Barbie Tarot

Pollux

Jewel, you should have told me that!!! *LOL*
I hope you are not offended, I just kept saying that you and your hubby looked like Barbie and Ken!!! *ROFLOL*

:D
 

Jeannette

No Kiddin', It Exists... Sort of...

I hate to be the one to spoil the creative fantasies here...

(Well, not really... ;))

...But there actually is a Barbie Tarot. Sort of.

Okay, so it's not really a tarot -- it's a "fortune-telling deck." But it is Barbie. Oddly, however, the copy I have is Italian. This deck may have been published in the U.S. as part of the now-defunct fortune-telling game that was issued by Mattel at one time (I can't remember the name of it, sorry). But I haven't actually ever seen the cards from the Mattel game to comapare to the Italian deck I have.

The Barbie logo is printed on the top and bottom flap of the box, and although the front title reads "Le Carte della Fortuna," the side panels read "36 Carte Magiche di Barbie." I'm "tippin' my hat" here, so to speak, 'cuz quite by coincidence, we were planning on auctioning our Italian copy on eBay this coming weekend. But for anyone who wants to see the sample scans in advance, here's a link:

http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/dbsearchengine.php?view_title=barbie

As to the "Barbie Tarot" story -- it was written by George Alec Effinger, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year. I had a chance to meet Mr. Effinger a few years ago, and he was as fun and charming an individual as you'd ever want to meet. I have a great photo around here of him somewhere that I thought might be nice to post, so people could see what the author of this marvelous tarot story looks like. But unfortunately, I can't find it at the moment. If I turn it up, I'll scan it and post a link. It's really quite a priceless picture -- it fits right in with the "Barbie Tarot" discussion, in its way.

-- Jeannette
http://www.tarotgarden.com
 

faunabay

Jeanette,
That's very uh......colorful!! ROFL
But it doesn't have quite the same effect as picturing the 9 of handbags or the 5 of earrings. :D

Now for everyone who's thinking about getting this book (it really is great) bare in mind that not all the stories are as light-hearted as this one. There are a few that are down right depressing. :( But overall I loved reading this collection of tarot stories.
 

MeeWah

Faunabay: Who is the author of the book? As a Tarot fan *&* a Barbie fan, I want it!!
 

faunabay

It's called Tarot Fantastic. And there are many authors (one for each story), so I believe it'd be listed under the editors who are: Martin H. Greenberg and Lawrence Schimel
 

Jeannette

faunabay said:
That's very uh......colorful!! ROFL
But it doesn't have quite the same effect as picturing the 9 of handbags or the 5 of earrings. :D
Yeah, I know. It's just that I caught this thread, and couldn't resist mentioning it. It's just too weird.
:D

BTW, I second faunabay's recommendation of the Tarot Fantastic collection. And for those who can't get enough of tarot-themed short stories, there's also Tarot Tales, edited by Rachel Pollack.

-- Jeannette
http://www.tarotgarden.com
 

Lee

Amazon links:

Tarot Fantastic

Tarot Tales

Both seem to be out of print, but if you click on "new & used" for both books, used copies are offered for sale for inexpensive prices.

Of the two, I enjoyed Tarot Fantastic much more. The stories in that book all revolve around Tarot, whereas in Tarot Tales the emphasis is on stories written using the Tarot to write the stories, but they're necessarily about the Tarot.

-- Lee
 

MeeWah

Lee: Hugs for the links!
 

HudsonGray

All the 'Fantastic' books are short story collections, there's at least 5 Cat Fantastique books (beautiful covers on those), a unicorn one, two witches ones, a dinosaur one, and I'm not sure what all else.

Yes, some of the tarot stories are downright grim, like the lady who couldn't figure out she was dead & kept trying to do readings on what was wrong.......
 

sparrowspirit

Barbie Fortune Telling Cards

Jeanette,
Those Barbie Cards are so funky! How can you part with them? I will be watching the auction with interest.

The other day I was watching a movie on HBO called What's the Worst That Can Happen? with Martin Lawrence, (et al), and one of the characters is doing a reading. She keeps pulling this card that they show the image of, looks like the King of Swords with five swords stuck in his head! She finds this as a very ominous sign. I was laughing because it must be a made up card. Has anyone else seen this?

Sparrow