Double Dactyls about Revolutionary Girl Utena
What are double dactyls? Mostly, a silly form of poetry. A frighteningly sticky form. I started playing with them one lazy afternoon, lolling around in a hammock at the Pennsic War, thinking about--what else?--Utena. I brought the results home with me, and one evening after a particularly spectacular dinner, Bara no hitomi, our friend CallunaV, and I, lolled around concocting more. (Lolling does seem to play an important part in the creative process.) Sadly, I don't seem to be awfully good at it. I can come up with a phrase, but finishing the thing is a bit beyond me. So these examples are almost entirely the doing of Bara no hitomi and CallunaV. You'll notice some of our conversation interspersed among the poems.
For more information on the double dactyl, click
here to see an interesting little page with some non-Utena examples.
We'll probably continue to add them as we come up with them. In fact, if you come up with any
after being infected with the double dactyl meme, please
send them my way! I'd enjoy posting them (with appropriate credits).
(This one started it all, even though it's not really a double dactyl, I don't think. It's
modeled on the song, "Moses," in the movie "Singin' in the Rain." Imagine Touga and Saionji,
dressed like Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor, singing and dancing around the head teacher, and
you have the image that set me giggling.)
Dios supposes he knowses our roses
As Akio poses feloniously.
For Akio knowses that Dios he dozes
As no Prince of Roses proposes to be.
Higgledy piggledy
Haunted Himemiya
Cries out in silence
Through roses and pain:
"Give up your chivalry
It won't deliver me.
You can't be my Prince,
I have waited in vain."
("They're supposed to be funny."
"That's okay, this is Utena.")
Higgledy piggledy
Ohtori Akio
Fell from a balcony
Seeking his key.
"Where is my sister? I
Cannot resist her!
Alas that I kissed her
Incestuously!"
("What are the neighbors going to think if we keep howling like that?")
Jiggery pokery
Touga and Saionji
Duel together, their
Bokkens agleam.
But even when one plays
The Bride for the other, they
Solemnly swear that it's
Not what it seems.
("Don't put your ears back at me!"
"I didn't bring the word 'glistening' into it!")
Hickory, dickory
Little Tsuwabuki,
Everyone's confidante,
Nobody's friend,
Stood at the edge of the
Love and the lechery,
Passion and treachery:
Childhood's End.
("You've created a monster. Now, if I could just remember to be /funny/...")
Higgledy piggledy
Genki young Wakaba
Says that Utena's the
Love of her life.
But tests her affection with
One short defection which
With a black rose causes
Sorrow and strife.
(One of my favorites.)
Higgledy piggledy
Little Tsuwabuki
Begs of the Black Rose
To give him a chance
To gain the adulthood he
Longs for so desperately,
And a new uniform
Sans the short pants.
More double-dactyls contributed by Ukyou Kuonji!
Jiggery-pokery
Kanae Ohtori
Pledged to be married to
Akio dear.
His sister, Anthy, just
Terrifies Kanae
One would think Akio's
Plenty to fear.
Higgledy-piggeldy
Miki and Kozue
One twin's a genius, the
Other's a tramp.
Miki could time all his
sister's affairs, but all
Her peccadillos would
Give him a cramp.
Miss Arisugawa's
'Special friend' Shiori:
Meanest damn homophobe
ever I've seen.
Threw Juri's love out for
Her fencing sempai: she'd
'Polish his sword,' if you
Know what I mean.
Got more? Send 'em this way!