"Rose Daughter" by Robin McKinley (published 1997)
Is it true that nowadays we sometimes become numb (by forgetting – usually not deliberately) of our bodily sensations… and all kinds of feeling? I’m not sure why this happens, but I know that reading reminds us of the world around us with words that bring our thoughts back to what being alive feels like. Then, consciousness is gained and seemingly ordinary sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds that envelop us every day and every night become prominent once more. Robin McKinley’s “Rose Daughter”, published in 1997, nineteen years after her debut novel was written, titled “Beauty”, does all the things mentioned. In McKinley’s second retelling of the classic story “Beauty & the Beast” or, “La Belle Et La Bete”, I’ve learned to cherish those moments of profound presence that McKinley’s story offered me. In McKinley’s Beast’s palace there are trowels, gossamers, hydras, phoenixes, briars, numen, torcheres, virgins bowers, pietra duras, beech trees, sphinxes, and balustrades ...