Imbach wrote:
Why won’t the first lady show up for her job? Why? I became obsessed with this question and eventually looked to Melania’s Twitter history for answers. I noticed that in the three-year period between June 3, 2012 and June 11, 2015 she tweeted 470 photos which she appeared to have taken herself. I examined these photographs as though they were a body of work.
Everyone has an eye, whether or not we see ourselves as photographers. What we choose to photograph and how we frame subjects always reveals a little about how we perceive the world. For someone like Melania, media-trained, controlled and cloistered, her collection of Twitter photography provides an otherwise unavailable view into the reality of her existence. Nowhere else — certainly not in interviews or public appearances — is her guard so far down.
What is that reality? She is Rapunzel with no prince and no hair, locked in a tower of her own volition, and delighted with the predictability and repetition of her own captivity.Written during the time when Melania declined moving to the White House and opted to stay in Trump Tower, it's an interesting assessment, and although sympathy from readers varies, the consensus seems to be that loneliness is, indeed an ongoing factor in this woman's life. The photos from high up - an actual tower - with the same landscape and differing only in weather and time of day, do give the viewer pause.
Just as interesting is the interpretation of Melania's photos of the interior of Trump Tower:
We can all picture the gilded monstrosity of the Trump home from publicity photos (chandeliers, sad boy astride a stuffed lion, golden pillars), but it is a different place through Melania’s eyes. She takes photographs inside her house at weird, skewed angles. It is a strange effect when the half-obscured objects, chairs and ceilings, are all so golden. It looks like what a terrified little girl held captive in a ogre’s fairytale castle might see when she dares to sneak a peek through her fingers. (source: Kate Imbach)
FAST FORWARD TO DECEMBER 2017:
Interesting to see the White House Christmas decorations be launched straight into #folklore... Also seen references to The Upside Down, Blair Witch, Turkish Delight (White Witch of Narnia) & True Detective. More to come I'm sure. pic.twitter.com/416q8BVMh5— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 28, 2017
A tweet from Donald Haase:
Melania Trump transforms from fairy-tale prisoner to wicked queen. Merry Christmas, peasants! https://t.co/BDsIDz1oxR— Donald Haase (@donaldhaase) November 29, 2017
My retweet & comment:
See? #Folklore is how people are explaining the continuing, confounding events at the White House this year. Bizarrely, it helps makes sense of it all. https://t.co/vtkwEmjaFD— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
And back to the growing list of folklore and fairy tale references mentioned (note: I have screen-captured the tweets referred to and inserted them after my tweets so readers can easily see what's being referred to, but the links in the embedded tweets also send you to the original tweet for the sources):
#Folklore / #FairyTale reference retweet number three in my timeline. (Another coming.) #Narnia and a White Witch allusion. https://t.co/bDgc4Fdw4A— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
And another #Narnia reference. #folklore #FairyTales (retweet folkloric reference on these decorations, number 4). https://t.co/81pDy8sJjU— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
A Snow White gif reply to the White House decorations... #folklore #FairyTale retweet reference number 5. (BTW the Narnia references are becoming very popular.) https://t.co/Bl5hZZfK8x— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
Baba Yaga #folklore/ #FairyTales reference on the White House decorations number six... https://t.co/hpDjdrfd1h— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
#Folklore/ #FairyTales reference number 7 on the White House Christmas decorations... https://t.co/T4UsFPuYUk— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
#Folklore/ #FairyTales reference number 8, commenting on the White House Christmas decorations. #SnowQueen https://t.co/ahL643W7HU— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
Note how the feet appear in the photo - enlarged below (it's obviously a lighting issue but it's still an interesting connection):And LOTS of comments from people who thought Melania's feet were backward in pic... #folklore reference # 9. Note: there are 9 distinctive folkloric approaches being counted - not tweets that have folklore &/or FairyTales referenced. There are tons of those! (#Narnia wins.) https://t.co/bDgc4Fdw4A— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
Watching people turn to #folklore for tools to cope in reaction to the White House Christmas photos has been fascinating to study the last couple of days. #FairyTales (bonus list after the 9 tweets already coming)— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
White House Christmas decorations allusion list 1:— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
-The forest that warns Chris against the impending Sunken Place
-Judge Frollo’s new frolicking room where he sings how “the devil is so much stronger than a man”
-The woods from The Witch (also M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village)
White House Christmas allusions list 2:— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
-Snow White’s escape route from the Huntsman
-White Witch’s favorite forest in Narnia, before those pesky kings & queens come to spoil her fun
-Basically any episode of American Horror Story
That spot where Voldemort drank a unicorn’s blood
White House Christmas #folklore allusions list 3:— Gypsy Thornton (@inkgypsy) November 29, 2017
-The road to the Cabin in the Woods, somewhere in between the creepy gas station attendant and all the death in the universe
-Tim Burton’s Batman Returns
-Hedge maze in The Shining
-Winter Is Here
(more at iO9..)
This comment (screen-capped below) expanded the supernatural narrative. Meant to entertain, it's also an interesting place to go:
A reply to one of the earlier tweets, pointing out the use of folklore:
I suppose fairy tales are all about archetypes, which offer clarity when applied to something as bonkers as the current US government— Scott Malthouse (@welovefolklore) November 29, 2017
And the tweet that prompted me to put it all in one place:
Hey @DigFolkProj, have you seen @inkgypsy's and @donaldhaase's tweets (sadly, not threaded) about the White House Christmas #folklore allusions. Possible #digitaltrendoftheyear contender? https://t.co/AFjfycP5bI— Linda J. Lee (@lindajeanlee) November 29, 2017
As an interesting callback to the original article about Melania in her tower, I thought I'd finish with the final sentence by Imbach, which has more resonance than ever:
She’s living inside a dark fairytale, and in fairytales the women trapped in towers never save anyone but themselves.