Ask Baba Yaga: How Can I Help People Who Resent Me?

Baba Jaga by Alicja Marczyk

Oh boy, yes. How do you keep trying and doing your best for people when they not only don't seem to care or appreciate what you're doing, but actually attack you as well? There are only so many times you can say to yourself "it's not about me - this is about them and their unhappiness.." but then what do you do?

Today's question and answer (via poet and oracle Taisia Kitaiskaia* of The Hairpin):

(Originally posted at The Hairpin HERE)

Wow. Those kids are going to be her supper if they don't shape up! 

So: keep your white robe (or hat) on and make sure it's clean (and shiny) before descending into the morass of the masses... You are making a difference, even if you do not see it... And remember: Bog Queen! 

Huh. That actually does help.

What do you think of Baba Yaga's advice?

Want to ask Baba Yaga a question of your own?

You can!

There's now an email address where you can send your questions

directly to Baba Yaga herself.

AskBabaYaga AT gmail DOT com

To encourage Baba Yaga to continue imparting her no-bones-about-it wisdom (ok, there may be some gristle in there... bones too), I suggest we not to leave her box empty... 

Thank you Baba Yaga (& Taisia).

* Taisia Kitaiskaia is a poet, writer, and Michener Center for Writers fellow. Born in Russia and raised in America, she's had her poems and translations published in Narrative Magazine, Poetry International, and others.

Disney Fairy Tale Movie Marathon (aka Princess Movies) on ABC Family This Weekend

HIstorical Cinderella Edit by Camile Eusse
something different - just for fun)

Need to catch up on your Disney (princess) fairy tales? There's a bunch showing on ABC Family this weekend:

Saturday, March 21, 2015:
The Princess and the Frog    - 5pm ET/PT 
The Little Mermaid                - 7pm ET/PT 
Sleeping Beauty                    - 8:45pm ET/PT 
Cinderella                              - 10:30pm ET/PT 

Sunday, March 22, 2015:
Pocahontas                           - 12:15am ET/PT (yes, VERY early/late!)
The Princess & the Frog       - 3pm ET/PT
The Little Mermaid                - 5pm ET/PT
Sleeping Beauty                    - 8:45pm ET/PT
Cinderella                              - 8:30p ET/PT
Pocahontas (again)               - 10:15pm ET/PT

(So we wouldn't expect Anna & Elsa - too soon - but where the heck are Snow White, Jasmine and Rapunzel - three princesses that had their status right from the beginning of the movie?)

Here's the programming pitch:

"Beginning this Saturday, March 21, at 5 p.m. ET/PT, ABC Family will be presenting “Princess Funday.” Princesses of all ages are encouraged to don their tiaras, raise their goblets, and celebrate “girl power” with a princess-packed viewing schedule of animated Disney classics. "

For Saturday that's not a "Funday". That's a sleepover at best. Not sure who in programming plans on having their "princess" up past midnight to watch Pocahontas, (or starting to watch a movie after 10pm on a school-the-next-day night!) but... if you need to catch up on those movies (or want to take the opportunity to DVR them) this is a good opportunity.

And there's a new Disney "Imagicadamy" that's promoting family fun play ideas on the Cinderella theme that have nothing to do with watching - or buying - anything. 

The activities suggested are:

• Find the Shoe - treasure hunt
• Wait for Midnight Noon - clothes change dash
• Scrub the Floor (unless it's already part of their chores!)

You can read the game details HERE.

Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm" Being Adapted for TV Series

Looks like we will be getting another fairy tale series to watch weekly soon! (ish)

Announced Thursday this week:

According to reports, The Ring screenwriter Ehren Kruger will adapt Terry Gilliam’s 2005 adventure film The Brothers Grimm into a TV show. The film, which starred Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as the titular brothers, followed the two men as they uncovered that the folklore passed down from generation to generation was based on real supernatural happenings. 

The screenwriter also wrote Gilliam's screenplay, but he's better know now for Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, and Transformers: Age Of Extinction. 

From Deadline:

The new series will follow the swashbuckling adventures of brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, who discover startling mythology and supernatural stakes behind the folklore sweeping 19th century Europe.

(And I now understand the timing of releasing The Brothers Grimm to Netflix streaming.)

So, swashbuckling? I always imagine pirates when they use that word, but I guess they sort of are in Gilliam's version. Why do I have this weird feeling we may see a little steampunk added to the mix? About the only thing those tales with their darker, "thrilling spirit" (see below) don't have in terms of violence, is giant explosions.

