{"id":4673,"date":"2009-09-01T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=4673"},"modified":"2009-09-03T09:37:53","modified_gmt":"2009-09-03T13:37:53","slug":"the-path-ginger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=4673","title":{"rendered":"The Path: Ginger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ginger’s profile<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The forest is a great place for adventures! And a much more fun way to get to grandmother’s house. Ginger isn’t one for sticking to paths. Running around in the fields, climbing gnarly old trees, playing wild games with abandoned toys, collecting pebbles and hitting things with sticks. The idea of growing up doesn’t hold much appeal. Who’d want to give up their childhood? But Ginger is 13. The end is near.
\nShe’s a fresh flower of the field in her own way. Very independent -a loner, actually- and completely absorbed in the game she thinks of as life. Will she bloom before she wilts? Will she ever learn? Should she? <\/div>\n

thepath_ginger3.jpg<\/td><\/tr><\/table>Unlike the other girls, I wasn’t able to connect with Ginger. Her story didn’t speak to me at all, and I didn’t understand her meeting with the wolf, which takes place in a field of flowers while beautiful music plays. There’s a scarecrow, but he’s not the ominous death-crow you’d expect. He’s a shaggy Mr. Pumpkin Head with nothing menacing about him. If anything, her rendezvous with the wolf is more enjoyable than the trip through the woods. Her supposed wolf-meeting is idyllic and serene. <\/p>\n

thepath_ginger2.jpg<\/td><\/tr><\/table>Throughout the game, the forest girl is your guide. She’s playful, with dark skin, dark hair, and a white dress. If you follow her she will sometimes lead you to one of your goals, or back to the road. Ginger’s wolf is<\/strong> the forest girl, or at least a girl that looks just like the forest girl, save for the fact that she’s wearing a red<\/em> dress. <\/p>\n

Ginger comes upon the field and begins to play. Then the red forest girl sneaks up behind her and puts her hands over Ginger’s eyes like they’re playing “guess who”. The two play innocently. They run around the field until they tumble over, and then recline on the grass. Fade to black.<\/p>\n

Ginger’s Wolf<\/span><\/p>\n

thepath_ginger1.jpg<\/td><\/tr><\/table>Baffled, I made the mistake of looking around to see what others had said, and now I’ve latched onto their interpretation to the point where I can’t come up with anything else. It has been pointed out by multiple people that Ginger is at the right age to begin menstruating, and that her “wolf” was simply coming to terms with that. Hence the now-red forest girl sneaking up and surprising her. This also fits with her profile above. <\/p>\n

Well, it “fits” inasmuch as my ignorance of Ginger’s story seems to line up nicely with my ignorance of the emotional side of mensuration. <\/p>\n

Part of the trip through grandma’s house is a flyby of her various toys at baby-cam height. There is a bit of barbed wire at the very end, but without any indication of danger before this point I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume Ginger came to any real harm. The barbed wire is probably just symbolic of the end of her innocence, the end of the parade of toys, the fact that this new development is a little scary, and the fact that, purportedly, it hurts. <\/p>\n

Not like I would know. I know nothing about this particular life experience. I have no idea if Ginger’s story will resonate with a woman who has gone through this. I’m prepared to have this dismissed as bollocks, but I’m holding onto it for now since I don’t have anything better. <\/p>\n

Aftermath<\/span><\/p>\n

Her walk to grandma’s after the wolf meeting makes it look like she’s uncomfortable. Her head is down and she’s taking small steps. She’s probably not terribly happy, but even as a man I think I can marshal the intuition to realize that she’s probably just fine. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ginger’s profile: The forest is a great place for adventures! And a much more fun way to get to grandmother’s house. Ginger isn’t one for sticking to paths. Running around in the fields, climbing gnarly old trees, playing wild games with abandoned toys, collecting pebbles and hitting things with sticks. The idea of growing up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}