Article: Fairy Tales Or Scary Tales?

Mystic Tales (Sehirli Naghillar) published by Tutu Publishing House

From The Globe and Mail: Fairy tales or scary tales: Should we sanitize stories for our kids?

I'm getting pretty tired of these types of articles. This one only addresses children being read and exposed to fairy tales rather than all the various ways society has used them through history so I'll stick with the kid angle in this post too.

This one appears to have done some research but although it's well written, really the writer is just regurgitating quotes used elsewhere to support a point of view, which is fine and valid except that it isn't really presented as a single writer's point of view. It's presented more as an issue brought about by research. While it quotes Professor Zipes a number of times the aim is always to get back to the sensational rather than consider what he was actually saying. And that's a large part of the problem. It's not about the fairy tales at all really. Nor is it about the children, despite what people think they're discussing. It's about making people feel like "responsible parents" if they can apparently think more intelligently than their predecessors and band such horrible things from scarring their children. Like they apparently were.

I have to honestly wonder if the writers of these articles (there are a rash of them at the moment) remember what it was like to be a child. I wouldn't have survived without fairy tales but even if I was unique in that regard (which I know I'm not but let's just say for the sake of argument I was an anomaly among the children of the world), I'd rather my kid pick up a book of fairy tales with all the gore intact than watch or hear the nightly news. That's far more frightening and has nothing to offer but fear, encouraging you to worry about things you have no control over and are largely being speculated about at best (break down any local news and you'll find the factual content is actually quite light). One thing fairy tales do for children is take away uncertainty. They're pretty clear about what happens to whom and why. To have these "definites", these boundaries, is actually very comforting for a child. Uncertainty makes for instability and adults cause enough of that even without meaning to.

You should be familiar with the article in case anyone holds it up to you and starts using quotes. Just be aware of what's really being said.

You can read the two pages HERE. It comes with bonus summaries of the original classic gory stories of Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the not-included-in-the-Grimm's-collection tale of How Some Children Played At Butchering. Classic.

To give you something positive to read to balance this out, the illustrations in the post are from a fairy tale book published in Azerbaijan in 2004 with illustrations by Nusrat Hajiyev.



From the article on Azerbaijan International, about the book:

Fairy tale books have always been very popular in Azerbaijan. Even during Soviet times when thousands of books were published each year, such books, even those of lowest quality were in high demand, according to Tarlan. Even when other books remained on the shelves, fairy tales sold quite easily since folklore is an integral part of life. Every child grows up listening to fairy tales told by their mothers and grandmothers. 

"Our aim was to publish the most monumental book ever produced about Azerbaijani fairy tales," said Tarlan, when describing his vision for the book. "That's why we decided not to rush this job." Indeed, it ended up taking one year to select, rewrite and edit the 12 tales, and two more years to create the art work and design the book. 

"Since there are so many fairy tales in Azerbaijan, we knew we couldn't publish all of them," said Tarlan. "That's why we decided to concentrate on 'mystic tales', which are full of supernatural elements, including divs (monsters). 

That's when they consulted Maharram Gasimli, Director of the Literature and Folklore Department at the Academy of Sciences, along with Ilham Rahimli and Zeynal Mammadli. Most of these Azerbaijani fairy tales had been collected during the 1920s and 1930s. Unfortunately, during that period, personal tape recorders did not exist that would have guaranteed the authenticity of the tales. Folklorists were sent off on expeditions to remote areas to collect the tales. However, their methodology was dubious. They knew that they would be paid according to the quantity of pages they produced so there's no wonder that they lent a hand to enhance and expand the stories themselves. On other occasions, some of the tales were modified or censored because they did not fit the strict guidelines of Soviet ideology, in terms of Socialist Realism where contentment was supposed to have spread throughout the land.Of course, the original version of such stories can rarely be traced, and it's only natural that each storyteller always injects his or her own vision of reality and world experience into the telling of these tales. These are natural processes that take place in any oral medium any place in the world.  

Mystic Tales is based upon TUTU staff's own literary tastes. The twelve folk tales that were selected are: Bakhtiyar, Divbecha, Pari khanim (Mrs. Pari), Malikmammad, Dash uzuk (Stone ring), Shahzade Bandali (Prince Bandali), Tapdig, Ayghir Hasan (Stalion Hasan), Nar Giz (Pomegranate Girl), Guru Khala, Ibrahim, and Goychak Fatma (Pretty Fatma; an Azerbaijani version of the well-known fairy tale, Cinderella).

You can read the whole article on this special collection (and why it's so special) HERE.

