There was nothing quite like the drift of sakura which followed Sakurazuka Seishirou around in Tokyo Babylon and X, giving him that unique ambience of beauty and menace, clinging to Sumeragi Subaru as well once he caught Seishirou’s eye. Drifting rose petals in Revolutionary Girl Utena gave Ohtori Academy, the Duelists, and the Rose Bride herself a menacing, yet seductive ambience, suggesting that the roses were not what they seemed.
Falling petals aren’t necessarily menacing. They can create a unique moment, suggesting a special memory which will stay with those caught within their drift, long after it’s gone. I catch my breath whenever I see them in Japanese anime, Chinese action films, and music videos, savoring the atmosphere they created. I remember when I myself walked through a gentle shower of white spring blossoms. They made me see the words to capture and convey the emotions they evoked, recrate the environment they created.
There are the moments when a flower hit me in the eye or the pollen made my husband sneeze. This created an entirely different ambience, but it was no less inspiring.
Flowers play an important part in my own writing, the symbolism of a bloom, of what makes a flower (or a person) bloom. I’ve tried to give it my own beautiful menace, the trap of being coaxed into blossoming, yet the price a character pays for being seduced. Gardens can become an oasis in which one hides from reality, becoming trapped and insular within the flowers. Or a garden may lead a character to what they desire, what they need to accomplish, hiding secrets in the shadows along the path. When petals take flight, it could be the end of the flower or the beginning of a new journey.
How about you, dear reader? Has a shower of flower petals or just flowers themselves ever inspired you in your writing? Or simply made you stop and think?