Take the film Frozen again for a moment (yes, I’ve seen it a few times). The irony of Princess Elsa’s chart-topping song “Let It Go” is that she is singing about her choice to exercise her power to be free, while (please notice) she is locking herself inside an ice prison of her own making! She sings, “I’m free!” while ensuring that she won’t be. From Frozen to Pinocchio, autonomy can’t break the curse. It only ends up imprisoning you in the labyrinth of your constantly shifting desires. And so the poet W. H. Auden wrote: Each in the cell of himself Is almost convinced of his freedom.