Article: A Short History of Beauty and the Beast in Pop Culture

La Belle et la Bête (1946)

Easy to read and navigate this article does a nice job of highlighting the "big" Beauty and the Beast pop culture highlights from its beginnings. La Belle et la Bête is hard to beat for me, though seeing a contemporary dance performance choreographed by Graeme Murphy for the Sydney Dance Company, in Australia, came close. (Neither that ballet or any other Beauty & the Beast dance work appears on the list unfortunately.)

Go over and have a look at A Short History of Beauty and the Beast in Pop Culture. It's highlights only, not a definitive works/major works timeline and will be nothing new to readers of this blog but it's great to see all in one place.

A little more obscure is this article, also by Flavorwire, of "Beauty and the Beast-style" Love on Film.


Knowing Beauty and the Beast is a personal favorite of Heidi Anne Heiner's (of SurLaLune fame), I'd love to see a visual-plus-notes pop culture timeline from her. (Like she hasn't got a gazillion things on her plate already! We're REALLY looking forward to her Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World anthology which she aims to have out sometime this year.)

In the meantime, I found this little gem below, showing various incarnations of Beast over the years for comparison. Originator unfortunately unknown, though I did find it HERE. (Sorry about the resolution. It's as large as I could make it without the image pixilating badly.)

Illustrations by Walter Crane, Rebecca Guay, Ron Embleton, Nilesh Mistry, Judy Riggenbach, Glen Keane, Warwick Goble, Anne Grahame Johnstone, Edmund Dulac, Eleanor Vere Boyle, Paul Woodroffe, Errol Le Cain, Anne Anderson, Kirsi Salonen, Scott Gustafson, Alicechan, Margaret Tarrant, and various Anonymous

Now with Once Upon A Time about to make their mark and two Beauty & the Beast TV series projects currently in development, there are only going to be more...

Here's the Once Upon A Time promo (somewhat spoilery) for the February 12th Beauty and the Beast Valentine-themed episode (photo previews, also with slight spoilers HERE):

Article: "It's Snow White's Moment. What's She Going To Do With It?"

Kristen Stewart as Snow White (Snow White and the Huntsman) by Alice X. Zhang

 Yay! An article on "there are fairy tales everywhere right now!" that did some research beyond "OMG-did-you-know-that-this-fairy-tale-stuff-is-really-wicked-nasty-gruesome-stuff!"

The writers at io9 always give me a fun read. They have clear (and sassy) opinions they're not afraid of sharing AND like using their brains too so the articles are usually written with at least a little research to back up their points of view.

Check out the research credits by Kelly Faircloth for this article: 

Sources used: The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar; The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim; The Great Fairy Tale Tradition, edited by Jack Zipes.

When a mainstream writer posts on fairy tales and does their research beyond the online entertainment sites, you know you want to read it. Specifically, this writer is the first I've seen to consider just why it is that suddenly Snow White is the princess du jour.

It starts:

After decades out of the limelight, suddenly Snow White is everywhere. What woke this particular tale out of its coma?

Charlize Theron as The Queen (Snow White and the Huntsman) by Alice X. Zhang

After a brief catch-up on how it's been Cinderella, not Snow White, that has been the go-to fairy tale princess of the masses for decades, the writer gets to the meaty stuff:

So why Snow White? (edit InkGypsy: as in "Why Snow White now?")

Like all traditional fairy tales, Snow White has a few fixed elements. Let's use folklorist Steven Swann Jones' definition (via fairy tale guru Maria Tater): "origin (birth of the heroine), jealousy, explusion, adoption, renewed jealousy, death, exhibition, resuscitation, and resolution."

Stories from all over the world contain these immediately recognizable elements, but that list also leaves open a whole lot of wiggle room in the details of the telling. So besides the Grimm version, you'll also see variants like Giambattista Basile's "The Young Slave," where the heroine is born to a young woman who swallows a leaf. Her years-long sleep is actually due to a fairy's curse and a poisoned comb, and it's actually another woman's jealous that wakes her, when her enraged aunt goes to pull out her hair.

It gets even more interesting, so go read the whole article HERE. 

The Waltz from Enchanted Fan Art by Alice X. Zhang

On the note of trends in entertainment, if this is something you follow (which if you write you should, at least in a basic sense), this article HERE is also worth a look, and not just because in it's "Lessons" list it has "1) Dark fairy tales rule." There's one line quoted in the comments that writers and creators everywhere should remember when trying to promote ideas, follow public trends or predict Hollywood leanings - and this will most definitely apply to fairy tales being revised/retold too:

I'm reminded of the screenwriter who once remarked that the lesson Hollywood drew from the success of the movie TITANIC was "we need to make more movies about boats". (From commenter Chip Overlock.)

