Useful: Quote and Book of Essays

I ran across this quotation today, and it strikes me as exactly what I'm going to try to be doing in this book:

"A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us." Franz Kafka

Yes, yes, yes! Solveig has a frozen sea within her. How did she get it, and what serves as the "ax" in this book to break it loose?

Does it have to be broken loose?

I had the great good fortune to pick up a book of essays while I was at the signing at Dreamhaven Books this weekend: Mirror, Mirror On the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales edited by Kate Bernheimer. It was only with great difficulty that I refrained from chortling aloud with delight as I read it on the bus tonight. Particularly useful will be an essay by A.S. Byatt on "Ice, Snow, and Glass." I hadn't thought of examining the fairy tale of the princess and the glass mountain, but I can see the connection. I hadn't read A.S. Byatt's Possession when it was up against The Wild Swans for the Mythopoeic Award (Peter Beagle beat us both out that year). Now I don't dare read Possession because I'm afraid it'll influence the book I'm trying to write too much. One line: "The ice palace [in Andersen's "The Snow Queen"] is a false eternity, a duration out of time, something to be escaped from." She does consider, however, whether human warmth/cold reason might be a false dichotomy; she too mentions that cold can be for the purposes of preservation.

Must go make dinner. Later tonight I'll post the questions I'm preparing for Inga, my architect expert.

Cheers,
Peg

Another chance for your input: Questions for Inga

I have prepared an initial list of questions for Inga, my expert architect. Can you think of any I should add? Please look over this list, and chime in with anything else you think I should ask her. I will wait until tomorrow evening to hear from people, and then e-mail her.( Here's the list )

Thanks.

Cheers,
Peg