Listen for yourself:
All of this came back to me this week when my friend Thoon sent me this video of a terrible concept album celebrating the signs of the zodiac. Go on, give it a look. Laugh at it, if you must, but ask yourself if this project turned out all that much worse than the album you recorded about astrology. Did it?
Weirdly, the track that follows Gemini is titled "Moonchild/Cancer."
Apparently, the moon in Moonchild comes from the fact that ruling planet of the sign Cancer is the moon, which is a planet, perhaps, some people believe. And it looks like people started using Moonchild as a stand-in for Cancer between 1965 and 1970, around the time people were putting flowers in the hair and the only song people listened to was Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love." I haven't found out why this word may have come into fashion, even if only briefly, but I can guess that it might have stemmed from some effort to spare people born under this sign from association with a horrible disease. ("I'm not a Cancer. I'm a Moonchild," said that one aunt of yours as she twirled all the way to Canada in a cloud of pot smoke and patchouli.) But regardless of the reason, it apparently didn't take, because just twenty years later, my only frame of reference for the term was the Childlike Empress. Was Moonchild too 1960s to have staying power? Or can you just not make a dent in thousands of years of tradition, even in the face of the overwhelming ick of cancer? Could it have something to do with mooncalves? Can we start a movement to rebrand my sign, Gemini, as Twinsies?
And, finally, I'm curious to know: Can anyone who was alive back when Moonchild might have been in fashion tell me how widespread its use was?
An unrelated epilogue on a subject I know better: I think the Childlike Empress should have implored Bastian to pick a new name for himself, since Bastian sounds like his parents — you know, pops and ol' Moonchild — split the difference between Sebastian and bastard. But that's just me.
So, assuming she took her husband's name, she was Moonchild Bux?
ReplyDeleteI guess? In the books, it's not supposed to be his mother's name, but in the movie it is. I think Bastian has mental problems, personally, hence the flying dog.
DeleteSide note: I wonder if the similarity between "bux" and "books" is intentional.
Great post. One thing that I'll never get over is that when it's coming down to the deadline for Bastian to pick a name for the Childlike Empress, he spends a ludicrous amount of time yelling "OKAY! OKAY! I'LL SAY IT! I'LL SAY IT!". Why don't you just say the goddam name instead of talking about how you're going to say it?
ReplyDeleteSorry, that period after the end quote in the second sentence was completely unnecessary.
DeleteClassic! As a child I always wondered about this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking most of us did. That's some shoddy audio work right there.
DeleteI feel like more should be said about the ridiculousness that was the sequel. (The one with Jonathan Brandis. Anyone else remember?) I remember watching it at 8 or so wondering why the stupid kid didn't just wish for ladder rather than wishing for each hand- and foothold individually. I actually don't remember much more about it. I should watch it again—and judge it, of course.
ReplyDeleteI saw the sequel for the first time recently, and mostly just found it boring. I've heard the third one is even worse. As for the wishing, it seems to be a general rule of any story with wishes that the characters never use them very well. I guess it would be too easy if they did.
DeleteTiffany, all I remember is that creepy witch, who looked a lot like a substitute teacher I had in high school and who may have actually played the creepy witch, for all I know, maybe.
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