So far, it seems that Snow White isn't into the "more boats" business just yet, (thank goodness) but the time is bound to come. It may even be the case that tapping other fairy tales in the hopes they'll shine like Snow White currently does, is doing just that. Despite how difficult it is to see this happen to tales we love, I don't think this is anything to be too worried about in the long term. One of the wonderful things about fairy tales is that they ARE so old. Their substance is, well, substantial, and remains so. No matter what anyone does with them, they'll always come back, sometimes in ways you least expect (such as hit TV shows that send Disney galloping back to their feature fairy tale franchise, despite them swearing off fairy tales (again) forever.) If there's a lesson Hollywood could learn from the Snow White resurgence it might be: never underestimate a sleeping princess. ;) 

Disney's Pocahontas Fan Art by Alice X. Zhang*

* The artist featured in this post in the amazingly talented Alice X. Zhang who is  professional artist and illustrator. I included the Pocahontas piece simply because I thought her work was worth featuring by itself. I particularly love her more recent painterly portraits of celebrities and popular characters. The links under the images go to her website except for the last one which links to her blog. THERE, in her Tumblr blog, you can see her works in progress, sketches and inspirations. Not surprisingly there are a lot of fantasy-based works and images there so fairy tale people should find plenty of lovely things. :)

(Edit comment)

Article: We Want More From Snow White

By Denis Zilber for a German anti-alcohol campaign

Now this is the sort of article I've been expecting to surface ever since ABC's Once Upon A Time became a hit. It starts like this:

The Little Mermaid is problematic. The girl who hates what she is, the misguided infatuation, the boy who likes a girl who knows how to keep her mouth shut . . .

Beauty and the Beast is probably worse. Kidnapping. Stockholm Syndrome. Interspecies angst.

Sleeping Beauty? Arrested development. Rapunzel? Desperation. Cinderella? One-night stand.

But none of these demented fairy tales have anything on Snow White.

In a fairy-tale cage match for the title of "most deranged, most horrific, most berserk classic children's story," Snow White lays waste to the competition. (And then devours the competition's internal organs.)

It's the kind of story you'd create if you were trying to mess kids up.

While this isn't exactly my view of Snow White (nor of the other tales - at least not as simply), the writer, does have some good points, especially as they echo concerns parents are currently having in reading kids fairy non-Disney versions of fairy tales.  My argument would be that's exactly why they should be read (but I digress and that's another paper altogether... ;)

Little Snow White by David T. Wenzel

She also goes on to talk about the Snow White movies in production, Once Upon A Time and puts forth theories as to why Snow White has gotten (and is getting) so many adaptations. I like what she finishes with (which explains also why the rest of the article is still very much worth a read):

I think we want more for Snow White — and more from her — than her story ever gives us. So we just keep coming up with new ways to tell it.

For some people this may be true and it may very well inspire new takes. Personally I think there is far more to Little Snow White (Grimm's version) than meets the eye, which is why I keep going back to it, but ultimately it doesn't matter. The best thing is that people are thinking - really thinking - about fairy tales and why these stories keep coming back to us again and again.

You can read the whole article HERE. 

Article: From Werewolf Hunters to Rights Activists: Updating Fairy Tale Heroines by Marissa Meyer

Cinderella by Sir John Everett Millais

 Marissa Meyer, author of the January debut "cyborg Cinderella" novel Cinder  has written an article for Tor.com titled "From Werewolf Hunters to Rights Activists: Updating Fairy Tale Heroines". (See HERE for my post earlier this month on Cinder.)

The article begins with a good dollop of Marissa Meyer's humor, referencing, of course, Cinderella and why you probably don't really like her, or the idea of her, very much. Then she goes on to explain why.


Here's an excerpt:

Today’s teens want heroines who are courageous and empowered, who are willing to fight for what they want and choose their own destinies. And while dashing heroes continue to populate today’s fiction, the trend is leaning toward an equality between the protagonists, with skills and strengths that complement each other, and it’s perfectly acceptable for the princess to slay the dragon herself when called upon. 

...While writers continue to experiment with settings, time periods, and tales both common and forgotten, this trend seems to be here to stay. Those passive girls of old are becoming extinct, being replaced with bold and plucky heroines that don’t only deserve a happy ending, but go out and claim it.

It's a quick, fun read and while the concepts aren't new to readers of this blog it's a great introduction for people who are, for the first time, curious about this fairy tale thing are being delighted by retellings. While it doesn't really cover how much substance the more 'original' (ie. non-Disney) fairy tales have, it does show how much fun retellings are, especially with the variety today that's actively expanding right now both in books and in TV series and movies.

