That Snow White She Did Right in Her Life

Arthur Rackham

"That Snow White she did right in her life, had seven men to do the chores, 'cause that's not what a lady's for"

My ears perked up when I heard these lyrics on the radio, in Daya's single "Sit Still, Look Pretty." In fact, this song is kind of a good example of the post-feminist culture we were discussing in my last post. The song itself is Daya refusing to fit into the female stereotypes of sitting still, looking pretty, and just waiting for a man to come make her life worth something. In this interview, she says,

Q: Is "Sit Still, Look Pretty" based on any sort of personal experience of being told to do just that: Sit still and look pretty?

A: Definitely. It's also just from growing up with gender stereotypes and thinking, you know, you're not supposed to play sports, and you're supposed to dress up and wear makeup all the time. It's not as bad as it has been in the past -- and I think that's great -- but those stereotypes are definitely still there. It's important to be aware of that.

*Does anyone else find it ironic that she's doing in this photo exactly what she claims she won't?

Honestly, a part of me heard the song and thought, "this message is so overplayed." I'm kind of surprised about her statement about girls being told not to play sports. All the popular girls in my school played sports, and I felt embarrassed to be so unathletic. But of course, we should never assume that our experience is the only reality, and just because we haven't suffered a certain way doesn't mean that other people don't. I'm glad she acknowledges that things have gotten better, but are still far from perfect.

Anyway, back to the fairy tale lyrics: I'm not sure where she got the idea that Snow White had the dwarfs do the chores for her, because that's the opposite of what happens in the fairy tale, where they agree to let her live with them, if she'll do the housework (maybe it's in one of the big Snow White films that came out a few years ago that I still haven't seen?). I tried to find an interview where she talks about that specific part of the song but haven't yet.

Trina Schart Hyman

But, I think there is something significant about the use of fairy tales in this song. In songs like this, it's typical to hear fairy tales blamed for our ideas that women should just sit still, look pretty, and wait for a man; or for the idea that romance will be perfect (see Natalia Kills' "Wonderland"). I think this might be one of the few times in pop music that fairy tales are used as an example of overcoming sexism (however incorrectly) (and there's still the issue of calling housework itself a bad thing that modern women are "too good" to do, and now relegating it to men). But, progress? Maybe those feminist versions of fairy tales are finally starting to actually alter the way the public sees fairy tales?

Post-Feminist Fairy Tales

Tom Shippey has a great article titled "Transformations of the Fairy Tale in Contemporary Writing" (which can be found in A Companion to the Fairy Tale). Fairy tale scholarship itself has gone through phases-at certain points, academics have been more concerned with fairy tale origins or psychoanalysis. Around the 70s, feminism was sweeping through folklore research as well as the rest of the Western world. We still see the effects of this today in much writing about fairy tales-it's very common to hear concerns about gender representation, especially the dreaded stereotype: the passive fairy tale Princess who does nothing but sit around and wait for her prince to save her.

While some scholars have fully embraced certain methods of looking at fairy tales, some theories are more controversial. It can be easy to dismiss other claims, but Shippey has, I think, a very well rounded outlook-recognizing both the flaws and the values in various trends. Sexism in fairy tales is still a very important topic, but sometimes going too far in one direction can actually hurt your cause. I appreciated reading a male perspective that seems a little more moderate than Jack Zipes (who appears to be way more offended by female roles in fairy tales than I am).

A large part of the reason for unbalanced gender portrayals in stereotypes is simple the culture of the Victorian period that ultimately determined what we now consider to be "classic" versions of "standard" fairy tales. It was a patriarchal culture and this was reflected in the tales that were collected, told, edited, and retold. Yet, Shippey says, "Fairy tales may be transparently patriarchal, but once this is grasped they need be so no more; they can be rewritten with an entirely different, or inverted, orientation." Yet, how does one go about rewriting fairy tales in a non-patriarchal lens? It's not necessarily as simple as it might appear.

