literary star beings
October 14, 2012 2:09 PM Subscribe
Besides Maia in Mary Poppins and Ramandu in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, what other stars in literature take human form?
Yvaine in Neil Gaiman's Stardust.
posted by flex at 2:14 PM on October 14, 2012 [12 favorites]
posted by flex at 2:14 PM on October 14, 2012 [12 favorites]
I think A Swiftly Tilting Planet (sequel to Wrinkle in Time) has either the same star ladies or different ones?
posted by supermedusa at 2:14 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by supermedusa at 2:14 PM on October 14, 2012
I also thought of A Wrinkle in Time.
Are you interested in human characters who take the form of stars? There are many characters in Greek mythology and other legends who end up as constellations.
posted by snorkmaiden at 2:15 PM on October 14, 2012
Are you interested in human characters who take the form of stars? There are many characters in Greek mythology and other legends who end up as constellations.
posted by snorkmaiden at 2:15 PM on October 14, 2012
There is an example of this in Michael Swanwick's short story, "The Bordello In Faerie"... which is pretty smutty
posted by edgeways at 2:32 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by edgeways at 2:32 PM on October 14, 2012
The angels in It's a Wonderful Life (based on the short story "The Greatest Gift") are stars in the sky, with one of them manifesting as the angel/human helping George. Does that count?
posted by iamkimiam at 2:33 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by iamkimiam at 2:33 PM on October 14, 2012
Dammit, you beat me to Dogsbody!
Was there human form in Herbert's The Whipping Star?
posted by hattifattener at 2:36 PM on October 14, 2012
Was there human form in Herbert's The Whipping Star?
posted by hattifattener at 2:36 PM on October 14, 2012
Not human form, but Frank Herbert's ConSentient novels (Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment) feature the stars as sentient beings. The Calebans are extra-dimensional beings whose visible manifestation is that of the stars.
posted by zinon at 2:39 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by zinon at 2:39 PM on October 14, 2012
Not human form, but the cat Pounce is actually a constellation, featuring in a couple of Tamora Pierces series (the Alanna books, and the Beka Cooper set).
There's also the movie Starman.
posted by jacalata at 2:52 PM on October 14, 2012
There's also the movie Starman.
posted by jacalata at 2:52 PM on October 14, 2012
YA, but I think there are celestial objects (not stars?) among the characters in the So You Want to Be a Wizard series. I don't remember if they take human form.
posted by pullayup at 3:01 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by pullayup at 3:01 PM on October 14, 2012
pullayup is thinking of the white hole (not quite a star, but close) in the first book of the series. It doesn't take on human form, though.
posted by anaelith at 3:26 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by anaelith at 3:26 PM on October 14, 2012
IIRC The Manuscript Found In Saragossa involves someone summoning Castor and Pollux/Polydeuces by looking at their respective stars through a mirror.
posted by ersatz at 3:32 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by ersatz at 3:32 PM on October 14, 2012
There's an incident in the Sandman graphic novels which takes place at a gathering of stars who have taken human form to hold a sort of gathering or convention. It's in Endless Nights.
posted by Adridne at 3:39 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by Adridne at 3:39 PM on October 14, 2012
Response by poster: not those who were oroginally himan, but become so
posted by brujita at 3:54 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by brujita at 3:54 PM on October 14, 2012
Response by poster: rephrase that...become human to interact with human contemporaries
posted by brujita at 4:07 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by brujita at 4:07 PM on October 14, 2012
Athena in The Odyssey. Tons of gods in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The impotent gods in Brecht's The Good Person of Sezchuan. Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. There's a lot of shapeshifting in the great Chinese "epic," The Story of the Stone.
posted by outlandishmarxist at 5:02 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by outlandishmarxist at 5:02 PM on October 14, 2012
Response by poster: Hmmm...I'm specifically looking for stars.
I' m trying to hash out a piece about my workshop classmate who just killed herself; I was calling her the STAR poet even then
posted by brujita at 5:26 PM on October 14, 2012
I' m trying to hash out a piece about my workshop classmate who just killed herself; I was calling her the STAR poet even then
posted by brujita at 5:26 PM on October 14, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by tyllwin at 2:12 PM on October 14, 2012 [8 favorites]