I still remember my epiphany on the subject of retellings. I was nine years old and the symbology in fairy tales was something that fascinated me. I had already begun to look at them in a deeper way and started actively hunting for different perspectives on fairy tales by writers but mainly in the form of articles and essays. I came across C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces in the local church library, which retells the story of Psyche and Cupid from the point of view of the elder and ugly rejected sister, and it completely blew me away. It was this book that made me realize you can retell old stories in a completely new way without losing their mythical core. I also didn't miss the Beauty and the Beast/ Cupid & Psyche connection and it truly felt as if I had just stepped into a magical wardrobe that had been siting in front of me for years. I was hooked and have been a student of fairy tales ever since. It's truly exciting to think that people everywhere are having similar revelations week to week right now.

If you know someone who is just starting to understand your fascination with fairy tales and is asking about retellings Marissa Meyer's article would be a good one to have them read. It's not heavy, doesn't get into old fairy tale texts or anything that might seem weighty to newbies and Ms. Meyer's humor is evident throughout. You can find the whole article at Tor.com HERE.

As a bonus (I love bouses!) Tahlia over at Diamonds and Toads has just this week posted an interview with Marisa Meyer! It's a must read. Tahlia asks some great questions and they're perfect for fairy tale readers who want to know how other fairy tale readers and writers think. Go read and thank Tahlia for such a great post. It's like a little Christmas present all by itself. :)

"No Beast So Fierce" by Patrick Garson (Article on Telling & Re-telling Fairy Tales)

From "Beauty and the Beast: An Old Tale New-Told"
illustrated by Eleanor Vere Boyle

Here's an article I caught a few days ago at Tor.com on writing fairy tales by Patrick Garson, a regular poster at Tor. He also wrote his thesis on Disney's Beauty & the Beast and highly recommends Marina Warner's "From the Beast to the Blonde".

In his article, Mr. Garson uses the way we visualize the Beast (via illustrations old and new) as a great symbol of how we tell and re-tell fairy tales, among other points. Here are a couple of excerpts:

One of the things I adore about fairy tales is their malleability. The wonder and frisson you get from someone playing with and reinventing well-known tales is a truly unique, very special feeling (when it’s done well, that is…). And yet, we often assume that this reinvention is purely the prerogative of modern writers. Not so, I cry! We have been playing around with fairy tales, bending their archetypes to our will, for their entire written history (and there’s no reason to think the oral pre-history would be any different).

From "Beauty and the Beast: An Old Tale New-Told"
illustrated by Eleanor Vere Boyle

Later Patrick writes:

When you take a look at this visual history,(edit FTNH: of how illustrators over the years have portrayed fairy tale archetypes and classic story scenes) that malleability I mentioned—of themes, characters, atmosphere—becomes quickly and deliciously apparent. Especially in stories where what’s described is something ambiguous and variable, something that changes over time, something embedded into much of our communication and latter-day stories. Something like beauty, or beastliness.

The whole article (and all the links) are very interesting, whether you read, write or study fairy tales and worth your time to check out. You can read the whole article HERE. And don't forget to check out the illustrations he's chosen for his article. They're a variety of Beauty & the Beast illustrations - all of the story beat where Beauty's father meets the Beast.Apart from being integral to the discussion they're also quite a different collection from the usual. An extra treat!

"True Love and Fairy Tales" Pt II (Article)

Raiponce
by Sonia (a.k.a. petitpoids)

Part II of my article "True Love and Fairy Tales" is live at Supernatural Fairy Tales.

Part I takes a good (raised-eyebrow) look at Cinderella and Part II untangles Rapunzel (sorry, couldn't resist!).

True love in fairy tales isn't quite what most people think it is - it might actually be better. ;)

Part I is HERE and Part II is HERE.

Enjoy!

True Love and Fairy Tales (Article)

Rapunzel and her Prince
by Emily Forgot

Part one of my two-part article "True Love and Fairy Tales" is now live at Supernatural Fairy Tales.

Here's the intro to get you started:

When most people think of love and fairy tales it tends to get boiled down to something like this:

Love-at-first-sight = true love = happily ever after (with maybe a task in the middle in which the hero proves just how far BEYOND the ends of the earth he’s willing to go for this true-love-at-first-sight-girl.)

The thing is, fairy tales are rarely like that at all, particularly if they’re about love...

You can keep reading HERE. Enjoy! (Part two is coming on March 4th.)

Beauty vs Beast? (Article)

Beauty & the Beast

by George Barr

I didn't post half of what I wanted to yesterday for Valentine's Day so please forgive me if I continue with this love and romance in fairy tales theme for a couple more days yet.

WARNING: CONTROVERSY AHEAD!

