GRGR3: swanlake

[ckaratnytsky at nypl.org]

     Huh?  Somebuddy say somfin' about me?
     
     Andrew asked:
     
     >>9)  Jessica `Swanlake' (30.39) Swan lake? Where the hell does this 
     >come
     >>from? Is it just a joke?
     
     Then Alan Westrope sed [snip]:
     
     >I've never understood the Swanlake reference, though, and it always 
     >struckme as uncharacteristically heavy-handed in comparison to the 
     >names of theother characters.  Any ballet _aficionados_ -- or 
     >performing arts librarians:-) -- care to explicate?
     
     Hey!  Me!  That's me!  Over heeere!
     
     Ahem (insert librarian voice-over here):  Weee-lll...  I didn't think 
     that the name Jessica Swanlake was particularly heavy-handed, myself.  
     My vote for the Sledgehammer Award, in the category of Biggest Bummer 
     of a Name, goes to Dominus Blicero.  (Whew!)  IMO, the associative 
     pleasures of Jessica's name are simple:  They further emphasize her 
     loveliness.  Andrew has already mentioned the swoony description of 
     Jess throwing the birdlike darts.  I don't have the book with me, but 
     I'd bet there are other bird/feather/downy breast sorts of 
     descriptions that float around Jessica.  I tend to want to stay away 
     from trying to fit the plot of Swan Lake into the Roger/Jess romance, 
     but that's me.
     
     Well, hmm, wait a minute, on second thought:  Maybe the ballet can be 
     see as kind of an ironic commentary on the ultimate end of the 
     Roger/Jess affair and, as such, provides another source for poor 
     Roger's misery.  Also, the duality expressed in the Odette/Odile 
     characters -- the white/good swan in opposition to the black/bad swan 
     -- can be directed to the two Jesses -- the Jess we love with Roger, 
     and the Jess we don't like very much at all, who chooses, gah, the 
     B-beaver.  The consolation in Swan Lake is that the lovers, Siegfried 
     and Odette, are united after death.  I can't imagine such a 
     transcendent apotheosis from the prosaic drab who finds satisfaction 
     with Jeremy.  Eeeyooo!  Roger Mexico's the guy for me...
     
     (Jess after the Beaver gets her reminds me of Julia as she ends up in 
     Orwell's _1984_.  Oh the sad waste...)
     
     A full synopsis is available at 
     
     http://www.abt.org/rep/swan/swan.synopsis.htm
     
     How's that, Alan?
     
     Chris