Welcome to the third cycle of cards on Arcanalogue! To keep myself from repeating... myself, I'm mixing things up a bit on the site. For starters, I'm going to let my readers appoint the Court cards. When you see blanks to be filled in, that's your signal to start pondering and let me know which card you think the featured subject deserves to become. Are they a Princess (or Page, or whatever), a Prince (Knight, etc.), a Queen, or a King? Do they embody Wands, Cups, Swords, or Coins? Click those labels if you want to look at examples from Arcanalogue for comparison.
Make a case for your decision in the comments, based on whatever you think is relevant. Eventually I'll give the card an official title based on the responses. There are no real right answers, of course -- just really convincing ones!
How's this for a trial run: Last night Lady Gaga turned the already ridiculous MTV Video Music Awards inside out with her costumes. (You can see them all in this gallery...) If you want some additional food for thought, here's a bit of her performance from the show below, and a link to her latest video, for which embedding is (somewhat ironically) disabled.
UPDATE: Looks like I'm coronating her as the Prince of Wands. Lots of interesting arguments contributed to this call, you can read them below in the comments. Thanks, everyone!
Lady Gaga MTV VMA Music Awards 2009 Performance
9.19.2009
And the VMA Goes To: The Prince of Wands!
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I'm going to suggest that this card be the PRINCESS OF CUPS. Being presented with prestigious awards on stage, under spotlights, and with cameras broadcasting your success across the world would indicate fame, stardom, and having "made it." Essentially, it's a dream come true The Princess of Cups is the dreamer, who first has to dream, before her dreams can become reality.
ReplyDeleteI think she'd make an interesting Prince, especially since everyone says she's a hermaphrodite. And PRobably swords, because of the blood :)
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of tempted to make her the High Priestess, actually. She knows exactly what she's doing and has the awards to prove it, but she won't peel back the lace and give you any easy answers.
ReplyDeleteI have been going back and forth about this. I keep thinking that she's the Princess of Wands, but then I remember how carefully calculated her entire persona is -- I don't think the Princess of Wands would put that much thought into her own personal convolutions. You could hardly call Gaga a free spirit. She has no ad-lib in her at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by Julian's diagnosis of her as a Prince. In a way that would account for her completely unfeeling self-awareness and her deft manipulation of her own image. Or we could put her in the suit of Swords to account for that airiness, and give her one of those four titles?
For now I think my vote is for the Princess of Swords. In fact, she reminds me a little of Janelle Monae, the singer I dedicated that card to in the last cycle. But I dunno. Anyone?
I choose Knight of Wands (in your deck, Prince). She's not as pensive as Princess as she's out there running with her wild ideas. The Wand cards represent fire- emotions, energy, and engulfing all that is around represents the storm of Lady Gaga's self-made success.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree that Lady Gaga isn't a free spirit as she tries to be avant-garde with her fashion and performances. She embodies the risky side of Wands. I interpret Swords as more calculated as the rules of war sets one up to prepare for battle.
Perhaps once the growth of her career simmers, she can move up to Queen. But, for now she's learning to create an image no matter how outrageous it seems to us.
Well the red coloring moves one immediately into the Wands category. No doubt about that.
ReplyDeleteGender seems obliterated, so male or female is still 'open.'
I'm getting, uhm, hold on, the frequencies are stepping up, I'm getting... the Princess of Wands. Also Leigh Bowery. One of the two.
Great post! Thanks Tommy.
Frederick
www.astroinquiry.com
Well. I am riding the wave of gender liberation here (or maybe just the wave of hermaphrodite gossip) by going with the Prince for sure. When you compare Gaga side by side with other pop princesses her age, she is just fundamentally different. She answers to a different authority. So that (and the other reasons listed above) make me feel pretty good about crowning her the Prince.
ReplyDeleteWith that out of the way, I feel MUCH better about moving her into the wands category. Seriously, she as simultaneously driven and flamboyant as they come. And I like seeing her in a position to graduate to her rightful place as Queen, though I doubt she'll be satisfied with that when she could be king.
You guys all rock. Hope you'll come back and play again next week!