I've gone back and forth on whether to post the link to this but fairy tales don't shy away from dark and difficult issues so here goes:

I found this post, originally by Rod Van Mechelen quite a few years ago, at a site labeled "What Every Man Should Know About Feminist Issues". (You read the warning above, right?) It discusses the problems one man has in using "Beauty and the Beast" as an allegory for a successful marriage/relationship.

The article/post appears to have been written in response to a book called "Why Women Shouldn't Marry", which should tip you off to the strong feelings/opinions discussed. (In other words, it's one guy's complaint at feminist expectations (and treatments) of potential male partners. And no, I have not read that book.)

Please note: I do not agree with the points the writer of the article is trying to make, though I do not mean any disrespect. I actually think there's rather a lot wrong with the whole thing BUT at the same time I can understand some of the concerns the article writer has, as extreme as they are. The reason I'm posting a link here is because this is - apparently - how some people think, and it's a good example of the sorts of problems people have with using fairy tales as templates for relationships. (And yes, usually people of this mind have not read the originals or read fairy tales in general at all but are responding to the pop-cultural impression of the tropes.) It also is a different example of how fairy tales can be interpreted and how, even from a negative point of view, they can touch on deep issues.

Beauty and the beast
by Johanna Ost

Needless to say (but I will anyway) the post is written rather defensively in its presentation of worrying-yet-interesting ideas. If for nothing else, here's a great example of how some disillusioned or negative characters might think, which can be very useful for writers of fairy tale retellings.

Here's an excerpt:

The essence of the myth of the marriage relationship, as it is endlessly replayed in the timeless allegory Beauty and the Beast, is that marriage transforms the "Beast" into a man, and thereby empowers the "Beauty." But today's reality is that women are helping to transform most men into sex starved "Beasts" by eroticising themselves as evanescent "Beauties," and then promoting their sex as a scarce commodity by making men beg and pay for it.

Every woman who "plays hard to get" or lets men make all the first moves, plays a part in this.

Told you it may read as controversial! ;)

You can read the whole post HERE.

One final note: if you wish to leave a comment on the article (or this post) I welcome all points of view - I just ask that you please be respectful in choosing your words and be aware that issues like these can be emotional (and sometimes confusing) for people in their personal situations.

Wonderland Solved (Article)

This article came to my attention a few weeks ago and the subject is very different from the usual sort of fairy tale content so rather than try to summarize I'll just give you the idea and point you to the URL in case it interests you.

If you know much about Lewis Carroll (whose name was really Charles Dodgson) you'll know not only did he possess a big imagination but was also a mathematician. Someone decided to put his best known work together with his best loved principles of math and algebra (which he taught to University students) to see if some of the oddities of the story could be solved.

Illustration
by John Tenniel

Here's an excerpt:

What would Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland be without the Cheshire Cat, the trial, the Duchess's baby or the Mad Hatter's tea party? Look at the original story that the author told Alice Liddell and her two sisters one day during a boat trip near Oxford, though, and you'll find that these famous characters and scenes are missing from the text.

As I embarked on my DPhil investigating Victorian literature, I wanted to know what inspired these later additions. The critical literature focused mainly on Freudian interpretations of the book as a wild descent into the dark world of the subconscious. There was no detailed analysis of the added scenes, but from the mass of literary papers, one stood out: in 1984 Helena Pycior of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had linked the trial of the Knave of Hearts with a Victorian book on algebra. Given the author's day job, it was somewhat surprising to find few other reviews of his work from a mathematical perspective. Carroll was a pseudonym: his real name was Charles Dodgson, and he was a mathematician at Christ Church College, Oxford.

You may have guessed by now, this article isn't for the faints-at-the-sight-of-maths person but if you're an Alice fan and can peruse even some of it, it may give you a whole different way to appreciate Carroll's work.

You can read the whole article HERE.

And if that whet your appetite for more there's another article HERE and discussion of a book that concentrates on the mathematical side of Carroll/Dodgson.

Ashes and Diamonds—Santa, Cinderella & Bert (Article)

I came across this interesting blog entry which looks at the magic of Christmas and uses fairy tale examples to explain the ideas. I think you'll find it interesting.

Here's an excerpt:

Of all the ways that presents and good things might come into one’s life, the chimney would, at first glance, be a bad plan—dirty, likely to be filled with fire, narrow and uninviting. A chimney is where we turn wood into smoke, and what exits by way of the chimney is of the least value to humans—soot, ash and greenhouse gas. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, the burned down remains of the hearth’s fire would seem to be the end of the road, and yet they mark the scene of a new beginning.