Some authors have decided to write more active heroines who play the traditional "hero" role, sometimes doing the rescuing, sometimes rejecting the Prince to show independence. Things things can be done well...they can also be done poorly, or simply too much. Shippey points out that these kinds of stories may still be just as moralistic as the Victorian ones that were meant to train young girls into being the ideal, submissive wives. The fact that it's an opposite moral doesn't take away from the fact that stories can lose their power when they become more about making a point (even a good one) than telling a good story. They come across as preachy (and can also suffer from being very unrealistic, especially when authors set feminist heroines in historical contexts without necessarily grasping the culture well).

Merida from "Brave" and Danielle (Cinderella) from "Ever After", modern weapon-weilding Princesses

The irony is that as more and more authors write feminist tales that reverse traditions, they are actually embedding those traditions in the fairy tale realm. If a princess rescues a prince, there is still a victim that needs rescuing and a hero that does it; if one gender is presented as negative and the other positive, that's still sexist, just reversing sexes.

The other ironic factor is that, by choosing the most well known passive princesses to use as the basis for a "twisted fairy tale," we are still only being exposed to those core Princess tales that tend to feature passive females, rather than exploring  other types of tales. There are countless dark or inverted versions of Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, etc. out there-yet the public still tends to think of the Grimm/Perrault versions of these tales as the "real" versions, and a twisted version as only that-not the new normal. Why not expose the public to Kate Crackernuts or Janet from Tam Lin? What about the many tales that don't involve romance or rescuing at all? What about "Snow White and Rose Red", a tale that shows sisters with very opposite personalities,but both seen in a positive light (because, just as we can't all fit into the prim, dainty, Victorian ideal woman, we can't all fit into the bold, athletic, feminist stereotype either!) There are countless wonderful folktales that have positive messages for modern culture (see Multicolored Diary for lots of examples!) while still having the timeless, "authentic" quality that most people crave who desire fairy tale entertainment.

Andrea Adams, illustration for "Kate Crackernuts"

Don't get me wrong, I love a good feminist tale and it's very important to question certain elements of old tales and reinvent them, but there can be dangers in going to the opposite extreme. Especially since it's been decades now and the feminist formulas are, frankly, getting kind of old. The first "twisted" fairy tales I read were very powerful experiences for me, and for some people, being exposed to this is still a fairly new concept.

Shippey also points out something really interesting-even among fairy tales themselves, the idea of "transforming" or "reversing" the stories already exists! "Bluebeard" and "Beauty and the Beast" are like opposite tales-"the one tale of an ideal husband who becomes a monster, and the other a tale of the monster who turns into an ideal husband." There's also Sleeping Beauty, waiting for a kiss to come back to life, verses the Beast, waiting for love to bring him back to his former life. Of course, I find it interesting that in the two contrasting examples he uses, he compares tales to "Beauty and the Beast." It's a tale that doesn't fit the traditional mold-it's essentially the story of a helpless male who needs to be rescued by a woman. (And yet, nobody gets all up in arms because this implies that males are helpless! Our very idea that a helpless woman in a story translates into "all women are innately helpless" is in itself kind of sexist...but I digress).

Another concern I have with the gender-focused approach to fairy tales is that, by being so fixated on gender and stereotypes, we're further emphasizing the divide between genders, whereas I would love to see children encouraged to relate to and empathize with characters of all kinds. In the words of Kate Bernheimer, "While I appreciate the celebration, both in scholarship and in popular culture, of the strong female characters in fairy tales, I think that, first and foremost, our devotion to fairy tales is with 'the whole of the mind' and not with our gender." Yes, it's important to realize that gender is usually a huge part of our identity, but it doesn't need to define us and our experiences, especially in negative ways.

Rebecca Guay

Shippey makes an intruiguing suggestion: "Are all female-protagonist fairy-tales, then, all versions of each other?" An interesting thing to think about, especially when you realize that there really are dozens of versions of each of the standard Princess tales. You can find versions that end unhappily, versions in which the heroine is more passive or more active, versions that combine elements from other stories-it becomes clear that fairy tales themselves aren't sending out certain "morals" or messages, unless that message is that situations play out differently for different people, in different circumstances, at different times.

