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When we think about well-being among older adults, how often do we think about their oral health as being an important component? In reviews of risk factors for low well-being among older adults, oral health is never explicitly mentioned, although other health conditions and disease states are often discussed.
As you have doubtless heard I am soon to publish a new book, all about how to make yourself slimer. It is taking a while, as I have to write it all out in longhand because I can't afford a typewriter. I have fallen on hard times and am living in reduced circumstances above a Tooth Shop in Dunstable.
This is very difficult for me as I cannot afford teeth. Would the Tooth Shop miss a few teeth if I were to sneak down and help myself in the night? I made my dying mother a promise on her death bed. "Son," she said, "Promise me this one thing. If you ever, God forbid, find yourself in reduced circumstances, never, ever, stoop so low as to steal teeth." And I promised. Even though she had a lovely set of gnashers in a glass on her death bedside table, that she would shortly have no use for.
I am poor, but happy, because soon I won't be poor because of my new book, Ten Tips To Make You Slimer, all about losing weight. A slime person is a happy person, and I can make you slime. I have also invented some sliming pills, which I will sell from my Internet Shop, just as soon as I have sold enough copies of my book to buy a typewriter so I can get the internet.
Here's looking forward to a slimer you!
(Sponsored by Fishblanket's Sliming Pills)
0 Comments on I can make you slime! as of 3/9/2016 6:42:00 PM
Taking place entirely inside an airport terminal, New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival is a particularly refreshing festival that is not to be missed.
Author Vilasinee Bunnag, along with illustrator Yasmin Doctor, have created a wonderfully interactive picture book, Where Do Our Baby Teeth Go?, to help little ones understand, celebrate, and document this rite of passage.
Much of the comment on the official photographic portrait of the Queen released in April this year to celebrate her 88th birthday focussed on her celebrity photographer, David Bailey, who seemed to have ‘infiltrated’ (his word) the bosom of the establishment. Less remarked on, but equally of note, is that the very informal pose that the queen adopted showed her smiling, and not only smiling but also showing her teeth.
It is only very recently that monarchs have cracked a smile for a portrait, let alone a smile that revealed teeth. Before the modern age, monarchs embodied power – and power rarely smiles. Indeed it has often been thought to be worrying when it does. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s endlessly flashing teeth caused this powerful statesman to trigger as much suspicion as approval. The negative reaction was testimony to an unwritten law of portraiture, present until very recently in western art. According to this, an open mouth signifies plebeian status, extreme emotion, or else folly and licence, bordering on insanity. As late as the eighteenth century, an individual who liked to be depicted smiling as manifestly as Tony Blair would have risked being locked up as a lunatic.
The individual who broke this unwritten law of western portraiture was Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun whose charming smile –- at once twinklingly seductive and reassuringly maternal – was displayed at the Paris Salon in 1787. It appears on the front cover of my book, The Smile Revolution in Eighteenth-Century Paris. The French capital had witnessed the emergence of modern dentistry over the course of the century – a subject that has been largely neglected. In addition, the city’s elites adopted the polite smile of sensibility that they had learned from the novels of Samuel Richardson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Madame Vigée Le Brun’s smile shocked the artistic establishment and the stuffy court elite out at Versailles, who still observed tradition, but it marked the advent of white teeth as a positive attribute in western art.
Young Queen, Elizabeth II, by Lee J Haywood. CC-BY-SA-2.0 via Flickr.
Yet if Vigée Le Brun’s example was followed by many of the most eminent artists of her day (David, Ingres, Gérard, etc), the white tooth smile took much longer to establish itself as a canonical and approved portrait gesture. The eighteenth century’s ‘Smile Revolution’ aborted after 1789. Politics under the French Revolution and the Terror were far too serious to accommodate smiles. The increasingly gendered world of separate spheres consigned the smile to the domestic environment. And for most of the nineteenth century, monarchs and men of power in the public sphere, following traditional modes of the expression of gravitas, invariably presented a smile-less face to the world.