The blogger, Bruce from Privilege of Parenting, then goes on to discuss Cinderella, Bert from Mary Poppins and Rumpelstiltskin and how we often find worth, in things and in people, in the unlikeliest of places, including the ordinary dirt - and dirty faces - of home.

You can read the rest of the article HERE.

The Mad Hatter's Second Reveal + The Difficulties Of Turning Carroll's Classic Into A Film

As a follow-up to my post HERE on Tuesday this week, Mad Hatter has revealed the second Disney/Burton "Alice" poster. I think Alice and the White rabbit both look like they could a nap, otherwise it has a lovely mix of fantasy with a dark undertone (as you would expect from director Tim Burton) plus the Burton trees!

Of course, The Mad Hatter now wants 9, 000 Facebook 'likes' to unveil the third art piece...

If you want to join the madness go HERE. (Only 3, 700 'likes' to go till the next one... Ah, publicity - gotta love the stunts.)

On the subject of putting Alice in Wonderland on film, I came across this article I thought the Alice fans may find interesting. It's fairly lengthy with a lot of great detail for those interested in the challenges of adaptations of Carroll's work, as well as those interested in animation. It's aptly titled "It Would Be So Nice If Something Would Make Sense For A Change" - which is a perfect description of article, film and the film's process.For those who don't know, Walt had a long history with Alice and was keen to do a film on the classic work for many years. He kept hitting roadblocks of one sort or another until when the film was finally being developed/in production, he was so tired of it all he barely gave it any attention. I can't help but wonder what it would have been like had he still been enthusiastic and able to dedicate time and effort to the film.)Here's an excerpt:

Pick up just about any book about the history of the Disney Studios, and you're going to run into the same stories, often told in the same words, about the miserable hell that was the production of Alice in Wonderland, which eventually saw release in July, 1951. The problem seems to all boil down to a small nexus of issues: first, there was the fact that Walt eventually had to face, which is that nobody could possibly make a film of Carroll's novels and expect it to turn out like Snow White, or even Pinocchio. The books were too mired in linguistic play, and given over rather to the creation of absurd situations than the development of plot or specific conflict. To surpass this difficulty issue, it seems like he eventually conceived of the film as a sampler platter, if you will, of animation and design: let it be the cartoon version of Carroll's writing in effect, not in detail, an opportunity for the animators to cut loose and make surreal situations with beautiful artwork...

You can read the whole article HERE.

NOTE: The three illustrations are by the legendary Mary Blair who was working for Disney as a concept artist at the time of developing Alice. Her style, designs and color palette greatly influenced the whole film. You can see more of her art HERE, (scroll down for a huge gallery) and buy a book on her work HERE. A Disney Alice in Wonderland story book using Mary Blair's concept art for the illustrations, was released in September last year (and I posted an entry HERE).

Baba Yaga -The Russian Witch (article) & Various Baba Yaga Illustrations

Baba Yaga by Leonid Bloommer

I love the character of Baba Yaga. While she certainly is terrifying in many ways, to me she's more enigmatic than anything else. To some extent, if you can figure out the rules you can not only survive and encounter with her, she may actually help you.

There's definitely more to this traditional Russian fairy tale villain than meets the eye. I've read stories where Baba Yaga has sisters, a lover or a child (and in the story I read, yes, she loves her kid - you don't want to come between this Mama and her baby!), all of which seem at odds with the character as she's normally portrayed.

Baba Yaga
by Ravenari

I found an article posted in the first week of October which discusses Baba Yaga as a 'force of nature' and how this would have had an impact on those listening to the story years ago. The focus was different from the usual a) she's mostly evil or b) she the crone in the maid-mother-crone triad.

Here's a couple of excerpts:

When visitors arrive, Baba Yaga asks them if they came of their own accord or were sent. Smart visitors say they were sent. Coming of their own accord puts them in the witch's power; they are consenting to their own doom, so nothing can save them. They must also actively seek entrance by telling the house to turn its door to them. This concept is similar to the idea that a vampire (also an Eastern European legend) can't come into a home unless invited. The danger is one you bring on yourself. Another way ofl ooking at it, though, is that if you want to get something from nature, you have to take chances...

Baba Yaga
by Himmapaan

...These stories may have roots in Indo-European tales that passed into both eastern and western folklore. A trinity of Hindu goddesses consists of the Virgin, the Mother, and the Hag, and Baba Yaga is sometimes considered a Slavic version of the Hag. (Sometimes Baba Yaga even has two sisters). The versions about Vasilisa and the boy and girl are similar to the western “Hansel and Gretel,” in that wicked stepmothers send children off to be eaten by witches. And when Baba Yaga detects a victim, she often says, “Foo! Foo! I smell a Russian spirit!” This sounds like “Fee fi fo fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!” in “Jack and the Beanstalk."

