Lissa Bilyk

Pocahontas: the Historical (Fictionalised) Princess

What can I say about Disney’s 33rd animated feature, the seventh Disney Princess film, and Disney’s first princess based on a historical figure rather than a fairy tale?

I was about eight years old when I first saw this film. I liked it – it had awesome music and a heroine that although I couldn’t identify with, I did admire. I saw it in the movie theatre with my dad and my older brother. My brother had asked my dad if we could go and see the movie ‘about the Indian.’ He meant The Indian In The Cupboard. He was pretty pissed off when we rocked up at the theatre and saw this instead. My poor dad.

Not Your Typical Princess

Let’s face it: Pocahontas isn’t really a princess. She doesn’t get to wear big poofy ball gowns and a tiara and marry a prince. She doesn’t sit around waiting to be rescued. And she sure as hell doesn’t have that slim girlish body: she’s undeniably woman-shaped. I mean, and I know this sounds quite pervy, but she has this magnificent bosom and bum. Quite frankly, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She’s an absolute babe! This has nothing to do with her skin colour or that fact that’s she’s Native American: in fact, her body shape is the most drastically different of all the princesses, excluding the non-whites. Jasmine’s costume emphasised her unhealthily tiny waist and bigger hips, while Mulan, our other non-white princess (I can’t comment on Tiana yet because I haven’t ever seen The Princess and the Frog) has her boyish figure emphasised in an attempt to disguise her femininity.

Pocahontas shows a love for life and adventure. The first time we meet her, she jumps off a cliff, which, according to SMeyer more than ten years later, is a pretty common pastime for Native Americans. #Imjustsayin. Later in the film, as she sings a song about choosing her own path, she decides on the one that is going to lead to adventure. Now, I don’t mean to rat out on one of the Renaissance princesses because let’s face it, these girls are the girls I grew up with: but at the end of the film, Pocahontas seems to have learned her lesson or something. She opts out of adventure and for the simple life of living with her village, rather than going with John back to England. That would have been a remarkable adventure in itself (and apparently was, as Disney did end up making a direct-to-video sequel).

Cliff diving was cool long before SMeyer wrote it into New Moon.

Now that I’m older, I can appreciate Pocahontas for what she brings to the Disney Princess line up. It’s a lot of typical Princess attributes:

Spunk. Courage. Loyalty. Totally awesome songs (two Oscars, one for best original score and the other for best original song, ‘Colours of the Wind’ – yes I WILL spell ‘colour’ with a U because I am Australian, damn it!) Ahem. And a very healthy respect for nature.

Sometimes Pocahontas makes me feel bad for being white.

When I was watching The Little Mermaid with the fiancée, he asked me what kind of message was Ursula telling little girls when she said,

“The men up there don’t like a lot of blabber
They think a girl who gossips is a bore!
Yes on land it’s much preferred for ladies not to say a word
And after all dear, what is idle babble for?
…It’s she who holds her tongue who gets her man.”

I managed to explain to him that even as a little girl, you just know Ursula is a bad guy, and bad guys are not to be trusted. It’s the same with Radcliffe’s racism towards the Native Americans. When Radcliffe says,

“What can you expect from filthy little heathens?
Their whole disgusting race is like a curse
Their skin’s a hellish red, they’re only good when dead…
They’re savages! Savages! Barely even human…
They’re not like you and me, which means they must be evil!”

Quite frankly it’s impossible to agree with him. After all, the Native Americans aren’t digging up the land, chopping down all the trees and shooting everything that moves. Pocahontas shows us that her tribe has a healthy respect for nature, which is just wonderful. The use of wind and water as a recurring themes in the film make you feel as if nature really is sentient – I am of course not referring to Grandmother Willow, who is a sentient tree.

She does the windswept look particularly well.

