#Kirlock | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

archivyrep · 9 months

Text

Arrogant curators, a pine-cone shaped vault, and a magical scroll in "Tangled" [Part 2]

Continued from part 1

Inside of the Spire shown in "Keeper of the Spire"

As for the Spire, it is an ancient museum atop a winding mountain. It contains many artifacts and is a "massive pine-cone-shaped structure covered with light blue and medium blue rocks", with a spiraling staircase inside, with various artifacts decorating the walls. Calliope, for her part, is not a professional with "expertise in the management of records of enduring value", the first definition of an archivist in the aforementioned dictionary. But, she is "an individual responsible for records of enduring value", i.e. the artifacts in the Spire.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on May 17, 2023.

Furthermore, she is not a records manager, records analyst, or records officer. She also is not what the aforementioned dictionary defines as a librarian: "an individual responsible for acquiring, providing access to, and managing collections of published materials." On the other hand, she fulfills common characteristics of an archivist. The recent A*Census II stated that 66% of those surveyed are working as archivists or memory workers, and noted that commonly those surveyed work with textual archival records such as documents, manuscripts, photographs, and objects. [1] The survey further said that almost half of White people felt included in the profession, compared to 25% of BIPOC (Black, indigenous, (and) people of color). In terms of Calliope, she is in line with 71% of archivists who are women and 84% who are White. She likely is straight or heterosexual as well, just like 69% of archivists who identified as such in the survey.

A few fan fiction writers have mentioned Calliope. In various chapters of LokoteiBex's "Sunshine", she is described as knowledgeable, charming, and noted as a street musician, and cursed by Gothel so she doesn't sense Rapunzel. In Chapter 5: "The Keeper of the Spire", the fifth chapter of green_tea_and_honey's 14-chapter work, "Beyond the Corona Walls", she describes herself as the Keeper of the Spire, saying she was "entrusted wardship over the Spire’s artifacts", with a sworn duty to "prevent these items from falling into the wrong hands...[or] protect the outside world from them". She also adds:

"The Spire’s Vault holds some of the rarest, most abstruse artifacts from all over the world...Oh no, silly! It’s at the top of the mountain in a vault called the Spire...Kirlock, Protector of the Spire! It is I, Calliope! The, uh, Apprentice of the Keeper of the Spire!” [3]

In others, it is noted that Calliope has an annoying voice, is caught by Raps after almost being hurt, gives a message to Raps about Cass trying to seize a magical artifact. She remains cocky, is shown as a guise for Cass to get the key she needs, has magical powers, and helps translate a scroll. Then there are those when she is noted as egocentric or good at examining artifacts. [2]

Examining fanfiction depictions of archivists or characters who act like archivists is important. As Sam Cross put it in August 2019, websites like AO3 (where these works were published) are "becoming the norm and the archival community needs to look to them as part of the future of our profession", and argues that fan-created community archives, like AO3, are "worthy of out attention and investment." Unfortunately, apart from the aforementioned chapter by green_tea_and_honey, she doesn't get as much character depth as she should. Most writers seem to pass her off as annoying, precocious, and arrogant. While that falls in line with the show's canon, it doesn't tell as much about her as a person, her motivations, or anything like that. Instead, her role is more like the video game, Mass Effect 3, when characters use an ID to access the archives and fight within the archives itself.

Calliope's character is annoying, unlikable, and aligned with stereotypes, but this ends up being a cover in order to impress others. Her real personality is different, at least from what I have gathered. Her voice actor, Natalie Palamides, has sometimes had bit roles, apart from voicing an exaggerated masculine character named Nate in a 2020 TV special, Nate – A One Man Show. She is also a comedian and a writer, but I'm not sure that came through with her character. It doesn't seem that she posted about it on her official Twitter account, her official website, or her Instagram. Despite that, and the fact that fans of Tangled may not like her character (personally, I'm not totally sure about her), she still is worth writing about and examining, especially when it comes to her connection to archival concepts. After all, the two episodes she appears in are written by the same people. [3]

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

#spire #tangled #museums #archivy #archival studies #archival science #natalie palamides #fan fiction #census #pop culture #reviews #ao3 #bipoc #whiteness #samantha cross #social media #stories

0 notes