Arabian Nights Series Part 2: Burton Vs Lyons Translation Throwdown

(Written by Timeless Tales Magazine Editor Tahlia Merrill Kirk)

This is Part 2 of a series about reading Tales of 1001 Nights. To start at the beginning of the series, click HERE.


Your Arabian Nights Quote of the Day:

I asked an old man walking with his beard down to his knees: “Why are you so bent?” He waved his hands at me. “My youth was lost on the ground,” he said, “And I am bending down to look for it.

- Malcolm C. Lyons. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1. Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

Lyons' 2008 Translation

Since the complete unabridged Arabian Nights is around 2,600 pages (the notoriously long War and Peace is only around 1,225 pages), the circle of people who have read the entire thing is relatively small. But there’s always one question that pops ups first when you meet the rare member of this club: What translation are you reading?


For a long time, there was only one option if you wanted a complete unabridged translation. There are dozens of partial or abridged compilations, many heavily edited to take out the sexual content and insert Christian morals. The first to successfully tackle the entire collection was Sir Richard Francis Burton. His 1885 edition stood alone in this category for over a hundred years until Malcolm C. and Ursula Lyons published their Penguin Classic edition in 2008. Considering how long it takes to simply read the full collection, can you imagine being the person who painstakingly converts each page from Arabic to English? The thought blows my mind.

Photograph by Rischgitz/Getty Images

Burton’s version is beloved for its grandiose language and extensive footnotes that provide insight into Middle Eastern culture. He deliberately crafted his writing style to evoke epic literature by Medieval and Elizabethan writers like Chaucer and Shakespeare. But perhaps what Burton fans admire most about his work is its authenticity. All those footnotes came about during his many years living in the Middle East, so much of his research stems from firsthand accounts.
It’s impossible not to indulge in a small detour about the colorful character of Burton himself. His thirst for adventure led him into plenty of dangerous situations. He infamously disguised himself as a Muslim to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, going so far as to become circumcised to avoid discovery. He was once on an expedition that got attacked by Somali warriors and survived being impaled by a javelin through both cheeks. He immersed himself in every culture he visited and mastered over 26 languages. This larger than life legacy undoubtedly contributes to the continuing popularity of his books. There’s something extra exciting about reading a version of Arabian Nights knowing that the author was a real life Indiana Jones.
And after all that buildup, I will now break the news that Ron did not read Burton’s translation. He read the newer Lyons’ version. Sure, Malcolm and Ursula don’t have any stories on their Wikipedia page about being chased out of town on horseback by 300 soldiers--wait, let's give them the benefit of the doubt--I'll fact check that before I make such a broad generalization…
Guys, neither Ursula nor Malcolm have a Wikipedia page. This is tragic! And makes for boring blogging! Their Goodreads pages lead me to believe that The Arabian Nights is probably their lives’ magnum opus. I'll just imagine some amazing romance that brought this couple together in their joint quest to rebirth this great epic book…


Okay, joking aside, the Lyons version of Arabian Nights actually has a lot going for it. Think of Burton’s version as the King James Version of the Bible and the Lyons’ translation as NIV. Lots of people love KJV for its beautiful evocative language that is steeped in tradition and history. But others prefer NIV for being straightforward and easier to understand. It’s the same with Arabian Nights. Burton has a tendency towards rambling and flowery language, using “thee”s and “thou”s to evoke an archaic tone. He deliberately chooses obscure words, using Latin whenever the chance arises. My incredibly well read friend Adam enthused about how many new words he learned from Burton’s text. Constantly googling words is fun for some, but cumbersome for others. The Lyons, on the other hand, take a more grounded approach. They aim for clarity and a smooth effortless reading experience. You’ll never lose the train of thought or get exhausted after reading one tale. Some might argue that the Lyons version lacks pizzazz, but others would say that they allow the words to speak for themselves. 

If you want a more detailed comparison The Guardian wrote this amazing post about the two editions. It even has two side-by-side examples of how drastically different they are. 

If anyone knows how to get in touch with the Lyons, I would love to interview them about the translation process and what their goals were in creating this new edition. 


For those who are interested, here's a link to the Penguin Classics Volume 1-3 that Ron read: https://www.amazon.com/Arabian-Nights-Tales-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449388


Next up in this blog series: Is Arabian Nights Super Sexist? Stay tuned!