And of course, there are many authors who have written feminist tales and done it very well. He spends a lot of time discussing the stories of Angela Carter, among others. It's a great article that goes into more topics than addressed here. He ends with reminding us that the future of fairy tales in this century is yet to be determined.

What do you see as the future of fairy tales in the 21st century? How should fairy tales (or really stories in general) portray genders, and what would you  like to see in terms of either reinventing the classic tales, digging into unknowns, or creating new stories?

The Chronicles of Pantouflia

I recently learned that Andrew Lang had written his own fairy tale, The Chronicles of Pantouflia. I don't believe it's very common for fairy tale collectors and writers to overlap-the Grimms never wrote original fairy tales, or other collectors such as Russia's Afanasyev, or Norway's Asbjornsen and Moe
(correct me in the comments if I'm wrong!).  And while authors such as Andersen sometimes drew from folklore, his tales were clearly his own literary version of the tale.

I was hoping that a fairy tale written by someone so familiar with the traditional folktale might be more influenced by the older tales-what might Lang's unique perspective, having collected tales from around the world, translate into his own original story?

Image

It seems to be a book that hasn't generated much interest (it doesn't even have its own wikipedia page), so who knows if I'll ever get a copy myself. You can read the summary of one plotline, Prince Prigio, here, although it seems like it's not that much different than other literary fairy tales published during the Victorian era. For example, one of the main themes is that the Queen does not believe in fairies, and Prince Prigio has to learn for himself that they exist. That in itself gives away that it isn't a timeless fairy tale, but a fantasy story. Belief is never really a theme in fairy tales-the characters hardly even react to talking animals or magical enchantments. In the story, Prigio also uses knowledge he has gained from the Arabian Nights to defeat a dragon-a humorous touch, but not quite "timeless".

Still, it would be an interesting read for a fairy tale fan-have any of you read it? What did you think?

Heinrich Lefler

In the process of putting together a recent Guest Post in which Lissa Sloan explored religious/immortal characters in fairy tales, I discovered a new-to-me fairy tale illustrator with some gorgeous images, Heinrich Lefler (1863-1919). These images seem to have such a wide variety of styles that I was inclined to doubt they were all done by the same artist (such as the two illustrations of the final scene of "Six Swans"-very different, but both attributed to Lefler). Unfortunately I had a hard time tracking down more authoritative sources than Pinterest, so if anyone knows better, please let me know in the comments! He did often work with his brother in law, Joseph Urban, so maybe that explains some of the differences. In any case, enjoy some eye candy!



Six Swans



Snow White


Andersen's "Princess and the Swineherd"


Godfather Death


Little Mermaid





Sleeping Beauty


Goose Girl


Hansel and Gretel


The Nightingale


Cinderella

From the Archives: History of Arabian Nights

It can be a lot harder to fine information on the Arabian Nights than on the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm. The following information is taken from the chapter "The Splendor of the Arabian Nights" from Jack Zipes' When Dreams Come True: Classic Fairy Tales and their Tradition.

The Arabian Nights is more unique than just another culture's collection of folktales because of its framework story: that of Scheherezade heroically saving her own life and that of countless other women by telling stories to Shahryar, the king who was so incensed by the adultery of his first wife that he took to marrying and killing a different woman each night. This framework story was modeled after a Persian book called Hazar Afsaneh, or "A Thousand Tales", translated into Arabic in the ninth century.

The individual tales themselves differ from collection to collection. The tales as we know them today are mainly taken from Persian tenth century tales with some Indian elements, tenth century tales recorded in Baghdad, and Egyptian stories written down between the tenth and twelfth centuries. But, similar to other collections of fairy tales around the world, these were probably circulated orally for hundreds of years before being written down, and afterwards have become an important influence in Western stories. The Arabian Nights were translated into French by Antoine Galland between 1704 and 1717, whose literary talents made the tales popular and eventually were translated into multiple languages, with the most famous English translation by Richard Burton (who plagarized a lot from an earlier English translation by John Payne).

