Lawler Literature 003: BabaYagaology

What other variants are there in the typology? Those dotty old creatures surrounded by cats, whose neighbors break into their house one day and find them dead, in a stench of cat pee? Those greedy old hags of unquenched sexual appetite?....Those wealthy old women who submit hysterically to treatments—face-lifts, liposuction, hormone therapy, shit therapy if necessary—just to delay by a little the inexorable onset of age? Are spas not places which offer the illusion that they delay ageing? Yes, spas are the natural habitat of old hags, except that what used to be called a spa is now—same crap, different packaging—a wellness centre. p. 120

The above is an excerpt from Dubravka Ugresic's Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, translated from Croatian. The passage makes a valid point: old women are primarily characterized by their marginality and by their 'shameful' failure to remain youthful. For an in-depth analysis of the themes of Baba Yaga, I urge you to check out Jessa Crispin's article at NPR.org.

Meanwhile, I will just tell you that Ugresic's novel is a diptych revolving around elderly women who have more power than they would at first seem to possess. Though the world mocks them and underrates their usefulness, these women make things happen.