What the Gorgon means
For years, I thought I was an unnatural monster. Is that a phrase that means anything? It's the creature of Dr. Frankenstein, created by humans-out of arrogance, out of perversity, out of cruelty-with no destiny other than to fail in its inadequate imitation of life. The creature seeks to destroy the doctor, because the doctor is the only thing in all the universe that the creature stands in any relationship to. Together they will go down to oblivion.
But the Gorgon is a natural monster. This circumstance is very different. Nature supports and confirms her. Descended from Echidne the matriarch, she comes from a long line of snaky ladies. Her monstrosity is a function of what the human society can support and recognize, not something inherent to her constitution. Reflections of her can yet in all the places where civilized society breaks down. Humans did not invent her, any more than they invented the night sky or the spilling of blood.
The Gorgon is a creature of the earth. Earth is the element I am most distant from, whose ways I understand the least. But I am coming to understand that as long as I keep some body part in contact with the ground, like Antaeus, I have this untapped reserve of energy available to me. Or a skate, it could be a skate.
You can only take a step back from something if you have something else to step onto. Earth is the least responsive, least forgiving, least illuminating of the elements, but it is always there and always, always the same. "We meet again," says Jacob the Pathfinder. In derby we spend weeks learning to fall. If I can keep one claw on that firmness, the newfound balance will bring me capacities that have always eluded me.
It's a little overwhelming, this energy, but it endures, and I endure it and endure with it.
But the Gorgon is a natural monster. This circumstance is very different. Nature supports and confirms her. Descended from Echidne the matriarch, she comes from a long line of snaky ladies. Her monstrosity is a function of what the human society can support and recognize, not something inherent to her constitution. Reflections of her can yet in all the places where civilized society breaks down. Humans did not invent her, any more than they invented the night sky or the spilling of blood.
The Gorgon is a creature of the earth. Earth is the element I am most distant from, whose ways I understand the least. But I am coming to understand that as long as I keep some body part in contact with the ground, like Antaeus, I have this untapped reserve of energy available to me. Or a skate, it could be a skate.
You can only take a step back from something if you have something else to step onto. Earth is the least responsive, least forgiving, least illuminating of the elements, but it is always there and always, always the same. "We meet again," says Jacob the Pathfinder. In derby we spend weeks learning to fall. If I can keep one claw on that firmness, the newfound balance will bring me capacities that have always eluded me.
It's a little overwhelming, this energy, but it endures, and I endure it and endure with it.