Probably the first reigning monarch to have a portrait painted that revealed white teeth was Queen Victoria. This may seem surprising given her famous penchant for staying resolutely ‘unamused’. Yet in 1843, she commissioned the German portrait-painter Franz-Xaver Winterhalter to paint a delightfully informal study, that showed the twenty-four year-old monarch reclining on a sofa revealing her teeth in a dreamy and indeed mildly aroused smile. Yet the conditions of the portrait’s commission showed that the seemly old rules were still in place. For Victoria had commissioned the portrait as a precious personal gift for her ‘angelic’ husband, Prince Albert. What she called her ‘secret picture’ was hung in the queen’s bedroom and was not seen in public throughout her reign. Indeed, its display in an exhibition in 2009, over a century after her death, marked only its second public showing since its creation. This was three years after Rolf Harris’s 2006 portrayal of the queen with a white-tooth smile, a significant precursor to David Bailey’s photograph.
If English monarchs have thus been late-comers to the twentieth-century smile-fest, their subjects have been baring their teeth in a smile for many decades. As early as the 1930s and 1940, the practice of saying ‘cheese’ when confronted with a camera became the norm. Hollywood-style studio photography, advertising models and more relaxed forms of sociability and subjectivity have combined to produce the twentieth century’s very own Smile Revolution. So it is worth reflecting whether the reigning monarch’s early twenty-first century acceptance of the smile’s progress will mark a complete and durable revolution in royal portraiture. Seemingly only time – and the Prince of Wales – will tell.
Even the teeth have personality in "No More Gunk!"
"Two Books in One. In NO MORE GUNK! short playful rhymes and humorous illustrations help children learn in a fun way the importance of proper dental hygiene. Tooth Tips in the back of the book encourage children to take care of their teeth. Snappy rhymes along with colorful and fun illustrations in OUCH! Sunburn! help children see the
0 Comments on No More Gunk - Illustration Highlight as of 7/26/2014 11:34:00 AM
Most of us only think about teeth when something’s wrong with them — when they come in crooked, break, or begin to rot. But take a minute to consider your teeth as the extraordinary feat of engineering they are. They concentrate and transmit the forces needed to break food, again and again, up to millions of times over a lifetime. And they do it without themselves being broken in the process — with the very same raw materials used to make the plants and animals being eaten.
Chewing is like a perpetual death match in the mouth, with plants and animals developing tough or hard tissues for protection, and teeth evolving ways to sharpen or strengthen themselves to overcome those defenses. Most living things don’t want to be eaten. They often protect themselves by reinforcing their parts to stop eaters from breaking them into small enough bits to swallow or digest. It could be a hard shell to keep a crack from starting, or tough fibers to keep one from spreading. Either way, the eater still has to eat. And that’s where teeth come in. The variety of tooth types, especially across the mammals, is extraordinary. It’s a testament to what evolution can accomplish given time, motive, and opportunity.
Lots of animals have “teeth”; sea urchins, spiders, and slugs all have hardened tissues used for food acquisition and processing. But real teeth, like yours and mine, are special. They first appeared half a billion years ago, and Nature has spent the whole time since tinkering with ways to make them better. It’s a story written in stone – the fossil record. We see the appearance of a hard, protective coating of enamel, better ways of attaching tooth to jaw, differentiation of front and back teeth, tighter fit between opposing surfaces, and a new joint for precise movements of the jaw.
The motive is endothermy; we mammals heat our bodies from within. And chewing allows us to squeeze the energy we need to fuel our furnaces. The opportunity is evolvability; very slight genetic tweaks can have dramatic effects on tooth form and function. Consider the incredible variety of different tooth types in mammals, matched so well to the foods individual species eat. A lion has sharp-crested chewing teeth, with blades opposing one another like a pair of scissors, for slicing flesh. A cow has broad, flat ones broken by thin, curved ridges, like a cheese grater, for milling grass. You and I have thick molars with rounded cusps that fit neatly into opposing basins, like a mortar and pestle, for crushing and grinding whatever it is we eat.
