She’d Have Been Blue, Not White
Cidu Bill on Sep 17th 2008
Just need to point out here… I’m pretty sure she would have been breathing all along.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Pardon My Planet, Snow White, Vic Lee, comic strips, comics, humor | 28 responses so far
Ray Brady Sep 17th 2008 at 12:02 pm 1
You’re pretty sure that the magic spell cast by the witch on the enchanted apple would still require the fairy tale princess to breathe while comatose in her glass coffin, waiting to be rescued by a kiss?
What exactly did you major in?
Jack Sep 17th 2008 at 12:11 pm 2
She’s trying to re-enact the sleep reminscent of their courtship, but she can tell that she is not truly under the spell because she is breathing.
As Ray Brady seemed to hint at, in a world of enchanted apples, fairy tale princess, and restorative kisses, its not too much of a stretch to envisage that the princess who was truly under a spell would not be breathing.
Jack Sep 17th 2008 at 12:12 pm 3
I meant “he” can tell, not she can tell, in the first sentence.
I really am a knucklehead for not proofreading first.
Cidu Bill Sep 17th 2008 at 12:15 pm 4
Unless we’re given a reason to believe otherwise, we should expect that even in fairy tales, natural laws of nature apply. The story of Snow White requires us to accept witches and magic, but gravity still exists, dwarfs are still short, and humans still reproduce sexually.
People in the real world breathe when they’re asleep or in a coma, or else they die. There’s no reason to assume that magical comas work any differently.
Hockey Baby-Mama Sep 17th 2008 at 12:52 pm 5
Wow, for some reason this one creeps me out… I’m not sure if it’s the prince’s fixation on getting Snow White to stop breathing (a necrophilia fetish?) or the dwarves gathered expectantly all around during what I would consider foreplay. The fact that the prince and dwarves all look so severely disappointed and sad just makes me cringe.
heather Sep 17th 2008 at 01:00 pm 6
Wasn’t she in that glass coffin because they believed she was dead, though? It’s been awhile since I read the brothers Grimm, but it’s not a “Sleeping Beauty” story where they knew she was sleeping/in a coma. They thought Snow White was dead, ergo not breathing. Only AFTER she woke up did they realize she’d only been ‘plugged up’ by the chunk of apple.
Cindi Sep 17th 2008 at 01:36 pm 7
Snow White was thought to be dead - killed by the poisoned apple - Sleeping Beauty was only sleeping. It is a good thing the dwarfs weren’t in a hurry to bury Snow White or the story would have had an very different ending
heather Sep 17th 2008 at 03:26 pm 8
To think of it another way, to satisfy Bill’s desire for “realism” in fairy tales… think of the poisoned-apple spell as “suspended animation”… pulse and breathing slowed to such a low level that it’s undetectable. This gives the appearance of death but still maintains life functions so she’s able to “wake up” later not as a rotting corpse or a zombie.
Of course, now we’re getting into sci-fi…
But hey, Snow White wakes up as a half-rotten zombie… now THERE’s a fairy tale for 21st century audiences!
Cidu Bill Sep 17th 2008 at 03:28 pm 9
Okay, I can accept Healther’s explanation.
Robyn Sep 17th 2008 at 04:12 pm 10
I think she’s feigning sleep because the prince is so ugly she is avoiding all contact with him. Do all the dwarfs look slightly prince-like,except their height?
Frank Sep 17th 2008 at 07:32 pm 11
Help I’m getting senile. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty? Which story is which? Apple vs needle?
El Santo Sep 17th 2008 at 08:20 pm 12
Creepiest answer (and one that may still be correct): the prince is into necrophilia.
ISRW Sep 17th 2008 at 08:25 pm 13
The dwarves being present at all is creepy enough.
Why have they all taken the tonsure, though? Or were the 7 dwarfs identical septuplets?
Hockey Baby-Mama Sep 17th 2008 at 10:59 pm 14
I always assumed the spell on the apple immediately suspended all her bodily functions instantly, as if she was dipped into liquid nitrogen - no breathing, no pulse, no digesting, no aging. So the apple would’ve stayed in her throat forever instead of eing swallowed and digested, and it would’ve kept her in its spell forever. However, when the piece of apple in her throat is dislodged, she is freed from the spell.