Due to the Scheherezade story, the tales have clear purposes-firstly, for Scheherezade to educate and recivilize Shahryar and show him that he can regain his trust in women. Secondly, Scheherezade's sister Dunazade is also an audience member, so the tales are Scheherezade's passing down advice to her younger sister and enabling her to navigate through society. The readers themselves are the third audience, who become educated alongside Shahryar and Dunazade into values of the time and culture-justice, the importance of creativity and wit, and most of all, empowering the oppressed.

The power of story itself cannot be ignored either-through the ultimate happy ending that Scheherezade's determination brings about, as well as four other major tales that employ the same motif of people telling stories to save innocent lives.

I found this passage fascinating, as it's something I had wondered about myself: "Given the patriarchal nature of Arabic culture, it would seem strange that Scheherezade assumed the key role in the Nights. Yet, a woman exercised more power in Moslem culture during the Middle Ages in Baghdad and Cairo than is commonly known," including ultimate power over children and slaves, including children's educations, marriage, profession, and sexual initiation.

Interestingly, the title was originally One Thousand Nights, and no one knows how it became The Thousand and One Nights. Zipes speculates that it had something to do with the fact that odd numbers were considered lucky in Arabic culture. I personally find the perfectly even "one thousand" to be a little too practical, while "the thousand and one" adds a touch of whimsy and a hint of the eternal, as if no matter what the number, there's always one more to be heard the next night...(there are not literally one thousand tales in the collection. There are 42 "core" tales in Galland's translation, but apparently the complete collection of Payne's collection included nine volumes).

Illustrations by Virginia Frances Sterret

Guest Post: Lissa Sloan on God, the Devil, and Death Walk Into a Forest: Heavenly Godparents and Other Immortals

I am very pleased to bring Tales of Faerie readers a post by writer Lissa Sloan! She is one of the authors featured in Frozen Fairy Tales, with her story "Death in Winter."

(Also, it may seem like it's a little out of season by this point to still be featuring Frozen Fairy Tales but this guest post somehow got lost in the vast internet, and just recently made a harrowing journey back to my inbox. But as I initially drafted this, it was literally snowing here in Chicago, so depending where you live winter may still be lingering-or on its way, those of you in the Southern Hemisphere!)

Lissa's story involves a young mother's journey following Death in a desperate attempt to save the life of her daughter. It's well written and the protagonist is a strong, admirable character. Some of the stories in the collection have a modern feel to them; "Death in Winter" has a timeless quality to it.  In ways it feels like listening to an old folktale told by a fire, but it has some unique elements to it as well, and keeps you wondering what's going to happen next! So without further ado: Please enjoy Lissa's insights, delving further into the concept of Death and other Immortals as characters in folklore!

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God, the Devil, and Death Walk into a Forest: Heavenly Godparents and Other Immortals

 When I first began delving into fairy tales and reading more than the most familiar stories, I expected to find fantastical characters like witches, giants, trolls, and fairies. I did not, however, expect to find immortals like God, St. Peter, and the Virgin Mary. And yet, it's not at all uncommon for our hero or heroine to encounter them, like a poor man does in "Godfather Death". Desperately looking for a godfather for his child, he meets God, the Devil, and Death, who each offer to do him this service. The man rejects God, saying that he allows the poor to suffer. He likewise rejects the Devil, because, well, he's the Devil. And he accepts Death because all are equal in his eyes. The child does well with Death as a godfather. At least until, in true fairy tale fashion, he tries to push things a bit too far.

"Godfather Death," Heinrich Lefler

 Sometimes these Christian figures are in Heaven, doing heavenly sorts of things. For instance, St. Peter is often found guarding the gates, like in "The Tailor in Heaven", in which he erroneously lets an overly curious and judgmental tailor into heaven when God is out for the afternoon. But it is just as likely you will find him or the Lord down on earth, looking for directions, a place to stay, or something to eat. In fact there are many stories featuring Jesus and St. Peter just traveling around, rubbing shoulders with poor folk, rich folk, gamblers, and soldiers. Some of these stories are a bit like parables,with Jesus teaching a moral lesson. But many are silly, featuring Peter as a buffoon, trying to get away with doing less work or getting more than his share. In "How Saint Peter Lost his Hair", Peter hides a pancake under his hat so he doesn't have to share it with Jesus, but the hot pancake burns the hair off his head. Often, Jesus's response is reproving but forgiving, but other times he is as good-humored as a typical fairy tale trickster. In "Stones to Bread", Peter lugs a giant rock along the road, greedily hoping the Lord will turn it into a giant loaf of bread if there is no bread available at their destination. But there is plenty of bread, Peter has toiled all day for nothing, and Jesus has a good laugh at his expense.