First Impressions of 1001 Tales of Arabian Nights

(Written by Tahlia Merrill Kirk, editor of Timeless Tales Magazine)

A few years ago, my husband Ron delighted me with the news that he had started reading Tales of 1,001 Nights (aka Arabian Nights) on his Kindle.

“This is great!” I squeed. “I’ve never read it, so you can tell me all about it as you go!”

I suppose I should be at least a tad embarrassed that I have zero desire to read the entirety of Arabian Nights, but have you seen the SIZE of it?! There are three volumes. All combined, they add up to a staggering 2600 pages. There isn’t even a Sparknotes available for it, that’s how big it is. So I ignore the mournful wails of my English degree--secondhand reading is good enough for me on this one.


It took him almost 5 years to get through it all (taking breaks to read other books, of course), but this week, he finally finished. Since I immediately knew that I wanted to turn this experience into a blog post, I made sure that Ron filled me in about all the interesting parts of the stories. I even had him send me relevant/funny quotes as he went.


I started writing this as one post, but there is too much to say, so we’re going to make a whole series out of it! Here are a few topics I want to cover (Let me know if there's something you really want me to discuss):

1. Which Translation Did Ron Read? (I promise it won't be as boring as it sounds)

2. Is Arabian Nights Sexist? 

3. Is Arabian Nights Sexy? 

4. How Does Aladdin Fit Into Arabian Nights?

5. Djinn and Their Kind (or not-so-kind...hehe)

6. Religion in Arabian Nights

7. The Arabian Nights Board Game

8. Doughnuts (Nope, won’t explain. Saving the best for last)


In the meantime, here’s a funny mini-tale to give you a taste of how great these stories are:

My master the sultan, here is my most remarkable experience during my time in office. I had ten thieves hanged, each on a gibbet of his own, and I told the guards to watch to see that nobody removed any of the corpses. The next day, when I came to look at them, I found two corpses hanging from the same gibbet.

‘Who has done this,’ I asked the guards, ‘and where is the gibbet belonging to this second corpse?’

They disclaimed any knowledge of the affair, but when I was about to have them flogged, they said: ‘We fell asleep last night, emir, and when we woke up we found that one of the corpses, together with its gibbet, had been stolen. We were afraid, and when we saw a passing peasant coming up towards us with his donkey, we seized him, killed him and hanged him on this gibbet in place of the corpse that had been removed.’

I was taken by surprise and asked them what the peasant had had with him. They told me that he had had a saddlebag on his donkey, and when I asked what was in it they said that they didn’t know.

‘Bring it to me,’ I told them, and when they did, I ordered them to open it. There inside it was the body of a murdered man cut into pieces. I was astonished at this sight and said to myself: ‘Glory be to God. The reason that this peasant was hanged was that he was guilty of murder, and God does not treat His servants unjustly.’

Malcolm C. Lyons. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2 (The Arabian Nights or Tales from 1001 Nights) (pp. 107-108). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

"Rejected Princesses" Book Coming October 25th

Well-behaved women seldom make history.  

Rejected Princesses celebrates those who did.  

Part art project, part standup routine, part book report, this site imagines what if we made animated musicals about the women of history and myth who refused to behave. Rejected Princesses is not for kids. Unless your kid is awesome.

Jason Porath, a one-time special effects animator for Dreamworks Animation, has been working on this unique project for quite some time now. He's been assembling a collection of stories for strong women of history who, although deserving of recognition, will never (likely) receive the title of "princess". He also created illustrations for each character are created in a style reminiscent of popular animation, just to underline the fact that these are alternate role models (of sorts) that won't ever have a family animated movie made about them.

Asked in an interview how Porath got the idea for the project, this was his answer:

The origin of this came from a lunchtime conversation at my old workplace. There was an article going around about how the Frozen princesses weren’t good role models, and I asked, “well, we can SURELY do worse than them — who is the least likely candidate for an animated princess you can think of?” I asked it on my Facebook shortly thereafter, and got around 150 replies from my friends. I hastily sketched a couple as jokes — Elizabeth Bathory, an early version of Lolita, and weirdly enough, Charybdis — but kept in my head that I wanted to do more full-fledged pieces when I got the time. 

In quick order, as suggestions flooded in, it grew from being a list of hysterically poor fits (like Lolita and Beloved) to being fascinating women from history and mythology. I am a huge lover of the obscure, rare, and weird – I’m also a feminist, so the two interests collide with this series. Lastly, I’m a total information junkie, one of those people who gets lost in Wikipedia very easily. This is a rabbit hole I’ve tumbled down and have yet to see the bottom.