There can be little doubt that the diversity, abundance, and success of mammals, including us, are due, in no small measure, to our teeth. Look in a mirror, smile, and think about it.
Peter S. Ungar received his PhD in Anthropological Sciences from Stony Brook University and taught Gross Anatomy in the medical schools at Johns Hopkins and Duke before moving to the University of Arkansas, where he now serves as Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anthropology. He has written or co-authored more than 125 scientific papers on ecology and evolution for books and journals and is the author of Teeth: A Very Short Introduction.
The Very Short Introductions (VSI) series combines a small format with authoritative analysis and big ideas for hundreds of topic areas. Written by our expert authors, these books can change the way you think about the things that interest you and are the perfect introduction to subjects you previously knew nothing about. Grow your knowledge with OUPblog and the VSI series every Friday, subscribe to Very Short Introductions articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS, and like Very Short Introductions on Facebook.
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Subscribe to only anthropology articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS Image credit: Gebitsdiagram Chart created with Open Dental By Jordan Sparks. CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
My agent said she loves the poetry collection I recently sent her. Yay! Of course, finding an editor who feels the same and feels her company can actually make money off of it (a fairly rare thing for any picture book, let alone a poetry one) is a whole other thing. But the last two manuscripts I've sent my agent, she didn't like. So at least this is hurdle #1 cleared. Whew.
Between freelance work and family obligations (especially over the summer, when I practically wear a chauffeur uniform), I don't get much time to work on the writing I love. That's why I am so excited to have carved out several chunks of days to work on a poetry project. I've finished draft 2 of this collection, which I'll call Teeth, revising one poem per day. But today, after flag practice and yoga, I will have about 4 straight hours to do draft 3.
This collection is aimed at primary grades, so my revision pass this time will focus on length and age-appropriateness. My humor/voice often tends toward the 5th/6th-grade level, and I want to make sure that each poem is the kind a 1st grader would get if it was read to him and he could see the pictures.
I've also found how long a few of my poems in Stampede feel when kids and I read them together on school visits. This new collection is longer (30+ poems), and a few 16-liners is fine. But I want to make sure I have some 2- and 4-liners, as well, with the average probably being 8 lines.
It's really fun to go into a poetry project with very concrete goals. I can't wait to see how much transformation I can find in 4 hours.
Last Thursday I had a tooth pulled. I've been having some other teeth issues related to teeth grinding and a misaligned bite that require me to wear a mouth guard during the day for 4-6 months. I've already had a mouth guard to wear at night since college for the aforementioned teeth grinding and TMJ. (I have bad teeth in general--lots of cavities. I think it's genetic.)
Anyway, long story short, the oral surgeon said to me before the surgery, "I guess it goes without saying that you have a stressful job!"
I paused. Because the truth is, my job IS stressful. Or, at least, I get stressed by my job. Everyone in my company gets stressed out. My first assistant would grind through mouth guard after mouth guard. But I laughed and said, "Well, yeah, but it doesn't sound like it would be stressful. I'm a children's book editor."
I realized how ridiculous that sounded.
I remembered this post from about five years ago--"It's not brain surgery." Anyway, I think I take myself too seriously sometimes. I need to remind myself to keep things in perspective.
Getting a random comment such as the one from Anonymous (of course) on my post last week didn't help any. Because the comment was so ridiculous, I have to assume that it was a joke, or at least something written, for whatever reason, to make me angry. It DID make me laugh, and it DID make me a little angry. But anyway. Being a children's book editor is my job. Not my life. I value the work I do, and I dedicate way more than normal working hours to it, but I'm not a robot. I have to remember that balance in my life is important. It's important in everyone's life. Whether we ARE brain surgeons, or authors, or illustrators, or editors, designers, engineers, or teachers. We should all strive for excellence, but we need to also strive for balance. Yes, there's always something more we can do, but without balance, we'd be unstable, without balance, we burn out. With balance, we can do better jobs, and live better lives.
