“Sour Cherry” Reinvents a Classic Tale to Interrogate Cycles of Abuse

Sour Cherry, the debut caller from Natalia Theodoridou, is an immersive reinvention of Bluebeard, the French fairytale wherein a repugnant aristocrat murders his wives, 1 aft another. In Sour Cherry, the chronology of a man’s beingness is narrated to the reader, from motherless puerility done blighted adulthood. Theodoridou explores the Bluebeard figure’s lethal interaction done the kaleidoscopic experiences of those caught successful his orbit, including his bedewed nurse-cum-cook, wives, lovers, and children, revealing however harm envelopes some its perpetrators and victims. With each step, the antheral leads with destruction, leaving down him a way of tragedy: full towns tally dry, livestock poisoned from within, vegetation turned black, children and women near dead. 

Throughout Sour Cherry, Theodoridou seamlessly shifts absorption from the antheral to his wives to his children and backmost to physique a gothic fairytale that speaks to the innateness of evil nether a strategy of patriarchal capitalism and the powerfulness we have—as individuals and a collective—to excuse it, and what it takes to intervene against it. Part fairytale, portion shade story, Sour Cherry is simply a classical communicative with a modern infusion. Theodoridou writes not truthful overmuch crossed clip and place, but successful spite of it, showing that maltreatment of powerfulness is simply a forgone decision wrong the systems that make it. In doing so, helium offers a aboriginal evolved beyond these cycles and systems, 1 characterized by understanding, empathy, and accountability.

Following the merchandise of Sour Cherry, I connected with Theodoridou via email to sermon fairytales’ capableness to shed airy connected modern life, the humanity of survivors and those who harm(ed) them, and capturing the specificity of abusive dynamics and the systems that alteration them.

Christ: The thought of “belief” is woven done the novel’s assorted themes and genres specified arsenic abuse, shade stories, and fairytales. Can you speech astir however the powerfulness of believing shades the stories being told successful Sour Cherry?

Natalia Theodoridou: That’s specified an absorbing and unexpected question. Unexpected due to the fact that I don’t thin to deliberation successful presumption of belief, and I find radical who person religion (religious oregon otherwise) profoundly fascinating. Belief, faith, and condemnation each construe arsenic the aforesaid connection (or words that are precise intimately related etymologically) successful Greek. You are close that “belief” is woven done the novel’s themes; masculinity is not toxic inherently but arsenic a effect of people’s beliefs (and stories) astir it. In a way, the patriarchy is simply a benignant of religion. 

I was precocious describing the caller to idiosyncratic and they asked if I judge successful ghosts. I don’t. The question caught maine by astonishment due to the fact that it had ne'er crossed my caput that my content successful the beingness of ghosts had thing to bash with the centrality of their relation successful the novel. I judge victims (believe in victims?); victims and victimization are what haunts me. That’s however “belief” is important successful Sour Cherry. 

C: At its core, Sour Cherry is astir powerfulness and masculinity. How bash you spot those themes intersecting with class, situation and assemblage passim the story?

NT: Sour Cherry is built astir the themes of toxic masculinity, home violence, and cycles of abuse, and the Bluebeard communicative was peculiarly good suited to speech astir them not lone due to the fact that of the main crippled of the communicative but besides due to the fact that of the supernatural constituent that is ne'er explained: the antheral is not simply a serial killer; helium besides has an inexplicable bluish beard. What is that about? It went consecutive to the halfway of my questions astir unit and convulsive people: is it natural? Is it unnatural? Is it a choice? Can they flight it? Can Bluebeard beryllium thing different than a feline with a bluish beard? 

In Sour Cherry, helium is virtually toxic, helium rots the satellite astir him and makes radical sick. Can helium assistance it? Does helium person agency? That’s the crux of the communicative for me, and it’s what allowed maine to inquire further, much analyzable questions: Whose responsibility is it—is it conscionable him? How culpable are the remainder of us, the nine that enables him, the patriarchy that affords him his power, the people strategy that created him? The people facet is crucial; it’s not an mishap that Bluebeard is idiosyncratic who controls wealth. He drains resources due to the fact that that’s what his people does; helium feels entitled to the onshore and the houses and the radical that inhabit them due to the fact that that entitlement is built into the microorganism that is capitalism, destroying 1 spot and past moving connected to the adjacent to destruct that, too. The rot is structural; the ghosts turning that rot—slowly and deliberately decaying the furniture, peeling the wallpaper, dulling the spoons—into a means of storytelling, of speaking their truth, is simply a benignant of people warfare. That is what makes them a community. 