And now his wonderful collection of passed-over women of history will be in a book. You may wonder where the word "rejected" came in, though. Who's rejecting these women?!

From Porath's website:

Did they actually get rejected? Did you pitch these ideas? 

Nope, but I think we can assume that nobody’s going to want to do kids’ movies about a lot of these people. They’re either way too awesome, way too awful, or way too weird. For a much longer explanation of why “Rejected,” here is a more in-depth explanation.

We recommend reading the more in-depth explanation, linked above. It explains the context, how these princesses are different and the very difficult circumstances that make creating more diverse "princess" movies a huge challenge. Importantly, it also explains how Porath is not against animation studios or playing a blame game. Instead, he's taken the opportunity in being his own boss to spend time producing something both important to him, as well as something that would have very little chance of seeing a box office, due to the aforementioned studio realities.

You will find uncompromising language and less then family-friendly situations discussed among these stories but don't let that deter you. Porath has good reason and has even set up and area on his website to encourage lesson plans for children that take what he is presenting and make it more G-rated for education.

This project is entirely about not bowdlerizing powerful and difficult stories. I absolutely refuse to tone these stories down, or to write in a voice that is not my own.

But I could 

use your work for teaching, if you just didn’t cuss. 

I understand that, but I strongly feel the original, base version of these entries should remain uncensored. That said, in the future I would like to make a version that is more all-ages friendly for just such a purpose – however, I’m not able to give it much attention at present. If you have such an inclination, however, feel free to clean up any of my work, send it to me, and I’ll post it online for all to use.

You may have realized at this point that fairy tales aren't going to be the priority here, but that doesn't mean that they, and myths, legends and wonder tales, aren't related. In fact, every image shown in this post shows a  woman connected to a folktale, fairy tale, myth or legend of some kind - and this isn't the whole collection of women that are (we didn't have room!).

Beyond that, historically based magic and wonder tales make good fodder for new fairy tales. It's something to think about - and be empowered by.

To finish up, here is just one of the complete stories for the "rejected princess" shown below, giving you a fair idea of how the stories are written and presented, not to mention how fascinating they are, as well as portals to a very different - and educational - rabbit hole.

We applaud Jason Porath for encouraging us to fall down it.

Iara - Brazil's Lady of the Lake

Summary

• Morality: Mixed
• Personality: Martial
• Rating: PG
• Source: Myth
• Story: Up-and-Down

Maybe you’re familiar with mermaids as lovesick sea dwellers who just can’t get enough of hunky air-breathers. Maybe you have even read the unsanitized versions of said stories that, say, feature the besotted protagonist essentially stabbing herself repeatedly so the handsome prince will like her. (spoiler: does not work, do not emulate)

Well, the story of the Brazilian mermaid Iara is nothing like that.Iara was the pride of her Amazon-dwelling tribe. The daughter of the group’s spiritual leader, Iara grew to be the best warrior of them all — courageous, kind, strong, and (as I’m finding every single story ever written about women feels inclined to mention) beautiful. In short: she was hot shit, and everyone liked her.Everyone, that is, save her two brothers, whom she overshadowed by virtue of being far more awesome. Upset by this, they decided to solve their problem with mankind’s traditional go-to solution: murder. The only catch was, they knew they couldn’t take her, even two-on-one. So they waited until she was asleep, reasoning that two alert soldiers would be stronger than one unconscious one.They were incorrect. As soon as they got near her, she jolted awake and killed them both in self defense. Hell, she might have still been half-asleep.Afterwards, her father, unaware that his sons had tried to kill her first, and apparently deaf to her cries of “they started it,” led the rest of the tribe on a hunt for her. Although she eluded them for quite some time, eventually they caught up to her and tossed her into a nearby river, where she drowned. Bummer.But even underwater (and dead), she was still making friends! The fish there thought she was pretty cool, so they transformed her into a half-fish, half-human person — the first of an entire branch of river-dwelling mermaids called Iara. When men chanced upon Iara, usually in the afternoon, they would be so overcome by her beauty (or singing voice) that even if they somehow managed to escape, they would literally go insane. What happens if they didn’t escape changes from telling to telling. In some versions, the Iara would drown, and even eat them. In others, they would join her little aquatic harem, and she’d treat them pretty well! Life could suck more.The legends are unclear about what happens if a woman chances upon Iara. Presumably, a curt head nod.