Hunchback Fairy
by Endling
(additional website HERE)

But some aspects of Baba Yaga tales are uniquely Russian. Siberians placed log cabins on uprooted tree stumps to keep animals away from their food supplies. To remote and imaginative people, tree stumps can easily become chicken legs, and from there Baba Yaga’s horrible home. The doll in the tale of Vasilisa is similar to small household idols that Russians had in pre-Christian times. And a recurring theme is that virtue will protect one, no matter what the danger, whereas, in Western fairy tales, craft prevails. This trust in virtue must have been comforting to people scratching out a marginal existence in a forbidding climate.

The rest of the fascinating article is HERE. The author, Kathleen Murphy (a community college writing tutor) has a writing focused website HERE.

Baba Yaga
by Waldemar von Kazak

(additional website HERE)

You can find more information about each artist by clicking on the image or on their names. The deviantART artists have some interesting things to say about Baba Yaga too, so make sure you check their comments below the artwork.

And isn't that steampunk Baba Yaga fun? Methinks it won't be long before a steampunk Baba Yaga makes her way into a story... ;)

While we're on the subject, I should mention a book released at the beginning of September titled "Dreaming Anastasia" by Joy Preble. It features Baba Yaga quite prominently and I'm curious to read it (despite the cover which would normally make me ignore it).

Here's the part of the blurb that pertains to Baba Yaga:

In 1918, in a Russian cellar, Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov was murdered with the rest of her family. Or so history tells us. Thanks to old magics, Anastasia was rescued by the witch Baba Yaga and now spends her days confined in a tiny hut perched on chicken legs. With only the witch and a doll for company, Anastasia writes letters to her family, and waits.

HERE author Joy Preble discusses how she uses Baba Yaga alongside the prominent maternal themes in the book and has her character be much more than the dangerous child-eating witch she's often portrayed as. She also makes use of a matroyshka (Russian nesting doll or Babushka doll, also known as the 'little mother doll'*) as a 'special object' and as a model for the novel's structure, so I'm doubly curious about this one.

Available at amazon.com HERE.

*This doll was the key to Vasilissa (also spelled Vasilisa) surviving an encounter with Baba Yaga in one of my favorite fairy tales. It was, appropriately, given to Vasilissa by her mother before passing away and is symbolic of her mother's spirit remaining with her and giving her the strength (and the wits) to do the Baba Yaga's impossible tasks set for her. The real villains of this story, though, are Vasilissa's stepmother and stepsisters - not Baba Yaga. The witch keeps her agreement and gives Vasilissa the fire she needs.. Of course, that's only part of the story. You can read more about it HERE. Which reminds me I should do a post on Vasilisa in her role as the Russian Frog Princess... ;)

NEWSFLASH: Great Fairytales Series from The Guardian - A Must Read!

Note: I came across this series completely at random and was already into doing this blog post when I realized both SurLaLune and The Fairy Tale Cupboard have reported on it so rather than bore you with lots of repetitious information in case you're reading their blogs [which are both excellent sources of fairy tale information and news, so you should be :) ], I'll just point you to their entries and repeat how wonderful a thing this is and that you should avail yourself of the read and lovely pictures either in person or online. :)

For those who haven't yet heard, The (UK) Guardian and Observer, are including seven wonderful supplements over the next week titled "Great Fairytales". The series includes an essay by a notable fairy tale writer on a theme and then a collection of tales on that theme for each part, with special illustrations for each section by wonderful artists.Here's the blurb on the series from The Guardian online:

Starting this weekend in the Guardian and the Observer, Great fairytales brings you the finest stories of morality, justice, triumph and enchantment from around the world, collected in seven themes: Wicked parents, Rags to riches, Love, Quests and riddles, Wisdom and folly, Justice and punishment and Beastly tales.

The stories are all nominated by a panel of critics, writers and experts on children's literature: Anthony Browne, AS Byatt, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Robert Irwin, Alison Lurie, Adam Phillips, Philip Pullman, Salman Rushdie and Marina Warner.

Each collection is beautifully illustrated and includes an afterword from a range of leading writers exploring each theme.

This is such a treat! And I love the discussions on theme, meaning and fairy tales in comparison to history which you don't see often outside of academic works. For those of us unable to go buy the paper (and that includes any readers outside the UK) we can:

1) read the series online for free every day (START HERE - the link should have ALL the Guardian's fairy tale related posts for you to browse - this particular series starts October 10th, 2009 & consists of one essay and approximately three tales with illustrations - in separate posts - per day)

2) buy the booklets online HERE (shown at bottom of post).