 When the Virgin Mary appears in fairy tales, sometimes taking a poor girl into her care, she is more dignified. In fact, in "Our Lady's Child", she is quite austere. Her protege is caught in a lie she will not confess to, so Mary punishes her, kicking her out of her heavenly home and taking her voice. When the girl marries a king and has children, Mary appears after each birth, giving the queen a chance to confess, then taking the baby and framing her for its death when she refuses, much like the villainous mother-in-law in "The Six Swans". Only when the queen is about to be put to death and at last confesses does Mary relent.

 In "Pearl Tears" from von Schonwerth's The Turnip Princess, however, Mary is much more like a fairy godmother, helping to deliver her goddaughter Maria, and, when things turn ugly with the girl's stepmother, giving her a home in her palace. When Maria transgresses in the same way as "Our Lady's Child" (looking into a forbidden chamber), Mary does banish her, but she continues to keep an eye on her. Maria now cries pearl tears, so is able to make the best of any misfortune, and eventually Mary allows her to return to her palace and take her place caring for the poor and the sick.

 The Ferryman from "The Devil and the Three Golden Hairs," by fresh4u

My favorite immortals are the Devil and Death, perhaps because they're both so unpredictable. Like the other immortals, Death and the Devil are powerful beings, but in many ways, fairly ordinary folks. In "The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs" and "The Devil and His Grandmother", the Devil has a grandmother, who cooks, keeps house for him, scolds him for being bad-tempered, and even removes his lice when he asks her. She also takes pity on our heroes when they ask for her help, even if it means her grandson loses out on his bargain. The devil is fond of bargaining, of course, but many heroes are able to outwit him. In some stories, however, he's just looking for some help around the house, as in "The Devil's Sooty Brother", and he pays up willingly at the end of his servant's tenure, and even cuts his hair before he goes. In "Bearskin" he loses out on the soldier's soul, but is just as happy to gain the man's two jealous sisters-in-law instead. Like the Devil, Death is often a fearsome adversary, and many tricksters are forced to submit to him in the end, as the godson must in "Godfather Death". But Death can also be merciful, as in "Death and the Gooseboy". The world-weary child asks Death to take him along, and, after making sure a rich, greedy man gets his just deserts, Death agrees and takes the boy to his heavenly rest. In "Death's Messengers", he promises a man who has helped him that he will warn the man his death is imminent by sending his messengers on ahead. (Unfortunately, the man does not recognize illness or increasing weakness when they arrive, but Death has kept his promise.)

"The Soldier and Death," Darcy May

 Like the Devil, Death also finds him or herself tricked by mortals, winding up caught in magic trees, bottles, or in the case of the Russian tale "The Soldier and Death", trapped in a soldier's magic sack for years while no one on earth can die. In this tale, Death, who appears as a little old woman, is quite a pathetic figure by the end of the story.

 Immortals in fairy tales may be a little less omnipotent and omnipresent than their counterparts in other genres. They're much more fallible and down to earth, despite their power to grant wishes and mete out supernatural justice. But as the soldier from "The Solider and Death" finds out, just because he can triumph over these powerful figures doesn't mean he should. Eventually the soldier sees the flaw in his plan and must let Death out to do her job. By this time, even he is ready to die, but Death is so frightened by him after her time in the sack that she will go nowhere near him. Some of Hell's devils, too, have been in the sack and refuse to let the soldier into Hell. Denied entrance to Heaven and Hell alike and unable to die, the soldier must wander the world forever. When dealing with immortals, as in so many fairy tales, “be careful what you wish for” is always good advice.
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Thanks, Lissa! For more of her writing, be sure to visit her website! (For more on the devil in fairy tales, check out Adam's recent post at Fairy Tale Fandom on the Grimms' tale "Bearskin," which happens to complement this post perfectly!)