"Frozen" Writer Robert Lopez Reimagines 1001 Nights for Kids Off-Broadway

1001 nights: A Love Story About Loving Stories is a new family musical adaptation of Arabian Nights and it looks like a LOT of fun. The Atlantic for Kids Season 2016-2017 opened on September 17 Off Broadway to rave reviews and features music and lyrics by Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winner Robert Lopez (who co-wrote the music for Disney's Frozen). Lopez also co-wrote the book with Adam Koplan and Koplan directs.

Here's the description:

In this celebration of brainy imagination over brawn, a princess uses her wits to save a kingdom from an evil decree as she spins tale after tale for a narrow-minded king. Featuring genies, jesters, 40 thieves and other captivating characters, the princess’s cliffhanger stories keep the king - and audiences - on the edge of their seats. This playful adaptation of the Arabian Nights fairy tales is recommended for ages six and up. 

1001 Nights was first conceived in 1998 by Emmy, Grammy, Academy, and Tony Award winner Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, Frozen) and Adam Koplan, artistic director of Flying Carpet Theatre Company. This newly reimagined production features early songs by Lopez and is directed by Koplan with puppet direction by Jon Ludwig, artistic director of the Center for Puppetry Arts. All the puppets were designed by the Center’s resident puppet builder Jason von Hinezmeyer and built by the talented crew in the Center’s puppet building shop.

Robert Lopez originally wrote the music for 1001 Nights at age 23, for his first show out of college, staged by The Flying Carpet Theater Company. For this new production, Lopez wrote an additional new song to expand the show.

A very complimentary and fun review in the New York Times gives you an idea of the stories covered and the approach to, what are initially very scary ideas (ie a man in power killing his new wives every night):

Mr. Koplan has nimbly directed the 70-minute production, which frames the grim premise in a nonscary way: Sherry, a contemporary girl played by the spirited Caitlin Donohue, transforms herself into Scheherazade as she realtes the adventure to her stuffed animals. The toys also morph - into big fuzzy puppets that jmight have sneaked out of "Avenue Q". (They're just as smart-alecky, but G-rated.) The show also uses clever hand puppets - Matt Acheson is credited for puppet direction - to ecplain the king's vow to wed every day and put each bride to death within 24 hours: His first wife betrayed him. 

Portrayed by PJ Adzima, who may remind you of a younger Neil Patrick Harris, this monarch is fundamentally a big baby. (Aren't all tyrants?) He holds his red blankie as Scheherazade beguiles him with "The Fisherman and the Genie," "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" and the lesser-known romance of Prince Budur and Princess Qamar. The king and Scheherazade enact tales, along with the puppets and the Atlantic's terrific young ensemble. I's hard to say what's funnier: the many rhyming jokes or the stage business, which includes an "Open Sesame," "Shut Sesame" routine that's like "Who's On First" in ancient Arabia.

You can read the rest of the review HERE.

Here's a sneak peek of the current show, from behind the scenes with the writers of the show explaining different aspects... to the puppet performers:

We like the part about the power of stories, what they mean to us and how they change us, along with the idea of empowerment through words. It's such great material to introduce kids to, we wonder why we're not swimming in productions of Arabian Nights for kids. (There are a couple that come into circulation every few years, often puppets but also live stage shows to live-puppet hybrids, but they tend to be smaller companies and fairly local, which is a shame as the artistry in design, acting, music and puppeteering seems, across the board, to be enchanting. You can get a glimpse at a lovely one HERE.)

Here's the original trailer which shows more of the actual show and gives you an idea of the writing and a little of the music as well:

If this show travels, by flying carpet or not, there's a few children we'd be very happy to take to see this!

1001 Nights: A Love Story About Loving Stories, plays through October 16, 2016 at the Linda Gross Theater in Chelsea, NY.

Note: Some of these images were from earlier productions of Lopez's 1001 Nights but we thought they represented the show well at a glance, so included them.

One Upon A Time Opener Adds Refugees from The Land of Untold Stories

"Nothing is more dangerous than an untold story..." 

So begins the 6th season of Once Upon A Time. And we truly hope this is a promise and not just a catch phrase (though it appears it's going to take a few episodes to get to the 'untolds' in question #wevoteCinderellastepfamily).

