The Seventh Veil of Salome is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new historical fiction novel that explores tragic love and the “love at first sight” trope in movies, operas, and books. Vera’s and Jay’s tragic love story is set in 1950’s Hollywood, and it is full of amazing details, glamour, and some very satisfying script flipping moments. My favorite detail of all though is the Medusa motif and how it contrasts with the deeply explored trope of “love at first sight.”
Death at First Sight vs. Love at First Sight
Looking at Medusa does not result in insta-love: it results in insta-death. A single gaze upon Medusa will turn you into stone.
It’s so clever, to me, how Silvia Moreno-Garcia explores the trope of “love at first sight” which occurs at the beginning of love stories against the Medusa myth’s “death at first sight” ending. The juxtaposition works so well because in a tragic love story (like this novel) the fateful first gaze on a lover is as damning as gazing on Medusa. Because, in a tragic love story, one or both lovers usually dies a violent, untimely death not long after falling in love.
The Deadly Male Gaze
Medusa, Salome, and Vera all share something in common. They’re all violently harmed by the male gaze.
In the myth, Medusa goes through a lot of heartache because an
- entitled, powerful male god rapes her (Poseidon is a parallel to Clifford)
- then a female god grows insanely jealous of her (Athena is a parallel to Nancy)
- and a devoted mortal tries to assuage Athena by harming Medusa (Perseus is a parallel to Benny).
Medusa’s famous story also involves a beheading, just as Salome’s famous story involves the beheading of John the Baptist.
How To Annotate This
I used the same tab color to mark both of these:
- “love at first sight” trope elements
- details from Medusa myth (lots of snake imagery!)
Surprisingly, many of these elements will be the same. For example, anything to do with eyes is important to both the insta-love trope and the Medusa myth. So, mark all those moments with lovers stealing glances, engaging in longing stares, or locking eyes. But, just as importantly, mark deadly gazes and threatening stares.
There are some interesting quotes in the book about stone and marble that I think are adjacent to the Medusa myth. So, keep an eye out for that too. I also marked descriptions of Vera’s hair because Vera is the Medusa-figure in this story. Her hair is gorgeous, not full of snakes, but I still felt the hair details were important to note.
Annotate With Sara 