Multicolored Diary

Another resource you should definitely check out if you haven't already:

The Multicolored Diary, run by Hungarian storyteller Zalka Csenge Virag, is one of my essential blog reads. She has an impressive knowledge of folktales from around the world. I'll admit that my own world folklore knowledge is more limited; it can sometimes be overwhelming to open a book of completely unknown stories, and it's easier for me to read stories I know are versions of familiar fairy tales. But of course, we miss so much if we only read the tales that are considered the classics!

I'm especially loving the latest series, her A to Z Challenge on the theme of Diversity in storytelling. Contrary to popular opinion, fairy tales are not all stories of helpless damsels being rescued by sword-wielding Princes! In fact, even though you can look at typical folk tales and find reoccurring themes and patterns, the only rule is that there's bound to be exceptions to every rule. As the fairy tales we tell adapt over time to reflect the changing cultures, it's exciting to think of what can come in a world that is becoming more focus on representing minorities and celebrating diversity. Maybe the fairy tale world itself can be one of the factors to promote positive change!

So far there's been posts showing tales that portray loving stepmothers, beauty found in unconventional bodies, female heroes, and heroes and heroines with disabilities (that don't magically get fixed as the "happy ending"). I've really enjoyed reading each of the posts in the challenge so far and really look forward to the others to come!

Fairy Tale Fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology

The Storyteller

I think I had seen snippets of this collection around the internet closer to when it opened, but so often a fashion collection that claims to have a fairy tale inspiration really just means "vaguely vintage inspired" and/or "flowy layered fabrics that we have come to associate with fairies" or possibly a token red cape with other Disney-inspired color schemes. So I was excited to read more about the direct influence of fairy tale illustrators and specific fairy tales in this exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Rapunzel, Swan Maiden, Snow Queen, Red Riding Hood

From the website:
"Fairy Tale Fashion is a unique and imaginative exhibition that examines fairy tales through the lens of high fashion. In versions of numerous fairy tales by authors such as Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen, it is evident that dress is often used to symbolize a character’s transformation, vanity, power, or privilege. The importance of Cinderella’s glass slippers is widely known, for example, yet these shoes represent only a fraction of the many references to clothing in fairy tales.

"Organized by associate curator Colleen Hill, Fairy Tale Fashion features more than 80 objects placed within dramatic, fantasy-like settings designed by architect Kim Ackert. Since fairy tales are not often set in a specific time period, Fairy Tale Fashion includes garments and accessories dating from the 18th century to the present. There is a particular emphasis on extraordinary 21st-century fashions by designers such as Thom Browne, Dolce and Gabbana, Tom Ford, Giles, Mary Katrantzou, Marchesa, Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens, Prada, Rodarte, and Walter Van Beirendonck, among others.

"The exhibition’s introductory space features artwork that has played a role in shaping perceptions of a “fairy tale” aesthetic. These include illustrations by renowned early 20th-century artists such as Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, and A.H. Watson. Connections between fashion and storytelling are further emphasized by a small selection of clothing and accessories, including a clutch bag by Charlotte Olympia that resembles a leather-bound storybook."

The Little Mermaid

For those of you in New York, the exhibit is only open until April 16. However, good news for all of us-Yale University Press is releasing a book of the same title!

Book description (emphasis mine):

"Dress plays a crucial role in fairy tales, signaling the status, wealth, or vanity of particular characters, and symbolizing their transformation. Fairy tales often provide  little information beyond what is necessary to a plot, but clothing and accessories are frequently vividly described, enhancing the sense of wonder integral to the genre. Cinderella’s glass slipper is perhaps the most famous example, but it is one of many enchanted or emblematic pieces of dress that populate these tales.                                                                                                                                   
"This is the first book to examine the history, significance, and imagery of classic fairy tales through the lens of high fashion. A comprehensive introduction to the topic of fairy tales and dress is followed by a series of short essays on thirteen stories: “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Fairies,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Snow White,” “Rapunzel,” “Furrypelts,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Swan Maidens,” Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Generously illustrated, these stories are creatively and imaginatively linked to examples of clothing by Comme des Garc¸ons, Dolce and Gabbana, Charles James, and Alexander McQueen, among many others.