In this season Storybrooke will be "invaded" by "The Land of Untold Stories", where characters from the series have discovered that "there are more stories and tales out there than we ever dreamed..". (Note: while this was the teaser, the first episode treated inhabitants from this land more like refugees, given blankets after surviving the crashed dirigible.) Our optimistic hearts leapt at the thought that perhaps the producers and writers were finally open to delving into the myriad fairy tales (and myths and legends) from around the world. Where the lands of Storybrooke and other realms of Once Upon A Time had seemed limited and going in circles, it seemed there was finally the possibility of developing and exploring the hundreds and thousands of unexplored tales. Our optimism was abruptly bridled on reading the cast from the series had expressed thoughts that it "seems like we're running out of tales" at ComiCon, even though they hastened to add, "but of course that would never happen". 

It's a strange dichotomy: the series becoming open to "the land of untold stories" and delving into 1001 nights of Scheherazade's stories, while the show seems to be struggling with finding tales to tell. They're also making sure to mention that they're going "back to basics" with this season so the hope is that rather than just watching another version of having the reset button hit, that any first season story lines that are revisited will be explored in greater (and we hope, fairy tale related) depth. We do know Cinderella is set to return (although living in Storybrooke this whole time, we really haven't seen, if nay of her), but this time we'll see more of her stepmother and stepsisters as well. Since Cinderella has already been given her "happily ever after" (she was Emma's first success story, which, in part, led her to stay on in the town) we're curious to see if this will be dismantled and redefined or if indeed the show is taking a serious look at what "happily ever after" really means.

Meanwhile, the season opener on Sunday reported boosted ratings, due to the expectation of Aladdin, Jasmine and flying carpets, further exploration of the Disney version of the Beauty and the Beast story, along with a resurgence of the Wicked Queen persona. It probably helps that the budget seems to have had a boost as well. (Cue full sized dirigible set/prop piece #piratescaribbeanleftovers? and decent 3D animation for its appearance.) Though the special effects continue to be less than stellar from time to time, (#oraclebirdredeye) the production values are better and the sets, props vehicles and costumes seem to have noticeably improved (or the photography of those has improved - either way - things look better overall than they did).

The Belle-Rumpel story line (we left Belle pregnant and in an enchanted sleep at the end of last season) has its usual complications, though, without spoiling too much, it was refreshing to see "dream Belle" resist falling into her old ways with Rumpel. Children give you strength to do the most difficult things, which it seems will be a theme that will be explored in this season. And hers isn't the only baby around. Zelena (the Wicked Witch and sister of Regina/Evil Queen) has a baby too. But we're wishing on stars that isn't the only role these children will fill. With so much fairy and fairy tale lore surrounding births and babies, we sincerely hope the writers will be exploring some of these aspects as well, rather than just having infants complicate a situation (not to mention there is potential for both children to be "magical" given their parentage). Pregnancy, birth, infants and new motherhood in fairy tales is a fairy new area being explored in depth in fairy tale scholarship and, along with related fairy lore, there's so much potential for furthering fairy tales here.

Regarding the plot for the opener, not a lot happened, (other than the set up for which certain moments were included) so there's not much, if anything to truly spoil. Things should begin to develop in the next episode though, so we have eyes-on to see if any of these potential threads are followed.

The preceding hour recap of the series and introduction to season 6 with Kitsis and Horowitz 'answering questions', was much more intriguing. Things often take a long time to happen on the show just due to the enormous amounts of conversations and discussions so extracting the moments of magic and the touchstones for different characters and putting them together for discussion and review is interesting. While we understand the "drama" aspect appeals to many of the viewers, we find it often gets in the way of the storytelling, especially when retelling various fairy tales which tend toward flatness and are spare on unnecessary details. Highlights remind us that there have been many different explorations of tales of the show that are worth attention, and often work to bring different themes and threads into clearer focus as well. 

In the recap, there was a discussion of Easter eggs from the final episode of last season, confirming possible characters and classics that would appear this season. Agrabah folk, which have been the main teasers before the season premiere, Victorian London, which we already saw with Hyde, along with Paul Bunyan and other clues. There were also many mentions of fairy tale motifs and moments that were presented differently, which are interesting to reflect on. The exploration - and promise of exploration - of Snow White's character is something the teasers have pushed during the hiatus but the story that started it all (Snow White and Charming) has been "background soap" for the last few seasons, confirming for us that many writers are a little lost in trying to find "the magic in marriage" and make it "exciting TV". That they're promising to bring it front and center again is interesting (and we could suggest some great  tales for them to use to do that) but without the threat of terrible things (and Stockholm syndrome) as shown in the Belle/Rumpel dynamic, making it the equivalent of a train wreck you can't look away from, Snow and Charming are likely to have to deal with something extreme to bring back the fan-obsession. We have to wonder if part of the problem isn't to do with the lack of Charming's own mythic story. Although he's been given interesting background, matching the level and strength of a Snow White myth is a tough call, and for Snow to be wedded (literally) to a weaker arc, has the result of making her appear weak too. If that turns around to indeed become central again (and hit those' epic fairy tale' heights), it might make all the difference. We choose to cheer them on toward this goal.

