--supplemented with "entertaining knowledge" about geography and anthropology--was preserved in writing by George Lillie Craik.

John Rutherford, The White Chief (1908) is an abridged version of The New Zealanders, primarily focusing on Rutherford's biography.

John Rutherford, The White Chief:

Patrick White is Australia's only recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His literary style is characterized by a "complex spiritual, psychological and emotional experience" that gives "the continent of Australia an authentic voice that carries across the world."

In A Fringe of Leaves (1976), White presents the story of Ellen Roxburgh (née Gluyas), a poor 19th century Cornish girl who marries into wealth. The first half of the novel is a detailed recollection of her history: a rustic childhood, her transition to upper-class life, adjustment to marriage, and a journey with her husband to the Australian penal colonies.

But on the return trip, the ship wrecks off of the coast of (modern-day) Queensland: death and destruction reigns, and Ellen's meticulously constituted world is dashed upon the shores. Ellen is one of only two survivors: captured and abused by the Aboriginal natives, she is reduced to wearing a fringe of leaves which conceals her only remaining possession--her wedding ring.

The novel is based on the real-life Eliza Fraser (1798-1858), the bearer of a precarious legacy in Australian history. Fraser's allegations of abuse by the natives was disputed in her lifetime. Nevertheless, her story was used to justify the massacre and dispossession of the Aborigines and, since 1836, has been perpetrated in the island's given namesake (Fraser Island) until 2023 when it officially reverted to its traditional name (K'gari).

A Fringe of Leaves is a vision of the terrible ordeals of one woman, beset through almost every stratum of society, in her desperate reach for freedom and personal identity. But it is also a vision of the continent itself--the colonials, Aborigines, and convicts residing there--clashing over self-determination to shape a national identity, and the "fringe of leaves" that may be worn to protect it.

A Fringe of Leaves: