“July seeps into August like the blood of a cherry on your white blouse. I want to get better. Another summer drowned at the bottom of the pool, another summer spent with red stained lips and the smell of tart sleep and liquid Tylenol. I want to bite my teeth into life and suck on the marrow, but I am swallowing cherry pits. I will get it right next time. I will wash it off you, clean.”
“On the Death of Summer and Baptismal Promises” by W.R.
01/09/2023, London, UK
My dear,
It’s been quite the hot August here, contrasting a perfectly gloomy July. Circling back around to sticky heat and cold drinks. Really, such glorious rainy days could not have lasted too long, or it might be considered unfair to be so prematurely joyful. Still, there is a bit of autumn in the air now. The sweet scent of pumpkin-candles wafts through the study as I write this newsletter. The other day, a moth landed on my phone screen in the depths of night, which by some is considered a harbinger of imminent transformation. Take from that what you will.
Because this is only the second newsletter in what will hopefully be a long-going saga, there is still the puzzle of figuring out the exact format of this all. Something which I presently think will look a bit like this: archive updates, followed by a segment of choice (esoteric knowledge / hyper-fixations, current events, book reviews, etc.), and then finally a small personal update segment, which, like last month, might look more like a small essay or write-up.
In case you missed it, one (1) curious extracurricular essay made its way onto the substack in the past month. Somehow, it involves John Keats and several other Romantic movement writers, Ken dolls, Plato, and also mentions the word “loser” about forty times. You can read it here if you haven’t yet. Essays and writings like this that exist outside of the newsletter won’t get their own individually dedicated emails (in an effort to keep you spam free and only mildly annoyed), but they will get a mention on socials, or in the monthly round-up newsletter like so.
Additionally, you can consume a bite-sized piece about phantasmagoria, the theatre of spectacle and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein here, as a write-up on Instagram.
For now, let’s get into the updates, shall we?
I. Archive updates
“Aristotle expressed himself in this connection by saying that the best interpreter of dreams is he who can best grasp similarities. For dream-pictures, like pictures in water, are disfigured by the motion (of the water), so that he hits the target best who is able to recognize the true picture in the distorted one”
“The Interpretation of Dreams” by Sigmund Freud (1899, p. 12)


If dreams are indeed insights into our desires, containers for the soul, then what does it say about me that I’ve dreamt about being a scholar of fairytales for a week straight in the past month? Specifically, I’ve dreamt about a phd thesis named, quote, “The madwoman in the attic: Angela Carter, female hysteria, captivity and eroticism across fairytales”. Yes, I did wake to scribble down that title in the middle of the night, half sleep-drunk. Also, yes, it was considerably less legible in said note. It turns out that when you’re only barely awake, your notes are only barely able to be deciphered later.
It goes without saying that the White Lily Society archive has been updated with a handful or two of brand new, shiny selected readings, but for today let me select just three to highlight, all revolving around themes of girlhood and fairytales (in order to make dream-me proud).
“the Tiger’s Bride” - link
Perhaps my favourite of all the stories featured in Angela Carter’s “the Bloody Chamber” (1979), this delightful short story is a reversal of the traditional “Beauty and the Beast” tale. Featuring Carter’s trademark textured, shimmering writing style that almost leans on being “overwritten” (if such a thing exists), as well as a female protagonist that bites back, and dark Gothic undertones, this is a fairytale that just jumps off the page.
“The tiger will never lie down with the lamb; he acknowledges no pact that is not reciprocal. The lamb must learn to run with the tigers.”
“Lyons and Tigers and Wolves - Oh My! Revisionary Fairy Tales in the Work of Angela Carter” - link
Touching mainly upon Angela Carter’s short stories “the Tiger’s Bride” (see above) and “the Courtship of Mr. Lyon” (link), supplementing with quotes from Carter’s book “the Sadeian woman, and the Ideology of Pornography”, this paper is a look at how Carter uses parody, juxtaposition and subversion in her fairytales to examine them within the confines of gender, class and morality.
“Carter's revisionary fairy tales move progressively away from their antecedents, radically repositioning the heroine's knowledge and desire as a means of criticizing the restrictive ideologies that refuse their social and sexual existence- perverse, violent, and/or liberatory.”
“Roaring Girls and Unruly Women: Producing Femininities” - link
A bit of a longer read, but one that is more than worthwhile as an examination of “girlhood” in literature, what it has meant to behave as a “girl”, and constructed gender ideologies as a whole, which also has a neat tie-in to modern uses of “girl” as a watered-down, downright destabilising cheap tool to sell Things. Considering the current “girl dinner” and “girl math” trends, all of the above might be interesting to read about, and consider.
“As a term and gender category, the word 'girl' mediates between the categories of the virgin and the whore, potentially signifying both and eliciting the epistemological problem of sexual knowledge.”
II. Down the rabbit hole
Peeled and pulled all the way out of the depths of my mind, here’s a look at what I’ve been hyper-fixating on, what I’ve been obsessed with, and what has been consuming my every thought. Just a small glimpse, really, but enough to get the idea across. Because if I wrote down everything from the past month in this one update it would probably be a gargantuan read, far beyond what anybody could desire to go through. So, consider yourself spared. This is the condensed version. You’re welcome.