A last aside: among the various questions asked of the creators, one random one was: "If Henry is the Author, who is the Illustrator?" We weren't happy with the lack of acknowledgement of the people who create the visuals - including those of the Once Upon A Time book, and the reply that the magic pen gave the Author powers of illustration as well was a blatant cop-out. It was also a missed opportunity for expanding the OUAT mythos. Given this is a visual information age, and that fairy tale illustrations have been key in keeping fairy tales alive in our time, not to mention that illustrations are a unique way of relating fairy tales and stories and a completely different skill set from writing, we felt let down by the lack of understanding here.

On a pro note: we were told very specifically that Dopey, who was turned into a tree some time back and has generally been forgotten about, will make a return appearance and fill in the gaps in relation to that story as well. We haven't had tree-related stories for a while (though the Merlin story line made use of one) and they were a key foundation, with Regina's apple tree in the first few episodes helping set the tone, twists and mythology for the series, and there's so much tree lore in fairy tales, it's a rich mine to pull from. We hope this will be a wonderful addition.

From Jennifer Morrison, who plays Emma, Snow White & Prince Charming's child and the Savior of Storybrooke:

"It's also showing that it's a return to returning to happy endings. The original concept of the storytelling of Once Upon a Time was that we were going to restore the happy endings," Jennifer explained. "So as we look at our characters in more depth and sort of introspectively deal with some of their baggage and all of the things that have happened over the last six years, they're also returning to the identity that they have. As the heroes, they're going to help save these happy endings." (source)

Bonus OUAT Season 6 Opener Drinking game:

(created by our Once Upon A Blog newsroom team)

Do a shot:

- every time you hear the word "story" in episode 1 

- every time you hear refrains from Beauty and the Beast 

- every time you hear the word "Savior" 

- every time Emma does her "anguished" face

Enjoy your OUAT hangover! 

Fairy Tale Bonus of the Day (or at least a OUAT bonus):

In case you haven't been keeping up with the OUAT buzz over the Summer, there are reports that for two episodes and once story arc, Princess Leia (yes, Star Wars Leia), will be, not only making an appearance but add some twists to the twisted family tree of the Once characters. I'll just include extracts as taken from an interview with the creators earlier this year after the jump:

✑  ✑  ✑  ✑  ✑  ♛ (click the "Read more" link below this line) ♛  ✑  ✑  ✑  ✑  ✑

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Artists & illustrators (past & present)

• Coco Miles, a props and sculpture artist, has fairy tale pieces in her portfolio, including Baba Yaga and Rumpelstiltskin.

• "Jack and Jill Return to the Hill" A too-late entry to the Sci-Fi Fairy Tales contest held by Super Punch during December 2009. This entry came with a complete story about Jack and Jill in a sci-fi context too. See link for a summary.

• Little Red vs Wolves - LOTS of wolves! by woohyun Nam. see more of his work at the link.

• Belarus beautiful fairy tale coins - Fairy tale designs include The Stone Flower, The Twelve Months, The Nutcracker, Turandot, Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Thousand and One Nights, Symon the Musician. Simply gorgeous!

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fairy tales in performance arts

• Do the tales of the Arabian Nights have resonance for audiences today? (Article by Marina Warner on the Royal Shakespeare's Company production of Arabian Nights and the resonance of the tales with people today [via The Fairy Tale Cupboard] )

• Beauty & the Beast theatrical production with audience participation. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)

• Korea National Ballet's Cinderella (Jan 29 to 31, 2010, Seoul Arts Center) is more dynamic than the traditional presentation and offers unique touches, twists and theater craft (eg Cinderella's mother and father are both shown in a touching relationship at the start before the mother dies and returns as a fairy-in-a-corset to look after Cindy the rest of the story; Cinderella is barefoot for most of the performance - including for the ball, in which her feet are dipped in a sparkling sequin dust; etc)

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