Cat* said:
So, tell me bad things about the Phantasmagoric Theater ...
The cards are full of creepy misshapen people-creatures with spikes growing out of their faces, pins stuck into their flesh, mouths stitched closed, empty eyesockets, scalps bald but for long wisps of hair sticking out at random. They are SCARY.
And they are doing creepy things. A little girl-thingy, legs spread open toward the viewer, hangs her dollies from their necks (4 of Cups). A bald woman without legs is propped on a tray, smiling as she tugs at the spikes embedded in her face (5 of Wands).
And then it gets worse.
Because then we have..... the LWB. Completely oblivious to the horrors depicted on the cards, the LWB says things like, "Little Sweetie-Nubbins plays joyously with her friends, showing us how sharing the love in our hearts is the secret to a happy life."
This disconnect between reality (the cards) and interpretation (the LWB) is grotesque and profoundly creepy. It makes me think of a child who has witnessed something deeply wrong & disturbing (like Aunt Millie coming on to Daddy, or cousin Bruce shooting up, or Uncle Ted groping one of the little neighbor children), and she KNOWS it's wrong, but when she tells the adults about it, they completely discount her experience. They hush her up, put on fake smiles, explain it away ("Uncle Ted just LOVES children!"), pretend everything's perfectly, perfectly fine -- or maybe they just give her a good smack to shut her up. The lesson to the child: Do not trust your yourself, your instincts, your gut feelings -- if I tell you something is all sweetness & light, then you jolly well better accept it.
That is what this deck/LWB combo is for me. I longer I've owned it, the more I've grown to loathe it, and writing about it here makes me want to take my copy outside and burn it. It is just WRONG.
<-- Truly, there are not enough of these bug-eyed emoticons to show how I really feel about this deck.