II.I What I’ve read [a book review]
“the Ophelia girls” by Jane Healey
Plot description: “In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings—and a little bit obsessed with each other. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks.
Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and seventeen-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary?”
To say this book was like a basket of ripe summer cherries might turn out to be a fitting metaphor; like said basket, the contents are delicious and subtle, lingering flesh and hard pit, softly building tension. Yet also, the longer the basket has cherries left in it, the more the enjoyment diminishes. And in the end, you’ll probably feel at least a little ambiguous about gorging yourself on such a vast amount of crimson fruit.
What I’m trying to say is this; “the Ophelia Girls” was a hit for me on so many different areas. It was a slow burn look at girlhood, at the romanticisation of sickness, at artistry and what it means to be perceived (whether through a camera, or elsewhere). Combined with delightfully nuanced queer elements, and more pre-Raphaelite and mythological mentions than you could ever need, it saddens me to say that this book in the end just… fizzled out. It built tension for 368 pages, and just when I thought I knew where the finale would head in order to tie up the novel’s obsession with bodies of water and drowning, the plot seemed to flinch. So what is left is this; the ride, the build-up was delicious, but the ending felt unripe, prematurely harvested. Everything was tied up plot-wise, but thematically I expected just a tiny bit more. Maybe, I’m just greedy. Still, I think that if my short summary enticed you at all, the book is worth a look. It was an emotional, hazy read, perfect for August, and one that I did really enjoy.
II.II What’s festering in my mind: fairytales!
One can accredit my running fascination with whimsical, strange and curious [fairy]tales mainly to the late Angela Carter, a phenomenal imaginative writer who’s already gotten several mentions in this newsletter alone. Reading “the Bloody Chamber” last December really did do a number on me. And by that I mean it opened my eyes to the subversive power of fairytales. It was my idea of a perfect read; Gothic and dark, textured and descriptive, bitingly feminist, morally grey. Truly existing right on the intersection of love and violence.
Since then, I’ve been trying to recapture that specific hazy shimmer that Carter’s stories have in my eyes. Her stories are just so vivid, so imaginative, so thoroughly well-constructed, they hold my entire heart and then some. Thus, I have a strong inkling that this particular fascination might carry on a while longer. In fact, I may need to do a fully dedicated newsletter to fairytales and whimsy in the near future.
For now, let me just recommend 1984’s “the Company of Wolves”. It’s a delightfully strange, artful film combining three of Carter’s red riding hood retellings into something incredibly artificial (uncanny?) and dream-like. Something you just have to watch multiple times, to pick apart every tiny detail, and so you can spend time with every small visual decision, from the soundstage sets to the fantastical costumes, to the terrific practical effects.
III. What’s new: living dead girl things
We did it! After 14 gruelling days, the White Lily Society was officially pardoned and unbanned on Instagram. I wrote about my thoughts about this issue much more in-depth in last month’s newsletter, but for now let me just add that being stuck in the Instagram customer service machine is truly a tenth circle of Hell I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy (Not even on the girl who pushed a bare-armed, bare-legged little 6yo me into a huge patch of nettles way back in the day).
There’s something so uniquely tormenting about such a small, trivial thing that is at its core so easily fixed, but having no outlet to fix it. A true “I have no mouth, and I must scream” experience. Still, I’m- as always- glad I persevered, and eternally grateful for all the wonderful people who listened to me vent about it, as well as for all of you, members of the White Lily Society. It’s because of your support that I can continue to write my long, indulgent, comma-fuelled think pieces, so thank you <3.


Some other personal highlights from this month include; having my two friends stay with me from the Netherlands (always enjoyable), seeing London’s Natural History museum for the first time (slightly disappointing), listening to lots of goth music (August-December is when I’m at peak strength), finally volunteering at the cemetery again post-dissertation (my first time this entire year, oops), and seeing Ethel Cain perform live (yes, I sobbed my eyes out for forty minutes straight). So, all in all, this August has kept with the tradition of being one of my favourite months of the year. Even if it did slip away like a moment in time.
Alas, my dear, I fear this is where I will leave you once more. We’ve discussed fairytales and girlhood and books, and everything in between, so with that I must wrap this up before my spectral editor (the ghost in my apartment) yells at me again for over-embroidering like I tend to do. It’s almost the one year anniversary of the White Lily Society, coming up on October 26th, and I’m beyond delighted at what delicious things we have achieved in just one year. Until we meet again,
x Sabrina Angelina, the White Lily Society
Currently reading: “the Inferno” by Dante Alighieri // Most recent read:“the Ophelia Girls” by Jane Healey
White Lily Society links // Sabrina Angelina links
Mom said it’s my turn to remind you to subscribe to the White Lily Society substack, if you haven’t already. It’s free, and it’s pretty good if you ask me. Come, become a martyr of deliciousness.
*ps. “Flectere si nequeo superos, Accheronta movebo” means “If I cannot move Heaven, I will raise Hell”