So, in honor of balance, let me share these quotations, all from the reliable source called the internet:
"What I dream of is an art of balance." ~ Henri Matisse
"Happiness is equilibrium. Shift your weight. Equilibrium is pragmatic. You have to get everything into proportion. You compensate, rebalance yourself so that you maintain your angle to your world. When the world shifts, you shift." ~ Tom Stoppard
"People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Living in balance and purity is the highest good for you and the earth." ~
5 Comments on teeth and work and balance, last added: 3/3/2011
I thought that Anonymous comment was a joke, too. I mean, if it was serious, then what was Anonymous doing even reading this blog? Isn't he/she contributing to the so-called "waste of time" he/she excoriates?
Alvina! You don't take yourself too seriously! I think any author would agree that editors ought to take their jobs seriously, but you can take a job seriously (who wants an editor who doesn't care??) without being obsessed by it....or rather, take it seriously and still have balance.
I don't think that comment was a joke. I think it was written by a frustrated author or wannabe-- remember that rant on Amazon? The author who wouldn't let it go, there were something like 14 comments to the person who had criticized her book, increasingly hysterical in tone?
It's easy to become very crazy in this business. I'm sure I would be without the BRGs & other friends' voices of sanity and balance!
The Ralph Waldo Emerson quote rings so true to me.
Too often people assume that if a job is enjoyable it means it's not stressful. False! In fact, such jobs can be more stressful because of how much you care.
Good for you for being conscious of the need to keep equilibrium in your life.
April is a seven-year-old tooth fairy about to head out on her first tooth collection. But first she has to convince her parents that she is old enough to go out with just her little sister for company. Soon the two of them are headed out into the starry night with a coin in their sack that will be exchanged for the tooth. Their mother cautioned that that the boy must never see them, that’s the most important thing. After diving for the tooth in a glass of water, April and Esme are stunned to see the boy wake up and look right at them. But all is not lost, as with quick thinking the two of them save the day. They then return home again tired but very proud of their success.
Graham has such a great touch with stories. He marries modern touches with classic tropes. Here the father of the tooth fairy family has a pony tail along with his wings. His wife sports a tattoo on her arm that is visible when she’s reading in the bath. At the same time, the family lives in a tiny home near a hollow trunk of a tree, surrounded by thistle and mushrooms. But turn your head and you will see the trucks on the M42. Graham also weaves humor into the story, both through the juxtaposition of modern and classic, but also in small moments in the book. One of my favorites is when Esme pauses to consider taking a grandmother’s false teeth too.
A story sure to resonate with modern children that is gentle, sweet and toothsome. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Awwww. I remember:) You were so cute and so sad all at the same time!!!!
1questionaday said, on 9/24/2010 10:24:00 AM
My Facebook responses:
Ours was nice enough but he had such BAD breath! Then there was the orthodontist in Hinsdale who had the new, younger doctor join his practice. I remember being there getting my braces tightened when the song “Afternoon Delight” came on the radio and the young doctor was just appalled by the song. Still makes me laugh – he was actually offended by the implied content of the song and NOT because the song was just really cheesy!
Fran, the hygienist. She had the most amazing eyes.
Maureen & John…I think I see a pattern here. Afternoon Delight, huh? Damn you. Now I have that song stuck in my head. Hilarious!!!
My response:
Damn where were all the hot dentists with gorgeous eyes when I was little. All I got was Dr. Kilpecky. And w…hile he had the most AMAZING toy box, sadly he wasn’t a very good dentist. Had to have ALL my cavities re-filled. It was beyond bad…especially at 7.