C: How does initially obfuscating the narrator’s individuality talk to the novel’s themes?

NT: I’m funny which portion you spot arsenic obfuscating the narrator’s identity: her insertion into the fairytale arsenic Cherry Girl oregon her revealing herself arsenic his latest unfortunate successful the modern narrative? 

In a sense, her taking connected a relation successful the fairytale communicative functions arsenic some obfuscation and revelation. The speculative constituent allows her a grade of separation from the communicative she’s telling. It protects some the narrator and her addressee by introducing a level of unbelievability. This is simply a prime I marque myself each clip I constitute a communicative that is rooted successful world but besides unusual oregon magical successful immoderate way; I consciousness it allows maine to talk much freely and, paradoxically, much straight astir things that would different beryllium precise hard, and perchance adjacent cruel, to articulate. Saying “a existent happening by a mendacious name,” arsenic the narrator says astatine 1 point. That obfuscation is the mercy of the fairytale. 

C: There are aggregate instances successful Sour Cherry wherever the past comes up to and spills into the contiguous successful ways that were some thrilling and satisfying for the reader. What opportunities does the collapsing and consequent revelation of clip connection stories of abuse? 

NT: This is the happening I emotion the astir astir ghosts: They are the contiguous past. They unit america to face what happened, to measurement ourselves against the consequences of our actions, the legacies of our earthy and unnatural disasters. Cherry Girl astatine immoderate constituent says that, with stories of abuse, “the radical are us, the clip is always.” The flattening of clip successful this mode enables america to talk to the commonalities successful stories of maltreatment without erasing the singularity of each one. Isn’t this what allows america to spot ourselves successful stories successful general? I’ll astir apt ne'er spot myself reflected successful a communicative exactly, but with capable commonality, and if I squint a little, the close benignant of spillage tin hap that volition let maine to say, “I’ve felt this, too.” I person recovered comfortableness this way, and possibly the acheronian wasn’t precisely lightened, but astatine slightest I knew I wasn’t alone. If I tin bash that for adjacent 1 different idiosyncratic with this story, my enactment is done. 

C: In aggregate instances, Sour Cherry emphasizes the impossibility of knowing different idiosyncratic entirely, successful its narration, the quality survey of the cardinal antheral figure, and successful partnership. In doing so, the publication does a razor crisp occupation of making observations without judgements of its characters. What’s to beryllium recovered erstwhile radical are positioned successful this grey country betwixt “good” and “bad”? 

NT: I don’t deliberation radical are “good” oregon “bad.” I deliberation the aforesaid idiosyncratic tin bash bully things and atrocious things successful antithetic circumstances (and let’s not adjacent get started connected however the aforesaid enactment tin beryllium bully oregon atrocious comparative to antithetic worth systems—let’s conscionable presume we’re talking astir thing arsenic achromatic and achromatic arsenic sidesplitting your wife, a precise atrocious thing). What I’m funny successful is knowing what motivates radical to behave successful the ways they do: what leads idiosyncratic to enactment successful ways that are harmful, to beryllium complicit successful the harming of others oregon themselves, to not beryllium capable to adjacent spot that determination are antithetic ways they could behave, oregon to spot each the different options disposable to them and inactive take symptom and destruction. 

What would beryllium the constituent of judgement? Maybe successful court, but successful a book? It wouldn’t marque it easier for anyone to spot oregon recognize abuse; worse, I deliberation the casual judgements pb to uncomplicated stories that misrepresent the powerfulness dynamics that marque escaping maltreatment truthful difficult. Monstrous, simply atrocious characters are casual to condemn, punish, and escape. Any bully idiosyncratic successful their close caput would conscionable leave. Right? 

C: How did the wood go truthful inextricable successful the enactment of the antheral successful the story? Is it a coincidence that helium is seen astatine his happiest successful the city, removed from it?

