Prompt: "Embracing the Crone"

Prompt: "Embracing the Crone" The selections this week focus on the experiences of middle¬-aged and elderly females. (In case you are wondering about the title of this thread, because you are unfamiliar with the more positive connotation of the word "crone," I thought I would share a short article that may elucidate: "Maiden¬-Mother-¬Crone: Third Face of Goddess Archetype Reveals Wisdom of Age." (http://www.fashionafter50.com/maiden-mother-crone.html) I wasn't expecting to find a website devoted to fashion for women over 50 when I typed "crone archetype" into Google, but I do think that several points may resonate with the selections I assigned for this week.) As you read the story by Helena María Viramontes and the poems by Ruth Stone and Louise Glück, you should consider the ways in which they address the embodied experiences of women, who probably would not be reading Cosmopolitan magazine unless they wanted to snort at the impracticality of the fashions. What is surprising, inspiring, and/or disturbing in these texts? How do female characters’ support or challenge one another? Volume 2: Stone “In an Iridescent Time,” “Periphery,” “The Song of Absinthe Granny,” “Second-Hand Coat,” “Names,” “Things I Say to Myself While Hanging Laundry,” “At Eighty-three She Lives Alone,’ “Sorrow,” “Cousin Francis Speaks Out,” “From Outer Space,” “The Barrier,” and “The Jewels” (708-716); Glück “Widows” (1285); Viramontes “The Moths” (1414-1418)