When you hold your first tiny newborn, a list of endless concerns begins to race through your mind. Surprisingly, one that doesn’t even register on that scale then will become your daily fixation for the next, oh, twenty years: teeth. Early on in your parenting career, those pearly whites become an obsession, or so it must seem to non-parents. When will they show up? Fall out? Grow back in? Need orthodontia? Have to be removed/repaired/replaced? It truly never ends. Since I spread my kids over the better part of two decades, I have some kid in each stage at any given time. My world and my checkbook basically revolve around teeth. And there are some things I really like about that. One of the traditions in our house is that no baby can claim to have a new tooth until they pass the “spoon test.” Only when we hear the distinctive Tink! Tink! Tink! of a spoon tapped against drooly gums hitting the edge of a tiny emerging tooth can we say that the baby has a new (or first) one. That is always a bittersweet occasion--the little one is growing, but the little one is also not so little anymore. While Connor’s teeth are being expensively straightened, Addison’s are falling out, and Keilana’s are being taken out, Scarlett is just getting some. Which is why we read The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss’ alias Theo LeSieg. TEETH! They are very much in style. They must be very much worthwhile!
It’s time for your semi-annual visit to your dentist. What better way to pass the time than to read a fortune cookie saying. Here are fifteen sayings from your dentist for your amusement:
A smile will get you everywhere unless you have a mouth full of rotten teeth.
Go ahead and eat all the sweets that you like. After all, you are supporting my son’s education.
It is impolite to floss in front of your girlfriend.
It’s time that you got at the root of your problems.
Hey, hey, hey, you have a lot of decay.
You will soon get a thrill at our powerful new drill.
You do not get gum disease by chewing gum.
Brace yourself for this important message. Your daughter needs braces.
Getting a crown on your tooth does not make you a King.
You’ll never pass the kissing test if your mouth has bad breath.
Make haste and go out and buy some toothpaste.
Never pick at your teeth with a fork.
Green teeth are not pretty or natural unless your name is Shrek.
Vampires should gargle twice a day with blood after brushing their teeth.
No, it wasn't rehearsed or scripted (people keep asking me), and it was much too much fun. I'm wearing a suit because that was what I had in the bag, post-funeral.
...the caretaker used to praise the house in the words that Nuth had suggested. "If it wasn't for the drains," she would say, "it's the finest house in London," and when they pounced on this remark and asked questions about the drains, she would answer them that the drains also were good, but not so good as the house.
I certainly don't hate him, but am of the opinion that he is not as good as the rest of the house.)
I've been thinking a bit about dentistry, dentition, and various things dental this week due to a convergence of circumstances. First, I had some minor dental work, then at my neighbor's yard sale I picked up a copy of a children's book called Your Wonderful Teeth, which has some marvelous photographs. And then I watched the movie Teeth.
The pictures from the former will speak for themselves, but the latter requires a few words.
Teeth is a horror-comedy about vagina dentata. I saw the trailer a few months ago and had one of those "No, they didn't ... oh wow, they
did..." moments where at first I assumed my own strange brain was projecting something, only to realize that my projection was entirely accurate when the voiceover announced: "Dentata. It's Latin for 'teeth'."
I didn't expect much of the movie. How could it possibly live up to its premise? (And what, exactly, was there to live up to?) I assumed it would probably just be an extended castration fantasy, and though in some ways it is, the ways in which it is are amusing, because writer-director Mitchell Lichtenstein has deliberately flipped some of the expectations and prejudices inherent not only in the vagina dentata myth, but in ordinary woman-in-peril/woman-is-evil horror movies.
There is no way a movie about vagina dentata could avoid making the audience focus on the female protagonist's genitalia, and Lichtenstein has a good time in the opening parts of the movie manipulating this fascination. Visually, the movie evoked for me, in the beginning at least, Edward Scissorhands and Heathers -- weird suburbia, filmed in a stylized manner (or mannered style) that makes everything feel just a little bit beyond reality. The protagonist, Dawn (well played by Jess Weixler), is a member of an abstinence-till-marriage club at her high school, and her passionate devotion to this cause obviously channels all her thoughts and energies to one subject: sex. Sex for Dawn is full of horror and attraction, and it is her primary concern in life, a concern that is socially sanctioned because her obsession is expressed through the language of conservative morality. When she finally has to admit her attraction to one of her classmates, she is unprepared and conflicted, and he -- who has been trying to live up to her moral teachings -- descends to rape. And then ... crunch.
