A.S. Byatt on love in fairy tales

What do we read them for, and how do we read them? We read for the telling, for the “and then he … and then she … and so it turned out …” as far as “they lived happily ever after”, which takes the story out of the time of the telling. Aristotle said you could have tragedy without character; he was right – and we can also have stories without character or feeling. Maria Tatar, the Harvard expert on children’s literature, feels that children read such tales typically by siting themselves in the world of the tales as fascinated onlookers or audiences, not as part of the closed world of the story. Reading in this way is a particular and necessary pleasure, quite different from reading for instruction, or identification with feeling.

From the remarkably good fairy tales series at the Guardian UK.

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Read this interview

Kate Bernheimer is (a) the founder and editor of the Fairy Tale Review (a journal devoted to new fairy tales), and (b) a bang-up author. She’s just given a terrific intereview over here, and you’d be remiss not to read it.

A juicy excerpt:

…[M]eanness is a very important trope in many of the fairy tales that fascinate me. It’s true that while American popular culture has canonized female fairy-tale characters with hearts of gold, in fact the “main characters” of fairy tales are extremely varied: as many stupid, clumsy, boring, mean, ugly, plain, deficient, weird, pathetic, and sad characters as there are “good” ones. So actually, the “main characters” of many fairy tales are cruel.

Read the whole interview.

Brought to you by the lovely and talented Gypsy Thornton over at Fairy Tale News.

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Congratulations, Ariel!

Kate Wolford over at Diamonds and Toads is launching a journal devoted to original fairy tales. It’s called Enchanted Conversation and you may remember I posted a link to her call for submissions a few months ago.

Awesomely, Ariel Woodruff, graduate of the summer 2009 Intro to Writing Fairy Tales class, now has a piece in the inaugural issue! The theme is Sleeping Beauty, and I have every confidence that Ariel’s story will surprise and delight us all.

Congratulations, Ariel! I’m super proud of you. xo!

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Granny O’Grimm

Bedtime stories just got a little creepier and a lot funnier thanks to Granny O’Grimm, who gives the auld tales her own special twist.

The Granny O’Grimm site is pretty sweet, just brimming with games, downloads, and random frippery.

Thanks to SurLaLune!

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Alice in…Bomberland?

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Nothing to do with fairy tales: Love Cake

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Student faves: Bearskin

I’d never read this one before, and was delighted by it! It showcases two of my favorite motifs: animal transformation and beating the Devil.

THERE was once a young fellow who enlisted as a soldier, conducted himself bravely, and was always the foremost when it rained bullets. So long as the war lasted, all went well, but when peace was made, he received his dismissal, and the captain said he might go where he liked. His parents were dead, and he had no longer a home, so he went to his brothers and begged them to take him in, and keep him until war broke out again. The brothers, however, were hard-hearted and said, “What can we do with thee? thou art of no use to us; go and make a living for thyself.” The soldier had nothing left but his gun; he took that on his shoulder, and went forth into the world. He came to a wide heath, on which nothing was to be seen but a circle of trees; under these he sat sorrowfully down, and began to think over his fate. “I have no money,” thought he, “I have learnt no trade but that of fighting, and now that they have made peace they don’t want me any longer; so I see beforehand that I shall have to starve.” All at once he heard a rustling, and when he looked round, a strange man stood before him, who wore a green coat and looked right stately, but had a hideous cloven foot.

Read the rest of the story

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Student faves: Vasilisa the Beautiful

In a far off Tzardom, there lived a little girl who was so lovely that she was known as Vasilisa the beautiful.

When Vasilisa was eight years old her mother became ill and no doctor could cure her. Just before she died, she called Vasilisa to her bedside and told her:

‘My dearest Vasilisa, do not weep for me, but listen carefully to my words. I am leaving you this little wooden doll, which my own mother left me; you must never show it to anyone. Always carry it with you wherever you go. It will help you whenever you are in trouble and comfort you when you have no one to turn to. When you need help, go somewhere quiet and give it something to eat and it will tell you what to do.’

Blinking back her tears, Vasilisa took the little wooden doll, received her mother’s blessing and kissed her for the last time.

Read the rest of the story

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Fave student stories: Kate Crackernuts

It’s that time again! The Intro to Fairy Tales students are sending me their favorite stories, and I’m delighted to share them with you.

Once upon a time there was a king and a queen, as in many lands have been. The king had a daughter, Anne, and the queen had one named Kate, but Anne was far bonnier than the queen’s daughter, though they loved one another like real sisters. The queen was jealous of the king’s daughter being bonnier than her own, and cast about to spoil her beauty. So she took counsel of the henwife, who told her to send the lassie to her next morning fasting.

So next morning early, the queen said to Anne, “Go, my dear, to the henwife in the glen, and ask her for some eggs.” So Anne set out, but as she passed through the kitchen she saw a crust, and she took and munched it as she went along.

When she came to the henwife’s she asked for eggs, as she had been told to do; the henwife said to her, “Lift the lid off that pot there and see.” The lassie did so, but nothing happened. “Go home to your minnie and tell her to keep her larder door better locked,” said the henwife. So she went home to the queen and told her what the henwife had said. The queen knew from this that the lassie had had something to eat, so watched the next morning and sent her away fasting; but the princess saw some country-folk picking peas by the roadside, and being very kind she spoke to them and took a handful of the peas, which she ate by the way.

Read the rest of the story

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RIP Jim Carroll

Punk poet Jim Carroll reads. Embedding was disabled, so you’ll have to click to see it.

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