Pocahontas’ Un-Happily Ever After Romance

The other thing about Pocahontas is that she’s the first ‘Princess’ (and I use the term loosely – Disney market her as one of the 10 but she’s not a princess, she’s the daughter of a chieftain) – who doesn’t end up marrying her ‘prince.’ The awesome thing about that is it’s a bittersweet ending. He sails off back to England for medical treatment, and she watches him (although I often yell at her to swim out to the ship) with the promise that she’d be happier making peace between the settlers and the natives in her homeland. She’s the first princess not to choose her man. How’s that for a role model! She even turned down local hunk Kocoum because he was too ‘serious’.

It’s a surprise ending, one that doesn’t end with a wedding or with the promise of one. That’s what makes Pocahontas different. She embodies the typical attributes of the Disney princesses while still managing her very own strong personality, storyline, and destiny.

* * * * *

Remember, you can enter my giveaway competition to win a copy of my very first novel, The Edge of Darkness, a soft sci-fi about cyborg prisoners of war and their mutiny on board a large transport ship. If you like strong female leads, you’ll love this book! Visit this page to enter!

Another Amazing Announcement and a Goodreads Giveaway!

Just a little note to anyone on Goodreads, I am ALSO giving away a copy of my first published novel, The Edge of Darkness, a soft sci-fi about cyborg prisoners of war and their mutiny on board a big transport ship, on Goodreads.

If you’re on Goodreads, follow this link to enter this giveaway as well. This one closes on September 1, so if you miss out on the blog-hosted giveaway, which closes on August 26 (my birthday, by the way, I’m just sayin’ *wink), you can have a second chance to win this one!

HOW COOL IS THAT?

I suppose you could enter BOTH giveaways beforehand if you wanted to risk winning two copies… but that would just be silly. Even though the cover is SO PRETTY I just want to sit and stare at it all day long.

BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY: Signed copy of The Edge Of Darkness

Hello, my lovelies. I have an amazing announcement. I am hosting my very first giveaway!

I am giving away ONE SIGNED paperback copy of my first novel, The Edge Of Darkness, a space opera about cyborg prisoners of war who discover a conspiracy aboard their transport ship and mutiny to save their lives. It’s a soft sci-fi dystopian with a little bit of thriller elements and a little bit of romance, and contains a kick-ass heroine and her noble love interest.

This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL (YAY! I hear you all cheer). I will choose the winner on September 1st because I have a simultaneous giveaway on Goodreads and there is a small chance one person could win both books.

To be eligible to win this giveaway, all you have to do is SUBSCRIBE to my blog using the SUBSCRIBE button over there —> because quite frankly, not everyone has a Twitter or a Facebook or a Google+ but everyone has email. I’m not going to make you like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter, or add me to your circle on Google+, or follow me on Goodreads, or even follow my NetworkedBlog. But you’re welcome to do all that.

Then, AFTER you have subscribed (or if you ALREADY subscribed in which case, YAY!) please COMMENT on THIS post using the SAME email address in the info field, or, if you’re a WordPress blog user, the link to your blog (so I can tell who’s who).

Please note:

If you subscribe but do not comment you won’t be eligible.
If you comment without subscribing you won’t be eligible.
If you comment more than once I will only count your first entry.

I will select the winner using random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to an email.

I’m excited about this giveaway because The Edge of Darkness will be going on sale in September! I am using Smashwords for the digital copies and CreateSpace for the paperback copies. Stay tuned for the announcement.

AND NOW it’s time for a Chapter One excerpt, so see if you’d be interested in winning this giveaway. Why wouldn’t you? It’s FREE!

I snapped out of my daydream as my husband Ethan sat next to me.

“You’ll never guess what,” he said, his one human eye shining with excitement. Ethan was one of the lucky borgs who managed to keep his human voice. I think that’s why he gravitated towards me: that and the full head of hair I sport. I was originally born in the Philippines on Old Earth, and I still have the long black hair I was born with. When my face was smashed, I was given a cybernetic eye and face plate. At first the human in me was horrified by the way I looked in a mirror – and then I never saw a mirror again, and so I forgot. Cyborgs aren’t given mirrors, and on the Rock we don’t have anything that can cast a reflection. So I forgot about my face. Until I saw Ethan.