The gruesome violence of Teeth -- and it is explicit and bloody -- is always of a particular type: male. The gory moments of the movie are all about what Dawn's teeth bite off. Instead of the movie being all about what horrors can be inflicted on a pure and innocent female body, it becomes a movie about what can be inflicted on men who have previously always gotten what they wanted.
Despite its gore, Teeth is really a superhero movie. Dawn could be one of the X-Men (X-Women?). Mutation is a concept she latches on to when she is trying to figure out what is going on with her body, and the real arc of the narrative is of a superhero learning to control her powers -- and, ultimately, to use them for good. The last section of the movie exudes a spirit of joy and empowerment.
Were Dawn ever to write a manual for women with vagina dentata, she might even be tempted to call it Your Wonderful Teeth.
As if vagina dentata weren't a disturbing enough concept... those My Wonderful Teeth photos, one in particular... now I'm thinking about vagina...ummmm....orthodontia? Ow.
A problem I have with the basic vagina dentata premise is that it follows suit in assuming that rape = vaginal penetration. And yes, I realize the movie was not designed to say something meaningful about rape. Still.
Actually, the movie doesn't ever use the word "rape" -- I used it for one moment in the film, because that's clearly what it was. Yes, the nature of Dawn's mutation requires vaginal penetration for her to be able to effect her revenge/justice, but it's a bit of a leap to then say it assumes that all rape is vaginal penetration, since the story is neither about all types of rape nor is it only about rape.
Indeed, Dawn has consensual sex at one point in the film without any ill effects for the boy. (Well, initially, but I'll withhold further comment for the spoiler-phoobic.) It's pretty clear the chomping teeth aren't an all-purpose response to vaginal entry.
I liked the movie, too. Did for vagina dentata what Ginger Snaps did for teen werewolves...
Today I received my rejection letter from zuda comics regarding my webcomic submission. It was your basic "thanks for submitting" sort of thing. If I hadn't already received about ten million of them in my somewhat short illustration career I would be upset, luckily at this point in my career rejection letters are about as "fresh and new" as the high top fade.
Because I am completely incapable of simply leaving the story hanging I've decided to go ahead and update it and continue the story when I get the time.
Click the link above if you're interested or possibly just bored and give it a read.
Illustrator of Topsy Turvy Land (Hidden Pictures Publishing), Kevin Scott Collier, sent a cute coloring page for No More Gunk! Thanks, Kevin!
Click HERE to download and color. I'd love it if some of you parents would scan your child's masterpiece and send me the finished page, I'll post them!
______
0 Comments on New Coloring Page - No More Gunk! as of 1/1/1900
Kevin and I have teamed up again. Guardian Angel Publishing will release No More Gunk! - an ebook for kids about taking care of teeth. Another exciting development - this book along with Ouch! Sunburn! will be released together as a print book. They both address a children's health issue. Watch for more news soon!
0 Comments on New EBook Coming Soon! No More Gunk! as of 1/1/1900
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By: Sevensheaven.nl,
on 5/1/2010
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 3/18/2009
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By: Matthew Cheney,
on 7/28/2008
did..." moments where at first I assumed my own strange brain was projecting something, only to realize that my projection was entirely accurate when the voiceover announced: "Dentata. It's Latin for 'teeth'."
fascination. Visually, the movie evoked for me, in the beginning at least, Edward Scissorhands and Heathers -- weird suburbia, filmed in a stylized manner (or mannered style) that makes everything feel just a little bit beyond reality. The protagonist, Dawn (well played by Jess Weixler), is a member of an abstinence-till-marriage club at her high school, and her passionate devotion to this cause obviously channels all her thoughts and energies to one subject: sex. Sex for Dawn is full of horror and attraction, and it is her primary concern in life, a concern that is socially sanctioned because her obsession is expressed through the language of conservative morality. When she finally has to admit her attraction to one of her classmates, she is unprepared and conflicted, and he -- who has been trying to live up to her moral teachings -- descends to rape. And then ... crunch.
