Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall
By Laijon Liu 20090911

Mirror, mirror, on the wall
Who is the fairest in the world?
My soft cream skin white as snow
And dark long hair like ebony wood
The bodice laces of silk I fashioned
To tie you up and cut off your breath
The glistening comb I carved it to sell
To brush off your thoughts and all your hair
And the green apple, the work of my art
Holds a red cheek of sweetest death
Your glass coffin and seven candles illume
There your beauty sleeps and never resurrect
Mirror, mirror, on the wall
Who is the greatest among all?

Note:
I wanted to write about pride and envy for sometime, and I feel that pride always goes with envy, usually shows on someone holds great talents like artists, writers, musicians… those very creative people. After some weeks of finding, I revisited the beloved story of Snow White that I read when I was a kid. And immediately the urges of being in the character of the envy Queen (Snow White’s step mother) came upon my mind. She must be an artist in business, or a poet or writer who wanted to outshine all others, or someone held great talents but was fatal with her pride and envy (she’s fashion designer, she made colorful silk bodice laces that can cut off your breath; she’s good sculptor, she made the glistening comb that with magic of death, and she’s bio-chemist that only the red skin part of her apple kills you, you think Jan Davidszoon painted the fruit that you want a bite, but the envy Queen produced real poison apples), so all her beauty and feature, and talents she worked to beat down her ‘competitors’, too sad, she never realized that for beauty there is no judging, there is no first nor second nor third, every artist is unique, every poet speaks distinctive voice, yet they all have their weakness and strength. Snow White was pure and naïve, she was tempted by the beautiful laces, the glistening comb, and the artful apple;( she couldn’t help it, for she was a pure lover of art) she died three times, yet revived. And I feel her character is more beautiful than her appearance, I guess that might be the original purpose of this story, what’s more beautiful than purity? Even her corpus does not rot but fresh, so her beauty remains, like she never dies…. There is also another metaphor for aesthetic view of inspiration for artists, the biological mother of Snow White who sits by her window and sews, her aesthetic inspiration is from outside her window, she is humble and always recognizes the beauty of her outside world (the snow, the blood, the ebony), so her wish and faith begets her fruit (Snow White); but the envy Queen (Snow White’s step mother) can only look into her mirror(self-adored but not-narcissism), she realizes her weakness, yet she cannot learn better, coz she can only get her inspiration from herself, the mirror. Two queens and Snow White are artists, three different views and attitudes toward beauty of art. I think every artist should see two persons in her mirror, Snow White and her step mom hauling and pulling each other’s hair and cat-scratch fighting against each other, sometime Snow White on top, often the envy Queen beats the crap out of Snow White:)
2016.09.16
Some new understanding about Snow White.
There are three aesthetic states one must go thru:
1) Staring at the mirror: Self-reflection of Narcissistic view or Self-loathing that draws envy.
National Pride, Race Pride, Culture and Ethnic Pride, or the opposite
2) Looking outside thru window: Seeing the wide world that improves aesthetic standard.
Observation and analysis, to imitate the good and eliminate flaws
3) Seeing the beauty thru each object: Snow White none judging, falls for something beautiful every time, even we readers see the dark magic in a beautiful disguise, the ribbon, the apple, the product of the witch...  her naive attitude toward person and things is truly admirable for a artist and poet or anyone to learn see the goodness in everybody and everything.
People must go thru these 3 stage to be beautiful.