This sounds right up my alley, and is going on my wishlist!
(Psst-it's cheaper on Amazon)

UPDATE: For more fairy tale fashion in recent media, check out Lisa Jensen's post on the fairy tale looks just featured on Project Runway!

Michael Cunningham's A Wild Swan

I saw a copy of A Wild Swan And Other Tales by Michael Cunningham at my library and picked it up. Book summary:

A poisoned apple and a monkey's paw with the power to change fate; a girl whose extraordinarily long hair causes catastrophe; a man with one human arm and one swan's wing; and a house deep in the forest, constructed of gumdrops and gingerbread, vanilla frosting and boiled sugar. In A Wild Swan and Other Tales, the people and the talismans of lands far, far away―the mythic figures of our childhoods and the source of so much of our wonder―are transformed by Michael Cunningham into stories of sublime revelation. 
Here are the moments that our fairy tales forgot or deliberately concealed: the years after a spell is broken, the rapturous instant of a miracle unexpectedly realized, or the fate of a prince only half cured of a curse. The Beast stands ahead of you in line at the convenience store, buying smokes and a Slim Jim, his devouring smile aimed at the cashier. A malformed little man with a knack for minor acts of wizardry goes to disastrous lengths to procure a child. A loutish and lazy Jack prefers living in his mother's basement to getting a job, until the day he trades a cow for a handful of magic beans.
Reimagined by one of the most gifted storytellers of his generation, and exquisitely illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, rarely have our bedtime stories been this dark, this perverse, or this true.

To be honest, I wasn't too hopeful after reading the book's blurb. Yet another author trying to shock the audience by making fairy tales dark and perverse-by now the concept is the new cliche, yet publishers (or whoever writes book jacket blurbs) try to pass it off as new.

Yet, I really found myself enjoying the stories. Cunningham doesn't just try to twist fairy tales by throwing in extra adult themes, he seems to really understand not only many fairy tale themes, but human nature. While many of the tales are indeed dark (there is sexual content), there's a bittersweetness about them, and almost a refreshing air of truth to them. Cunningham makes minor changes to the fairy tale plots, but really explores certain traditional components. How did the witch from Hansel and Gretel end up in the forest in a candy house to begin with? What was life like for the twelfth brother who was left with one arm and one wing?

The stories are set in a modern world, but a world in which being touched by magic is nothing out of the ordinary. While bringing into question certain aspects of fairy tales (why does the giant's wife allow Jack to steal from them-three times?), he also manages to ground fairy tale plots and characters in actual life, and makes them seem very realistic. The motivations behind crazy fairy tale plots are actually motivations behind people we encounter in life. In all, the writing is very well done, and thought provoking. Even the stories that weren't my favorite would still provide interesting discussions. The stories themselves aren't super long, so it's a great book for busy people to tackle.

Also, isn't Yuko Shimizu's art provokative yet beautiful? (There are more images I would have liked to add, but they aren't necessarily safe for work...) If you look at the cover art at the top, not only are the words formed out of braided hair, but if you look at the background, there's an image of a swan there.

Visualizing Wonder: Fairy Tales and TV

I just added another link to the Tales of Faerie homepage I wanted to highlight in case you weren't already familiar with it! Visualizing Wonder: Fairy Tales and TV: A Database has some really interesting articles on the history of how fairy tales have been portrayed in the media. I've really enjoyed their series on looking at television commercials through the decades:

2010s
2000s
1990s
1980s
1970s
1960s
1950s

Other highlights:
-Weight-Watching Fairy Tales looks at body image issues and modern versions of fairy tales
-Lots of discussion on OUAT and Grimm
-Their sister site is The International Fairy Tale Filmography, an online database of films with fairy tale themes

They most recently posted this really well done ad for the Guardian, worth a watch: