Discussion - The Importance of Experience in Transformations (with a short sw story)

[vid]

I was writing on another forum when a recurring thought came back to me that I feel warrants more debate than just mentioning it off-hand.

I think the best kind of transformations have psychological effects in addition to physical - learning to adapt to new perspectives and changing attitudes, maybe even personalities. Sometimes, the person learns to love her new form or discovers it's permanent. In any case, the experience is a major event in their lives and stays with them forever, resolved or not.

There's one scenario I really like that illustrates this that's really more tell than show, though the flashback could be shown if it were ever adapted somehow.

A mom (M) is talking with her young daughter (D) on her bed, perhaps consoling her as she talks about her problems like being picked on for being short:

D - "It's not fair! You were tall as a kid! You don't know what it's like being smaller than everyone else!"

M - "Oh yeah? Did I ever tell you about the time is was in a bar called "The Misty Cauldron?"

D - "Well, no."

M - "I was having a drink when this woman in a purple cloak walks by and bumps my shoulder. I say 'Hey! Watch where you're going!' She turns and says in a deep voice, 'But there's too much of you to watch. You take up so much space.' She pointed a finger at me. 'Let me fix that.' Suddenly, everything started rushing up past me, like I was on a elevator going down. Before I knew it, I was standing face to face with her bare foot. I looked around and I couldn't believe it - she shrunk me!"

D - ".....nuh-uh"

M - "Yuh-huh, it's totally true!"

D - "...how small were you? Like a mouse?"

M - "I was an ant."

D - "Wow!"

The mom points to her own bare foot and wiggles her big toe.

M - "See that? Imagine that happening right in front of your face, except it's the size of a bus! I was so scared, I thought she was going to squish me!"

D - "So what happened?!"

M - "She made me big again and left me alone, but I never forgot it."

D - "...you're really not making this up?"

She pulls her daughter close.

M - "I couldn't if I tried. And I've never complained about my height since. It's crazy, but I learned things could always be worse and that I should be happy the way I am. So don't worry so much about it, 'k sweetie?"

[morwalugi]

from ReaderGirlz 2007

"Dragon's Keep

Far away on Wilde Island, Princess Rosalind is born with a dragon claw where her ring finger should be. No one, save her mother, the queen, knows her terrible secret. Rosalind must wear golden gloves to hide her claw until a cure can be found. She is a princess, she must be perfect – how else can she fulfill Merlin's six-hundred-year-old prophecy that will restore her banished royal family to its rightful throne?

But Rosalind's flaw cannot be separated from her fate. And soon the bloodthirsty dragon that plagues Wilde Island carries her off. The dragon sees beauty in her talon where her mother saw only shame. And on Dragon's Keep, Rosalind comes to understand the truth behind the prophecy that has haunted her since birth. Is Rosie a princess? Or the spawn of a dragon? Which part of her blood holds the secret to who she really is?

Carey has written a stunning portrayal of the complex relationship between a mother and daughter in a lyrical novel sure to thrill readers who love fantasy -- and those who don't.

"