Beauty, by Brian D’Amato; Beauty, in general; Beauty and the Beast

[rachelmanija]

In Beauty by Brian D'Amato, a creepy, pretentious, narcissistic artist/unlicensed plastic surgeon tries to create the perfectly beautiful woman. I don't think it's spoilery to say that he gets what's coming to him. A satire of American beauty culture, the 80s art scene in New York, misogyny, and the lifestyles of the idle rich, recounted by a seriously unreliable narrator.

What would Marilyn or Madonna or Cindy Crawford be without their moles? Nothing, I thought. Or a lot less. It’s interesting that moles are called “beauty marks.” What was it about them that made them so alluring? Are they like a sign that you can approach the goddess?

I spent a long time composing its position, but I finally decided the black spot would go nearly a centimeter above the left corner of her lip. A hair off to the left. The abstract element would round out her effect. It would make her unique and human and sexy and somehow pathetic. Because a mole is an intimation of death.

I am not big on social satire and much of it is now dated, but the prose style is to die for. The author is a professional artist and the technical detail is fascinating in the way of Dick Francis, though both narrator and tone are basically anti-Francis.

I do like this book but it is not my favorite book called Beauty, nor my favorite take on "Beauty and the Beast." My favorite book actually called Beauty is Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast, by Robin McKinley, and yes, I like it better than her Rose Daughter, which also retells "Beauty and the Beast." (One might argue that many and possibly all of McKinley's books are versions of "Beauty and the Beast."

My least favorite book called Beauty is Beauty: A Novel by Sheri S. Tepper, a horror novel which makes an apparently sincere case that horror fiction is evil. Tepper's books argue a lot of strange positions but that one takes the cake for the strangest.

What is your favorite/least favorite work called Beauty? What is your favorite/least favorite take on "Beauty and the Beast?"

Beauty

Comments

[sartorias]

I think nearly all Robin McKinley's books are various versions of B&B. I like Beauty and Sunshine the best as outright versions, though my fave of her books is still The Blue Sword.

[rachelmanija]

I love those too, and also The Hero and the Crown. And Deerskin, which was a very healing book for me. And some of her short stories are lovely.

I think you can see elements of "Beauty" even in books which aren't full retellings. In The Blue Sword, the heroine is taken away from her familiar home by a strange, initially frightening man whom she grows to love. There's even the sequence near the end where she returns briefly to her old home, then runs back to her new one. In The Hero and the Crown, there's no frightening but non-villainous man, but she does take a trip to the magical home of a strange man, where she is changed.

Sunshine is interesting because it's the only one where the Beast figure really is alien and eerie, as opposed to just being a man whose strangeness only requires getting used to.

[sartorias]

Good points. Though I didn't feel hit over the head with the B&B elements with rereading The Blue Sword or Hero and the Crown (Also love) as I did with Chalice and so forth.

[sovay]

I think you can see elements of "Beauty" even in books which aren't full retellings.

I had to track down a source for this quotation before citing it; it appeared originally on McKinley's blog in 2008, but the relevant archives no longer appear to exist.

"The story I tell over and over and over and over is Beauty and the Beast. It all comes from there. There are variations on the theme—and it's inside out or upside down sometimes—but the communication gap between one living being and another is pretty much the ground line. And usually the gap-bridger is love."

[kore]

Yeah, she recently redid her whole blog and a big whack of archives are gone.

[sovay]

Yeah, she recently redid her whole blog and a big whack of archives are gone.

That is not helpful to posterity!

[kore]

NO. I believe she started off on LJ, then moved the blog to her own site....wow no, the LJ's still there. There was a LOT more material that got nuked on the blog, though, including some short essays I really liked. (I saved them, because I am an Old Person On the Internet who knows that if I really want something, I should print it out, screencap it, or save it as a PDF.)

https://robinmckinley.livejournal.com/

But this is all you see of the old site

http://robinmckinley.com/

although some of it's on wayback https://web.archive.org/web/20060510155248/http://www.robinmckinley.com/SiteMap.html

[kore]

I thought the Beast in Beauty was very non-man-like, though.

[sienamystic]

The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword were my beloveds from childhood, but I don't reread them as often. I should make a point to because they really were a part of my growing up.

I think the only McKinley I don't get along with as well is Spindle's End although it's been a while since I read it. And I haven't read Chalice and there may be other new stuff I haven't gotten to.