The woman with the Silver Angel's face is dead.

[fpb]

Older readers of this blog will remember a couple of entries about Trine Michelsen, Danish stripper, actress, and - to my mind - absolutely blinding beauty. I just learned that the bone cancer she had been suffering with the last seven years finally killed her early this year. I feel very sad and personally deprived. It is not very rational for me to feel so. If we had ever met, we would have had nothing to say to each other; our backgrounds and experiences, let alone our views of the world, were too distant; and my opinion is that, as is so often the case in our time, she wasted some very real talent in the wake of the misguided "sexual revolution". But she came as close to my ideal of beauty as any woman who ever lived; and beauty, while no merit, is nevertheless a treasure, precious, irreplaceable, a light in the world. I said a prayer for this tiny, tragic beauty - and may God have mercy on us all in the day of our deaths.

Comments

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

She's got gorgeous cheekbones. I used to know someone who looked a little like this, but without those spectacular eyes.

I actually just popped across to ask if you'd received your springtime_gen assignment OK? I should probably do this with my mod hat on, but the personal touch feels more appropriate when it's somone like you that I already know.

I also took some time last night to read your education post - I waited till I had a brain, which takes a few weeks once I'm back at school. I won't contribute to the dicussion, but I found it interesting and there were some points I took away to chew over!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Yes, I got it. I also visited my recipient's entry and got an idea for a story, though I am not sure I can make it work in a really affecting way. At present, it is only the skeleton of a plot.

I wish you would involve yourself more in these debates. You have the advantage of knowing things from the inside, and I would value your contribution. I was very disappointed when you never sent the follow-up to your comment on "Blair's legacy of dead kids". However, I cannot ask you to do something you find uncomfortable or undesirable.

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I really prefer to use LJ as a retreat from work and work-related issues (except the frivolous ones). I'm grateful for the fact that I have people on my flist who use journalling in different ways, and I read and lurk in a lot more places than I contribute. Sorry! But again thanks for the interesting posts that you do make, and I appreciate more than I can say that you don't put pressure on me to contribute.

And thanks also for the acknowledgement for springtime_gen. It was just in case an email hadn't got through.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh, and as for Trine, that is a photo of her in her thirties. At eighteen, she was even lovelier. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of incredibly ugly photos of her in circulation - badly chosen wigs, caked-on make-up, and general vulgarity. It goes with her unfortunate trade. But my God, she was beautiful.

[super-pan.livejournal.com]

I am sorry for your loss (it doesn't matter if it doesn't seem rational that this is a personal loss; some times people we don't know just are important to us). At least she goes on in a way through your Silver Angel.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

There is actually something dreadfully prophetic in the Silver Angel mythology which I elaborated years ago. There actually are two Silver Angels - mortal and immortal - they are twin sisters. And the mortal Silver Angel dies of cancer at 48 after years of suffering. Trine was 43. And I came up with that story in the early nineties, years before Trine's bone cancer manifested itself.

The two Silver Angels

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Re: The two Silver Angels

[becomethesea.livejournal.com]

Did you draw this?

Re: The two Silver Angels

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Yes. Did you miss my various sketch posts?

Re: The two Silver Angels

[becomethesea.livejournal.com]

I believe I have seen your drawings in the past, but I don't think I ever connected the idea of fpb the writer with fpb the artist. I like this drawing. And, my condolences for the loss of your Silver Angel. She was beautiful!

[sanscouronne.livejournal.com]

I understand the sense of loss. There was an American actor of whom I was very fond since childhood, and I felt as if it were a personal loss when he killed himself a couple years ago.

This woman was particularly lovely, though it seems that Danish women in general are quite attractive.

You have an interesting ideal of beauty that is somewhat unusual (at least in comparison to popular culture), and I base this on the women you have expressed fondness for on your LJ. I find it very refreshing.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

If Paris Hilton is the popular idea of beauty, I would say so. For one thing, I like well-defined features, which she doesn't have. For another, tans do not do much for me. I have seen too many complexions ruined by too much sunlight (including Ursula Andress - and goodness, she was lovely in her youth - whom I saw in person in a bank in Rome). I like small, exquisite, intense beauties. A few women traditionally seen as great beauties do not attract me; neither Ava Gardner nor the young Liz Taylor ever did. But I also have a wide range of tastes. I find both Katharine and Audrey Hepbburn breathtaking, for instance, and they were very different. And though I find small women very attractive, the first woman I ever loved was one metre seventy-seven, or 5'11" if you prefer. Beauty is a strange thing, and every time you think you have defined it to your satisfaction, up pops another instance you had not thought of.

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

Paris's hair is a weave and her tan is sprayed on ( no one has enough time to roast themselves like that, even in California). Time ruins it all - fake and real. Muses are immortal. Silver Angel had to be mortal to tell your story, and thereby become immortal to other people. Your muse didn't die - she's stronger now with a veil of transience connecting her to mortals.