“The tales of the Brothers Grimm are beloved around the world and offer an endless well of story and character to draw from. It’s a natural fit for television,” (said Devine, Miramax’s Executive VP of Film & TV.) “We reached out to Ehren Kruger and producing partner Daniel Bobker to see if they had any interest in making The Brothers Grimmmovie into a TV show and the pitch Ehren came back with blew us away,” added Pipski (Miramax VP of Television). We’re thrilled to be working with a writer of his caliber.” 

“The original stories the Brothers set out to collect were not for the faint of heart and we’ll be making a show that gets back to those origins and their cautionary, scary, thrilling spirit,” said Kruger.

I'm not surprised to see a variety of tales coming to a series because older tales (thanks in large part to Schonwerth and the "reboot as live action fairy tale movement") are vogue once again, but Gilliam's Brothers Grimm? I guess they need something adventure-y and with a different setting (ie, the 19th Century) to distinguish it from other shows.

I'm not confident about the team, but the concept has promise. More details as they are revealed...

Custom  DVD cover

Sources: HERE & HERE

The Snow Maiden: A Spring Fairy Tale ("Snegurochka")

All images from Snegurochka - Russian animated film 1952 by Soyuzmultfilm

Did you know the opera version (by Rimsky-Korsakov) of this Russian fairy tale's full title is: The Snow Maiden: A Spring Fairy Tale? While the character of Snegurochka is a Winter character, the fairy tale she is most commonly used in (and variants) is actually a Spring tale.

The Snow Girl is, according to Russian folk tale sites, a slightly different tale with a different emphasis, even though many of the elements appear the same.

Here's a little summary of the story of this not-so-straight forward character from Russian folklore, as told by Alexandr Ostrovsky (from RussianFolkArt.com):

It has been winter for fifteen years because the Sun God is angry that Frost and Spring have had a daughter together: Snegurochka. Now on the verge of adulthood, she decides to escape the cold and lonely forest and join the world of the mortals. She is attracted by Lel’s seductive songs but is unable to express her feelings for him. Snegurochka’s friend Kupava is engaged to Mizgir, but when he sees Snegurochka he falls in love with her instead and breaks off the original engagement, leaving Kupava upset and angry at her betrayal.

She seeks solace in the arms of Lel. Meanwhile Snegurochka begs her mother to grant her the capacity for human love and warmth. At a mass spring wedding, Snegurochka professes her love for Mizgir as a ray of sun strikes her and she melts away. The Sun God is appeased by her death and all celebrate the coming of spring. 

Spring, love and... death. 

Is it talking about how love - or lust - at first sight, isn't usually a lasting state, or that it isn't nourishing for the soul? Or that love, after changing you - sometimes beyond recognition, heals?

Seen in this light, it's not too distant a story from Persephone, is it? I haven't seen Snegurochka and Persephone linked except in visuals like the one at the right, though (which shows the Snow Maiden crowned and veiled with her mother's - Spring's - flowers).

The concepts - and character - have been explored in plays, movies, ballets and, of course, the opera, which alone suggest that something fundamental about the human condition and journey resonates with people in this seasonal tale.

Happy First Day of Spring to all those in the Northern Hemisphere (and Happy First Day of Autumn to our fairy tale folk living below the equator!)

Animated Movies Infographic Reveals Disney Is NOT All Over the Map

Disney Palaces and Castles in Movies by M.K. Reddington
(note: Tiana's restaurant is included - not a palace but still a key building)

You can probably get a quick overview of the bias referred to in the post title, just by looking at a selection of the different styles of Disney castles together (created a couple of years ago). Even this small selection of iconic Disney buildings tends to lean very... "West". (They're beautiful but they're not particularly diverse.)

The referenced infographic is ENORMOUS (you can see a small version of it near the bottom of the post) and very interesting to look around in. It's a map of the most popular animated movies  - also known as, the most influential children's films - from a variety of studios, showing the locations each of their films are set in. Disney's films are color coded red.

Why am I putting this on Once Upon A Blog? Because a large percentage of these films are considered fairy tales or overlap with people's definition of fairy tales, this is the overall impression many children are getting of story in general (especially if they're not being read to, or told other tales by family and carers).

At least 50 animated movies are set in North America and close to 40 in Europe.

