Sharon Buchbinder's Blog - Posts Tagged "galatea"
Galatea, Pygmalion, Pigmalion: A Rose by Any Other Name
Like many authors, my inspiration for my short story, PIGMALION, in my new anthology, KILLER KISSES, came from an old myth. The Greeks and Romans worshiped Aphrodite and Venus, respectively.
In one of the versions of the myth of Galatea, a sculptor whose heart has been broken and hardened by a bad break-up, decides to sculpt the perfect woman from marble. Possessed by some unknown power, he works day and night. As he works, the marble feels warmer to his touch and what emerges from the block of stone is a woman so beautiful, she takes his breath away. He falls in love with his statue and falls asleep at its life-size feet. He awakes to a living woman who steps down from the pedestal into his welcoming arms.
Centuries later, George Bernard Shaw, revisited this myth and updated the story with linguistics Professor Henry Higgins and his flower-seller student, Eliza Doolittle. His charming and tongue-in-cheek tale is available in full text for all to read at Pygmalion. The years have not dimmed his humor. Shaw's use of the new technology of languages and all the gadgets and scholarship available at that time are put to good use to move the story forward, all contingent, of course, on a bet.If you are old enough to remember bell-bottoms, then you know this story later became the hit 1964 musical film, My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison.
Fast forward to current times and you have my version of the myth retold in PIGMALION. In my story, the professor has become a female speech-language pathology graduate student, Levisa Harris, and the language-challenged student has become an accounting student from Pigtown, Baltimore, an area well-known for its heavily accented dialect.
Whether it is Galatea, Pymalion or Pigmalion, in this rose by any other name, all of the stories focus on the transformative power of love. Isn't that what we all want?
To read an excerpt and to tease you into reading more from PIGMALION and the rest of my anthology, KILLER KISSES, go to to http://bit.ly/LkYXUi
In one of the versions of the myth of Galatea, a sculptor whose heart has been broken and hardened by a bad break-up, decides to sculpt the perfect woman from marble. Possessed by some unknown power, he works day and night. As he works, the marble feels warmer to his touch and what emerges from the block of stone is a woman so beautiful, she takes his breath away. He falls in love with his statue and falls asleep at its life-size feet. He awakes to a living woman who steps down from the pedestal into his welcoming arms.
Centuries later, George Bernard Shaw, revisited this myth and updated the story with linguistics Professor Henry Higgins and his flower-seller student, Eliza Doolittle. His charming and tongue-in-cheek tale is available in full text for all to read at Pygmalion. The years have not dimmed his humor. Shaw's use of the new technology of languages and all the gadgets and scholarship available at that time are put to good use to move the story forward, all contingent, of course, on a bet.If you are old enough to remember bell-bottoms, then you know this story later became the hit 1964 musical film, My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison.
Fast forward to current times and you have my version of the myth retold in PIGMALION. In my story, the professor has become a female speech-language pathology graduate student, Levisa Harris, and the language-challenged student has become an accounting student from Pigtown, Baltimore, an area well-known for its heavily accented dialect.
Whether it is Galatea, Pymalion or Pigmalion, in this rose by any other name, all of the stories focus on the transformative power of love. Isn't that what we all want?
To read an excerpt and to tease you into reading more from PIGMALION and the rest of my anthology, KILLER KISSES, go to to http://bit.ly/LkYXUi