Ethan tells me he was very athletic before the explosion. He had longish blonde hair and tanned skin – his skin is now pale and sallow, like so many of us. I do adore his human eye, though. It is blue and happy. That’s how it seems to me. Happy.

Happiness is rare on the Rock.

“What is it?” I asked him, taking his human hand in mine. The touch set off a bunch of receptors to my cybernetic nerves, and my system flooded with euphoria. Every time I touched him, I got the same response. When I reported the over stimulus to the Authorities, they told me they couldn’t afford the mechanics to fix the overload. So I learned to enjoy it.

“Apparently the war’s over. I heard the Authorities talking about incoming transport ships. The Antiquity fleet. Max, my girl, I think we’re going home!”

“Home!” I tried not to laugh at his hopeful expression. What could home offer us? Perhaps we would no longer be refugees, or prisoners of war, but we’d still be second-class citizens. Why did they want to send us back to Old Earth when they could use us until we died in servitude?

“We’re too expensive an investment to risk sending home,” I argued quietly. “Why don’t they ship us off-planet to some alien contractor? They’d get their money’s worth.”

“Well Max, the war’s over, so the risk of being pirated while offline is minimal.”

“I don’t want to go offline,” I said under my breath. He squeezed my hand.

“It’s OK, love: I’ll compartmentalise right beside you. I’ll never leave your side, you know that.”

“Yes, Ethan, I do know that.” I looked furtively around, and saw that there were no Authorities nearby. I leaned in and kissed him quickly on the lips.

It was an illegal move, and one that could have grave consequences if we were caught. That’s why, in the three years we have been together on the Rock, neither of us have progressed further than a kiss or a grope, despite us both being healthy semi-humans with fully functioning sex organs. It’s just too risky. The consequences for breaking proximity rules were harsh. I think it haunted a lot of the borgs who were capable of thinking about it.

I will love you all the more if you RETWEET. FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS, PLEASE RETWEET/SHARE ON FACEBOOK.

Also: The Edge of Darkness is now on Goodreads! Use this link to mark it to-read. If you’re SUPER nice and I get 100 to-reads, I will give away some e-book editions!

Foreign Cover Friday: The Initiate by Louise Cooper

Foreign Cover Friday is a weekly meme hosted by The Reading Fever, where foreign covers of the books we know and love are spotlighted and discussed. To join, either pick your favourite foreign cover, or pick many foreign covers, and start discussing!

This is the first week I have been involved with Foreign Cover Friday, even though I’ve read every entry The Reading Fever put up. I’ve always had a post to do on Fridays but this week I thought, why not? So we’re taking a look at my favourite author’s most successful book:

The Initiate (Time Master #1) by Louise Cooper

Down all the ages the twin powers of Order and Chaos have been locked in an eternal struggle for control of the worlds of men.

Somewhere beyond the realms we know, in a time when Order has triumphed, a child is born; a nameless outcast destined to restore the terrible balance. This is the tale of his initiation….

The cover on the left is the first imprint of the book published way back in 1985 by Tor Books. The cover on the right is the more recent (2005) re-print by Mundania Press. The left version shows Tarod, our protagonist, bundled up in a cloak facing Yandros, another major character in the books. The left cover showcases Sashka, a Very Important Character. To Ms Cooper’s request, they did not put Tarod on the cover.

This is what I assume must be the French covers (left 2001, right 2003). The left version shows a very detailed portrait of Tarod with his long, sexy wild black hair and his soul-piercing green eyes. The ring makes an appearance, too. The only problem with this is that it doesn’t leave his appearance up to the reader’s imagination. But I actually really like it. The cover on the right… I don’t even know where to start. I’m pretty sure that’s meant to be Yandros in the background but I have no idea what Tarod is doing on the floor with an arm that appears to be made of metal.
Translation: The Master of Time Book One: The Initiate.

These two Spanish versions (I believe) shows slightly less of his face. I don’t like the blue border on the left – it look gaudy! And I’m not sure what sword he’s holding. Perhaps the cover artists read the memo and went, “A fantasy! He must hold a sword, then.” And the cover on the right? I don’t even know what they’re trying to do to that. An old guy who looks like Death holding a staff? It’s not even close to anything in the book. I wouldn’t pick up either of them.
Translation: Mr Time, The Insider (according to Google translate?)