It should come as no surprise that Disney's movies are "Western-centric, as The Independent calls is, since the people who created them initially were largely American and of European descent (meaning the stories they themselves were most influenced by were European). BUT as time has gone on, society has changed and the workload been distributed more evenly across the ethnic board, little has changed in this representation. Again, not a huge surprise considering the story influences perpetuated in American (and Disney) publishing BUT as more and more animators, story tellers, artists, designers, CG wizards and all round production people making these movies have hailed from places more and more distant and diverse, you would expect the stories being made to reflect that too. Instead it hints largely that the people in charge are making the decisions and what their (narrow) world view is.

Interestingly, the rest of animated cinema reflects the same trend, though not to quite the same extent.

There is a notably heavy concentration of movies in Europe and North America, clearly showing how Western-centric cinema remains. Just four of the most popular animated films of all-time have been set in South America and one of those, Rio 2, is a sequel. 

Only seven are based on African soil and most draw on common perceptions of the continent – The Lion King, Madagascar,Tarzan and The Wild for example. 

Australasia also fares badly, with four films set down under, while Asia boasts a relatively small proportion for its size with eighteen, including Mulan, The Jungle Book, Big Hero 6, Kung Fu Panda and Aladdin.

(FTNH Edit: I don't count Big Hero 6 as taking place in Australasia at all. It's clearly an alternate San Francisco - officially an urban mash-up of Tokyo and San Francisco aka "Japanamerica" - and is discussed that way in the 'making of' interviews as well. The university where key story points are set is likely an alternate MIT as well, so definitely very American).

It's a very telling infographic and should make people sit up and take notice.

Thankfully we are seeing some signs of change recently, and, as with any giant machine, a little change can be the start of a big one. It's just been a long time in coming. For instance: 

Disney is making moves to address the skewed representation of countries in its films, with the first Latina princess, Elena of Avalor announced in January and another, Moana from Oceana revealed last October.

The infographic was created by Slovakian designer, Martin Vargic, known for his Map of the Internet and Map of Stereotypes projects on Halycon Maps. He pinned the 124 most popular animated films onto a world map, color coding each film for the studio that created it (there is a key at the bottom of the map).

Each location mapped was either explicitly stated or shown in the movies, such as in Madagascar, derived from evidence within them, as in Frozen and The Lion King, or taken from the original work in which the movie was based, as in Snow White and Pinocchio. 

Vargic researched the films in detail by reading fan theories and studying where various animal species are geographically distributed. He did not include movies set in radically different worlds such as Treasure Planet and Wreck-It Ralph.

Disney Palaces & Castle Part 2 by M.K. Reddington
(including Elsa's ice castle)

One thing that is very odd to me is to see almost NO animated films set in Russia. I realize this is a "popular animated films" list, and therefore selective, but considering how very many animated films have been made there, (particularly fairy tales! - so very many) with a large percentage of those focusing on Russian tales and literature, it either shows how underexposed the rest of the world is to their animated filmmaking or how insular the industry there is.

Click HERE to read the list of films and their locations. You can also see a huge version of the map there (just click on the link, which will take you to a new page but you will see there's a magnifying glass on that page too. Clicking on that will show you the map at 100% and you will need to move the blue scroll bar at the side AND the bottom of the window to see it all. As I said, it's HUGE.)

There's also this map below with most of the Disney animated movies (ie. just Disney movies) and their locations. Click HERE to read the list of exact locations.

Map by theantilove

Theater: Come to the "Goblin Market"! (For 3 Nights Only)

Illustration by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, image from poster for Goblin Market 2015 production by Theatre GRU

"There is no friend like a sister."

(Christina Rossetti - "Goblin Market")

Christina Rosetti's fairy poem Goblin Market is beloved by many and often given consideration alongside other literary fairy tales as its own layered masterpiece. While it's not the first time it's been adapted for stage, I haven't seen performances crop up often at all the last decade in the US, which is sort of unusual when you consider just how popular the poem is, and how often it's taught at universities with theater companies attached.

This adaptation is by Patricia Pace and will be performed at The Maxwell Performing Arts Theater in Augusta, Georgia, Thursday through Saturday nights for this week only. With tickets $10 and under, if you love the poem, fairy tales and are in the area, this is worth considering for a night out.

From the Press Release:

Goblin Market 

by Christina Rossetti 

adaptation by Patricia Pace 

adapted and directed by Melanie Kitchens O'Meara 

Visually stunning and ripe with sensuous language, Christina Rossetti's poem Goblin Market is performed by six Victorian actresses between occasional rests in The Green Room. Patricia Pace said, "the adaptation investigates the many layer's of meaning in the poem -- a children's cautionary tale, a rebuke to the new commodity market in Victorian England, a religious allegory, a poet's wish for a female literary tradition, a fantasy about women caring for other women."*Contains mature content.