Heidi of SurLaLune has included a brief excerpt of the first essay as well as other interesting tidbits and you can see some more of the lovely silhouette work by Laura Barrett, all of which you can find HERE.

Claire Massey of The Fairy Tale Cupboard has done a wonderful job of taking us through the first two supplements, complete with excellent links. I highly recommend reading her write-ups this week as she looks at the writers, the tales and the artists involved with each part of the series. To go straight to The Fairy Tale Cupboard click HERE.
NOTE: All silhouette illustrations (2 for Hansel & Gretel and 2 for Snow White) are by the amazing Laura Barrett who's work was commissioned for Part 1 of the series. You can find more of her work at her website HERE or by clicking on the illustrations - I highly recommend checking this link out. Her website is lovely and her work gorgeous!

On Writing Fairy Tale Based Fantasy

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Flying Trunk"* by Dan Froejlund

Occasionally, the question comes up as to whether or not it's a good idea to write fairy tale-based fantasy works.

One writer recently shared an agents rejection of the idea with a writing website called "Writer Unboxed". (This website discusses the craft of genre writing and has a lot of well respected authors weighing in on their discussions.)

To answer this, they called on authors Sophie Masson and Juliet Marillier; two writers who've built their career on writing fairy tale based fiction. Apparently both are quite passionate about the subject so the post has a second part coming with Ms. Marillier's response.

In the meantime, go see what Sophie Masson, author of several retellings such as Carabas (published as Serafin in the US) and Cold Iron (published as Malkin in the US), as well as many other fairy tale based works, has to say on the subject. Here's an excerpt to whet your appetite:

What makes fairy tales particularly suitable in fact as a basis for modern fantasy is that in themselves they mix both enchantment and pragmatism, the world of the everyday and a realm of pure magic. And it’s all done in such a matter of fact yet also profound way. You can never get to the end of the meanings of fairytale; and the fairytales of a people reveal their essence, their soul, if you like, in a moving yet also funny and beautiful way. They reveal our similarities and our differences...

You can read the rest of the post, Ms. Masson's response and readers comments HERE."The Flying Trunk" by Erik Bagge

About his modern interpretation Erik says:

The idea behind this wonderful fairy-tale is fabulous, as H.C. Andersen anticipates the "flying age" that we live in today. When he wrote the fairy-tale in 1839 nobody would have imagined, that the "flying age" would become a reality some centuries later... I did not change the motif that much when I modernized it. I turned the trunk into a car turned upsite down. I didn't want to turn the trunk into an airplane, as I wanted to express the preposterous idea that things can have other functions than they were meant to have.

* I thought illustrations from The Flying Trunk to be appropriate as the main character in the tale, after losing his enchanted means of seeing a Sultan's Daughter (by way of the flying trunk of the title) ends up wandering the world telling stories. See more about the HCA tale (which draws from many older tales around the world) HERE.

Taking the Fairy Out of Fairy Tales - Article on Hans Christian Andersen

I saw this lovely article (complete with gorgeous pictures) last week from Art Passions and thought I'd link you.

Art Passions latest article, "Fairy Tales in Search of a Soul", discusses how Hans Christian Andersen's tales are different and specifically discusses The Little Mermaid and The Brave Tin Soldier as examples of his mastery of story telling elements.Mermaid (Transfiguration) by Sulamith Wulfing

Here's how the article begins, just to get you started:

I’ve been neglecting Hans Christian Andersen and I feel guilty about this. It’s partly because of all the noted fairy story tellers, he wrote mostly original work (rather than transcribing folk tales) and because of this, many of his stories labeled as “fairy tales” simply aren’t—at least from the perspective of popular assumptions about them. The popular term “fairy tale ending” presupposes a happy ending such as “lived happily ever after” and many authors and transcribers seem to assume that this is what both adult and child readers want. Andersen does provide this sort of ending, but his stories are more complex and the resolution not dependent on any of the magic that fairy stories depend on. The sense of magic we associate with fairy tales is not produced by transformations or spells, but often through the reader’s assumption of anthropomorphic qualities – and Andersen was a master of this process – thus allowing the reader to supply his own magic. His stories are not always from some distant past but rather draw from the edges of our imagination in the recent and present. Of all the fairy tale authors, he is among the most ironic. And he is nowhere more ironic than in his tragic tales of unrequited love.

Continue reading (along with more gorgeous illustrations) HERE.

Art Passions also have two other pieces of news:

1) They're on Twitter now, so you can follow them there and get their news as soon as it's announced. You can follow them HERE.

2) Art Passions have their calendars for 2010 ready for purchase. There are individual artist ones HERE as well as a variety wall calendar. Go HERE for more information and to order.