Is this profound? It may be.
I don't understand what she means. But I find it strangely poetic.
"If your heart is your own I will fence with you."
I can't leave it alone. I turn it over and over, like one of those wooden puzzles you have to figure out how to take apart before you can figure out how to put it together.
"If your heart is your own I will fence with you."
And if it isn't? Whose would it be? How does that change my suitability as a fencing opponent? What does it mean when one's heart is one's own? And why does that matter to her?
posted by Laura E. Goodin @ 11:43 AM (permalink)
8 comment(s)
8 Comments:
She's about to fall in love with a man. He needs to be unattached--no other woman should own his heart. If that's as it should be, she'll have a go at him, and she wishes to be conquered.
How's that for proposing to know how a woman thinks?
Best,
Robert
That's probably the genuine intent of the cartoonist, but I find it sadly prosaic. I'd rather ponder the deeper, more ambiguous possibilities.
Ah--being a man like the cartoonist, I fell for the prosaic explanation. Let's see: In 1907, she would have been in the very vanguard of women's liberation--still hoping for the vote, but already free to practice fencing and displaying her legs in tights. Could it be that the partner's heart had to be his own in the sense of being free from the popular chauvinism? A heart just belonging to a human being, not to a reactionary crowd?
Still not very poetic, I'm afraid. You give it a try!
Nah, I'm going to let it sit in my subconscious for a while. Maybe eventually I'll come up with something. For now, the ambiguity is to be preferred.
The statement sounds almost like it came from the Lord of the Rings. Wonder what Tolkien would have meant with it?
This has been messing with my head evr since you put it up. Mutter, mutter.
OOOHH! I love it!
To me, it means if you are true to yourself, I will play with you. Then, and only then, will I find you interesting and worthy of the game.
I don't think it was necessarily about a man at all.
Happy Holidays Ms. Laura!
I'm in agreement with you, fullsoulahead! I think you've got it in a nutshell.
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