NT: I emotion that question; I had not considered the man’s happiness successful the metropolis successful these terms, but of people you’re right. It’s not a coincidence. The wood is this man’s fairytale setting; the storytelling contented that endows him with his mythical power, the harmfulness helium fails to escape. The communicative doesn’t truly let him much, and the small it does helium finds excessively hard to embrace, truthful successful the extremity helium accepts the wood arsenic an facet of himself. He’s not conscionable a antheral who is meant to bash atrocious things successful the forest; helium is the forest. He is evil itself. That’s what the communicative tells him.  

Removed from this fairytale setting, it’s the archetypal clip helium glimpses a antithetic beingness for himself, freed from the shackles of his communicative (his narrative-inherited villainy). I deliberation Cherry Girl taking that from him is the cruelest happening she tin do, and the happening closest to punishment (albeit ineffective) that the antheral experiences successful the story. She forces him to look up to who he’s ever been, not due to the fact that the communicative near him nary choice, but due to the fact that helium ne'er recovered it successful himself to take otherwise. 

C: Can you talk connected the feminine nonaccomplishment of individuality successful the wood of toxic masculinity arsenic represented by the narrator, the shade wives and Agnes/Cook?

NT: Many of the characters stay unnamed oregon commencement disconnected with names and yet shed that portion of them. Agnes and Eunice person names and aboriginal suffer them. They are the lone ones who cognize the antheral arsenic a boy, earlier helium abandons the realm of names wholly and everyone successful his beingness becomes a means to an end. It’s not conscionable women, either. The Shopkeeper is simply a function, arsenic is Cook; these radical person taken connected the roles assigned to them by the superior unit of this fairytale. However, it’s not the lack of a sanction that seals that powerfulness dynamic. Kate Bernheimer successful her effort “Fairy Tale Is Form, Form Is Fairy Tale” argued that the “flatness” of characters successful fairytales “functions beautifully; it allows extent of effect successful the reader.” I deliberation the lack of names functions successful a akin way. So I deliberation the nonaccomplishment of individuality is not circumstantial to feminine characters. In fact, the Bluebeard antheral doesn’t person 1 either. In letting spell of due names and retaining lone their functions, the radical successful this communicative bash 2 things: one, they exposure the utilitarian mode successful which Bluebeard relates to them. And two, they subordinate successful a little context-bound way. This is precisely what the fairytale benignant of naming (a King, a Hunter, a Woodcutter) does, and it is portion of what makes fairytales resonant successful a wider assortment of contexts. This communicative could beryllium anywhere, immoderate time. 

Is determination thing uniquely feminine astir the nonaccomplishment of individuality successful this communicative though? I deliberation so. But I besides wonderment if there’s an facet of state to it, too, thing gained, not lone thing lost. The nonaccomplishment of a sanction oregon an individuality tin make a vacuum to beryllium filled by thing new, and thing astatine all; possibly it tin beryllium the opening of extremist self-determination. The characters successful this communicative don’t rather get there. The ghosts usage their individuality emptiness to marque their demands; the narrator goes arsenic acold arsenic fantasizing astir becoming a King of her ain making—I deliberation that’s the closest I came to a trans/gender feels infinitesimal successful this book. I conjecture nonaccomplishment of individuality tin either marque you a non-person oregon much yourself, which is nary nonaccomplishment astatine all.

C: I loved however the beats of the communicative were truthful shaped by its surroundings. How bash experiences and stories of isolation, blight and maltreatment displacement erstwhile it moves betwixt metropolis and state settings?

NT: What a beauteous mode to inquire this question. It takes maine to lyrical places: loneliness successful the wood is texturally antithetic to isolation successful the city, isn’t it? Not slightest due to the fact that are we ever genuinely unsocial successful the state wherever truthful overmuch is live astir us? Unless, of course, the onshore is blighted; unless our precise beingness is the happening that blots retired beingness and renders the wood a bleak, decaying place. Isolation feels to maine antithetic successful the metropolis due to the fact that it seems truthful overmuch easier to beryllium mislaid successful it, beryllium 1 among many, suffer sanction and individuality successful the preoccupied crowd, the grey anonymity. Abuse successful the agrarian settings of the caller happens nether screen of acheronian and region and a civilization of soundlessness and deference to power; successful the metropolis it simply fades from presumption due to the fact that it’s truthful common, reddish connected reddish oregon grey connected grey, it conscionable doesn’t basal out. 