This brings up a new question, however: if they kept her out in the open in a glass coffin (so the prince could see her), wouldn’t someone have noticed she didn’t decay? I’m just sayin’…
Winter Wallaby Sep 17th 2008 at 11:37 pm 15
Yes, they did notice that she didn’t decay. That’s why they kept her in the glass coffin. They thought she looked too nice to be put in the dingy ground. (From Grimm’s, I don’t know how Disney did it.)
Like El Santo, I find this rather like creepy necrophilia (as opposed to lovably cute necrophilia). Actually, the original story is pretty creepy on its own. What kind of person sees a dead body in a coffin and says “Wow, that is one hot lady! I have to take that dead body home with me!”
Patrick Sep 18th 2008 at 01:35 am 16
Winter: “Lovably Cute Necrophilia” was one of the Care Bears.
Mark Sep 18th 2008 at 03:10 am 17
Heather - if you like the idea of Snow White as a zombie, you should read Neil Gaiman’s short story, “Snow, Glass, Apples”. (It’s in his book ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ which is full of other excellent stories).
It’s a re-telling of Snow White from the witch’s perspective - except that she’s not evil after all, and she’s the only one who understands the truth of what Snow White really is….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow,_Glass,_Apples
Morris Keesan Sep 18th 2008 at 09:12 am 18
ISRW: Apparently, dwarves as a race are particularly susceptible to male pattern baldness. This is a quick way for the cartoonist to indicate that they’ve aged, i.e. a lot of time has passed.
Powers Sep 18th 2008 at 09:41 am 19
Morris, the Dwarves were balding even in the older timeframe (at least in Disney’s version).
I will note, however, that those are the wimpiest Dwarf-beards I’ve ever seen.
FlyingFish Sep 18th 2008 at 06:29 pm 20
Later, Charming would get bored altogether and sleep with Snow’s sister Rose, they’d get divorced, and Snow would become a bitter bureaucrat…
Cidu Bill Sep 18th 2008 at 06:34 pm 21
…and marry the Big Bad Wolf?
Usual John Sep 18th 2008 at 08:05 pm 22
Bill, you’re O.K. with a talking magic mirror, but not with Snow White not breathing while she appears to be dead? That can be a strained argument at times - our willing suspension of disbelief applies only to the conceit upon which we imagine a story to be founded, and not to everything about it. But here, the talking mirror and Snow White’s period of stasis have the same explanation, her stepmother’s magic.
The Brothers Grimm version is explicit that Snow White wasn’t breathing and that the prince fell in love with her apparent corpse, http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sevendwarfs/index.html.
“Snow, Glass, Apples” is a strange and disturbing story, but I won’t concede that it’s any stranger or more disturbing than the original. In the first edition of Grimm, the wicked queen was Snow White’s mother, not her stepmother, and in all versions she is invited to the wedding feast and forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she dies. Also, Snow White is seven.
Cidu Bill Sep 18th 2008 at 09:50 pm 23
John, in the absence of a reason to think otherwise, “our willing suspension of disbelief applies only to the conceit upon which we imagine a story to be founded, and not to everything about it” is supremely logical: I’m willing to accept the fact that Superman can fly, but I still expect the sun to rise over Metropolis from the east, not the west.
Mark Jones Sep 20th 2008 at 12:00 am 24
If you’re wondering how Snow White would breathe, and other science facts, then repeat to yourself “It’s just a fairy tale, I should really just relax.”
Cidu Bill Sep 20th 2008 at 12:25 am 25
I only mentioned it all all, Mark, because her breathing was the entire point of the comic.
Patrick Sep 20th 2008 at 12:43 am 26
Mark Jones is riffing on the MST3K theme, Bill: “If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes And other science facts, Just repeat to yourself “It’s just a show, I should really just relax “
Mark Jones Sep 20th 2008 at 11:26 pm 27
Yeah, Patrick figured it out…I had wondered if anyone would get it.
But on a more serious note, for me, willing suspension of disbelief would have to go the other way…I find it easier to believe that she was in a magical not-breathey coma than to believe that no one would notice a “dead” woman breathing…wouldn’t someone notice her chest going up and down? Especially in the context of this strip, where it is clear that the prince clearly *can* tell that she is breathing.
bAT L. Sep 21st 2008 at 04:23 am 28
Nobody pointed out her one open eye, which might just because it’s not the focal point (hehheh) of the discussion. Snow White, here, is faking being dead. The dwarfs might have been easily fooled, but the prince can see through her “clever” rouse.