It’s a bit hard to see in this cover, but in this version, Tarod looks just like Colin Firth channelling Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights. I had the trilogy in this 1993 HarperCollins UK covers, but I gave them to a friend to read and he moved away and we lost contact Sad smile .

What are your thoughts?

Which covers do you like? Which do you hate?

Check back at The Reading Fever for her Foreign Cover Friday!

Disney’s First Non-White Princess, Jasmine.

The thing about Disney is that they like to add technically non-princesses into the Disney Princess line-up. When you think about it, throughout their entire films, Belle and Cinderella weren’t actually princesses. Sure, they became princesses afterwards by marrying a prince, whatever. But then you come across characters like Alice (who is sometimes marketed that way) who has nothing to do with royalty – she is neither princess nor marries royalty. And then we come across the highlighted non-white ‘princesses’ Mulan, Pocahontas, and Jasmine. Mulan and Pocahontas have nothing to do with royalty – Mulan is a Chinese citizen and Pocahontas is the daughter of a Native American chief.

Tis a pity the film was about Aladdin, not Jasmine.

Jasmine’s a bit more complicated. She stands out. She’s the daughter of a Sultan. She is technically a princess, but she’s the first Disney ‘princess’ so far that doesn’t marry a prince. Instead, she chooses to marry a street kid. In fact, the entire movie revolves around the boy, not her. This is the first Disney Princess movie to actually focus on a male character instead of the princess they use to promote it. Not that I’m complaining – Aladdin was originally meant to be 13 years old, and they matured him into an 18 year old young male lead, and quite honestly, kind of a hunk.

Naked chest? That was practically NUDITY when I was six.

Even though this is based on an Arab folktale about a ruffian who finds a genie, I find surprising parallels with Jasmine and one of Shakespeare’s films I studied for my Honours degree, The Merchant of Venice. Like Portia, Jasmine is trapped by the need to marry by an overbearing father. She wills to be rebellious, but once she marries, she will have more power than her unmarried self. That’s about where the parallels end. The situation is worse for Jasmine – if she doesn’t marry by her eighteenth birthday, something terrible will happen. I don’t actually know what – Jafar hypnotises the Sultan into believing she will have to marry him, which is so gross I don’t even want to think about it.

We'll have a nice picture of their date, instead.

The most fascinating thing about Jasmine is that she is so very different to the past princesses we have met: chronologically, they are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, and Belle. It pains me to say it (because Belle was, for a long time, my favourite), but Jasmine is even more rebellious and strong-willed than these previous princesses. She never just waits to be rescued: she is constantly trying to find her own way. She runs away from the palace even though she has no where to go and has never been outside the walls. Even when Jafar has her in chains in that red outfit, and she seems all helpless, she goes and does a 180 on what a typical princess should behave and actually uses her sexuality as a weapon against Jafar, which in my opinion is just totally cool.

She's a total hottie in the red outfit. Uh, can I say that about a Disney character?

It’s a pity the film didn’t give her more screen time. She fell in love with Aladdin because they talked and discovered how much they had in common, and she didn’t like his alter-ago Ali Ababwa. She even guessed that he was Aladdin under all the glitz and glamour, and although he lied to her (which TOTALLY pisses me off, why didn’t he just tell the truth?!) she still fell in love with Aladdin when he was being himself, a street kid. And the best thing about Princess Jasmine? She married him, even though he wasn’t a prince. It’s kind of the complete opposite of Belle – Belle may well have guessed that the Beast was some kind of nobility while he kept her trapped in his castle, but she didn’t know he was a prince and fell in love with his beastly form. Jasmine saw past the princely disguise Aladdin was using and fell in love with a nobody.

Oh, oh! And the other thing I really like about this film is that there was KISSING before the wedding/final scene. Yay, kissing!

P.S. – I’m going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 tonight – are you jealous?