C: The operation “If you permission you die. But if you die, you stay” comes up aggregate times passim the story. What does that mean to you beyond the discourse of this peculiar story? 

NT: I wanted to seizure however maltreatment tin consciousness similar an inescapable trap. It’s a information that successful home unit and abuse, the unfortunate is astir astatine hazard of being killed erstwhile they effort to permission the abuser. So, “if you leave, you die” tin beryllium virtually true. And if you die, well, you haven’t left, person you? 

But beyond that, I deliberation this consciousness of being trapped, the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”-ness of it is what makes a batch of experiences of powerfulness imbalance some unbearable and hard to picture successful a mode that volition beryllium intelligible to idiosyncratic who hasn’t had that experience, oregon who is structurally improbable to person it due to the fact that their individuality shields them. It conscionable sounds truthful implausible, you know? 

C: In galore stories, accepting ourselves oregon others arsenic we/they are is contextualized to beryllium positive. In Sour Cherry, it appears arsenic resignation. Is determination a mentation of this communicative wherever the babe could turn up to go a antithetic benignant of man? 

NT: I deliberation there’s a quality betwixt accepting ourselves arsenic we are, with each our flaws and shortcomings, and absolving ourselves of work for the harm we origin to ourselves and others arsenic a effect of however we respond to these flaws and shortcomings. Self-acceptance and self-love, extending ourselves empathy and understanding, are decidedly affirmative things due to the fact that they let us, theoretically, to ain our choices and instrumentality work for our actions. This is incredibly hard to do. And, unfortunately, successful my experience, what astir radical telephone self-acceptance is really resignation; an cognition of “well, this is who I am,” and an acceptance of the impossibility of change. This is surely what the Bluebeard fig successful Sour Cherry is blameworthy of. People tried to amusement him however to beryllium vulnerable, however to let himself to beryllium loved; the Shopkeeper adjacent modeled for him a masculinity that is some tender and strong. He chose not to listen; chose what was familiar. He embodied the myths helium had been handed and that helium had a manus successful shaping. I recognize wherefore helium chose the mode helium did, and I find it sad; but that doesn’t mean he’s not liable for making that choice. So yes, of people the babe could turn up to beryllium a antithetic benignant of man. People bash it each the time! People with overmuch harder starts successful beingness than him, even, and successful overmuch much challenging circumstances. 

C: In ways that are compelling, confounding and frustrating, Sour Cherry’s characters and their choices and stories defy a wholly discrete victim/villain dichotomy that is astatine times fatalistic from its characters’ perspectives. What is to beryllium made of a satellite wherever symptom is everyplace and accountability is seldom seen? 

NT: I deliberation you are close to spot the fatalism successful the characters’ perspectives, but I spot that fatalism not arsenic a presumption (certainly not my position, oregon my belief, to travel afloat ellipse successful this conversation) but arsenic a symptom, a absorption to a wound, a trauma response; I recognize wherefore a unfortunate mightiness find it little achy to resign and judge their “fate.” It’s not antithetic for traumatized radical (and animals) to similar the familiarity of the trauma to the panic of the chartless due to the fact that it’s casual to mistake what is acquainted for what is safe. Being treated otherwise is unthinkable. It tin adjacent beryllium a consciousness of optimism, hoping to bash things otherwise adjacent time, hoping the abusive different volition change, oregon that they’ll yet get to person a reparative acquisition if they persevere agelong enough.    

I anticipation that what’s to beryllium made is simply a greater knowing of however cycles of maltreatment are perpetuated; much compassion for survivors; a greater willingness to clasp radical accountable without losing show of their humanity; and, maybe, due to the fact that we recognize things successful discourse and not conscionable successful isolation, tackling the larger structures that alteration harm: the wood that the antheral successful the caller is. 

In a mode the publication has 2 chiseled addressees: the radical who’ve been there, connected the receiving extremity of this benignant of harm, and the radical who haven’t. To the archetypal it says: I know. I get it. There’s nary judgement present for you; lone solidarity. To the remainder it says: This is what it’s similar for immoderate of us. Now what volition you do?

The station “Sour Cherry” Reinvents a Classic Tale to Interrogate Cycles of Abuse appeared archetypal connected Electric Literature.