Despite its gore, Teeth is really a superhero movie. Dawn could be one of the X-Men (X-Women?). Mutation is a concept she latches on to when she is trying to figure out what is going on with her body, and the real arc of the narrative is of a superhero learning to control her powers -- and, ultimately, to use them for good. The last section of the movie exudes a spirit of joy and empowerment.
By: Steve Novak,
on 5/8/2008
![0763646830[1]](http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/07636468301.jpg "0763646830[1]")
When will they show up? Fall out? Grow back in? Need orthodontia? Have to be removed/repaired/replaced? It truly never ends. Since I spread my kids over the better part of two decades, I have some kid in each stage at any given time. My world and my checkbook basically revolve around teeth. And there are some things I really like about that. One of the traditions in our house is that no baby can claim to have a new tooth until they pass the “spoon test.” Only when we hear the distinctive Tink! Tink! Tink! of a spoon tapped against drooly gums hitting the edge of a tiny emerging tooth can we say that the baby has a new (or first) one. That is always a bittersweet occasion--the little one is growing, but the little one is also not so little anymore. While Connor’s teeth are being expensively straightened, Addison’s are falling out, and Keilana’s are being taken out, Scarlett is just getting some. Which is why we read The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss’ alias Theo LeSieg. TEETH! They are very much in style. They must be very much worthwhile!
I've been thinking a bit about dentistry, dentition, and various things dental this week due to a convergence of circumstances. First, I had some minor dental work, then at my neighbor's yard sale I picked up a copy of a children's book called Your Wonderful Teeth, which has some marvelous photographs. And then I watched the movie Teeth.
, which has some marvelous photographs. And then I watched the movie 
fascination. Visually, the movie evoked for me, in the beginning at least, Edward Scissorhands and Heathers -- weird suburbia, filmed in a stylized manner (or mannered style) that makes everything feel just a little bit beyond reality. The protagonist, Dawn (well played by Jess Weixler), is a member of an abstinence-till-marriage club at her high school, and her passionate devotion to this cause obviously channels all her thoughts and energies to one subject: sex. Sex for Dawn is full of horror and attraction, and it is her primary concern in life, a concern that is socially sanctioned because her obsession is expressed through the language of conservative morality. When she finally has to admit her attraction to one of her classmates, she is unprepared and conflicted, and he -- who has been trying to live up to her moral teachings -- descends to rape. And then ... crunch.
Despite its gore, Teeth is really a superhero movie. Dawn could be one of the X-Men (X-Women?). Mutation is a concept she latches on to when she is trying to figure out what is going on with her body, and the real arc of the narrative is of a superhero learning to control her powers -- and, ultimately, to use them for good. The last section of the movie exudes a spirit of joy and empowerment.
I thought that Anonymous comment was a joke, too. I mean, if it was serious, then what was Anonymous doing even reading this blog? Isn't he/she contributing to the so-called "waste of time" he/she excoriates?
But yes, balance is good in all things. :)
Alvina! You don't take yourself too seriously! I think any author would agree that editors ought to take their jobs seriously, but you can take a job seriously (who wants an editor who doesn't care??) without being obsessed by it....or rather, take it seriously and still have balance.
I don't think that comment was a joke. I think it was written by a frustrated author or wannabe-- remember that rant on Amazon? The author who wouldn't let it go, there were something like 14 comments to the person who had criticized her book, increasingly hysterical in tone?
It's easy to become very crazy in this business. I'm sure I would be without the BRGs & other friends' voices of sanity and balance!
These quotes are good reminders, too.
Thanks.
Libby
Great post Alvina, cheers to balance!
Yes to balance! May you (and all of the rest of us) find it. Thanks for sharing the quotes.
The Ralph Waldo Emerson quote rings so true to me.
Too often people assume that if a job is enjoyable it means it's not stressful. False! In fact, such jobs can be more stressful because of how much you care.
Good for you for being conscious of the need to keep equilibrium in your life.