Illustration by Arthur Rackham

As Dr. Amanda M. Caleb, assistant professor at Misericordia University, said at a storytelling gathering earlier in the year, in which she spoke about fairy tales and how they relate to social issues:

“Rossetti’s poem is one that has intrigued me since I first read it as an undergrad, as it has so many possible interpretations: we might read it as a religious allegory, a tale of female solidarity, a critique of laissez-faire economics, or a warning about food adulteration — I really appreciate the depth of the tale!”

I found a little background on the play in an article published a couple of days ago and am putting the highlights below to give you a better idea of how the poem is being translated to stage for this production.

From The Bell Ringer (GRU):

Illustration by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

O’Meara, who is directing the Georgia Regents production of “Goblin Market,” said she acted in Pace’s adaption of the play when she was an undergraduate. She said she wanted to take the play further, readapt it and add things to it. “I knew that one day, once I had a position somewhere, that I would want to direct it myself,” O’Meara said. “The play follows these six women who are Victorian actresses, and they are on stage performing this Victorian poem and then we see them backstage dealing with women’s issues of the time.” O’Meara said the poem may seem lighthearted, but has a much darker side to it. “Some people would argue that this is a poem for children, but it’s not,” O’Meara said. “It’s very much not for kids.” 

Arthur Rackham

“(Lucette) is the one who … has a semi-masculine role,” Farmer (who plays Lucette) said. “She is a little older (and) she’s a little more experienced. She’s a really fun character to play when it comes to the actual poem part, because she’s playing a goblin – and being a goblin is really fun because I get to do really crazy, ridiculous things.” 

“(Dame Miriam is) sort of the leading actress of the company,” Owens (who plays her) said. “She’s very flirtatious, always making jokes, but she’s also the comforter.”
Farmer said she hopes the audience will see the greater meaning behind the play. “It is both a fun play to watch and listen to,” Farmer said. “But it does have some deeper meanings going on, and it’s really fun to find those deeper levels when you’re in the midst of laughing at a situation that you didn’t realize was... a pretty serious topic. It’s great fun.” 

The play is performed by an all-female cast and will be close to 70 minutes long without an intermission.

If you get to see it, why don't you let us know? We are very curious for we would like to go to the Goblin Market ourselves...

Article: Discussing NPR's "A Girl, A Shoe, A Prince: The Endlessly Evolving Cinderella"

Cinderella illustrated by Katerina Shtanko
All illustrations in this post are from the book shown above
(via http://www.fairyroom.ru/)

First of all I want to say: GO READ THIS ARTICLE by Linda Holmes for NPR. The whole thing. I want to discuss it a little and wish I could just copy it all and paste it here, but you'll have to do with teasing extracts until you go eyeball the whole piece yourself. It's a wittily written, guide through Cinderella's transformations from one version to another. Still not convinced? It starts like this:

"Woman gives birth to a gourd." 

This is the opening to the description of an Italian variant of the Cinderella folk tale — or, really, a relative of one of its relatives — taken from a book called Cinderella; three hundred and forty-five variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap o'Rushes, abstracted and tabulated, with a discussion of mediaeval analogues, and notes, written by Marian Roalfe Cox and published in 1893. In this version of the story, the heroine is born inside a gourd and accidentally abandoned in the forest — understandable, given that her mother has just brought forth a squash from within her person, and the last thought she's entertaining is probably, "Hey, I'll take that with me." 

Our heroine is discovered by a prince, who finds the talking gourd and takes it home. If nothing else, perhaps it has a future in show business. At some point, she presumably emerges from it — the details offered in the book about this particular folk tale are limited — and she becomes a servant... 

The tale is, of course, Zuchinetta, one of Cinderella's many, many ancestor-cousins. The immediate reaction when I bring this version up? "So pumpkins.. not such a new concept then?" (Perrault, you sly little writer you! Gourd, pumpkin... not such an out-of-the-blue choice after all, was it, Sir?
                            
Cinderella was always a gourd girl... (I know - it almost hurts it's so bad..)

Then Holmes discusses the variation that includes a little chewing out of the relatives... sorry. That's chewing ON relatives.. (yikes):

One begins with Cinderella, her two older sisters and their mother agreeing to a whimsical bet: First one to drop her spinning spool will be eaten by the others. When Mom proves clumsy, the sisters indeed eat her. (A deal's a deal?) Cinderella decides not to eat her mother, but to wait until the killing and eating is over, then bury her mother's bones. You know, out of respect. Fortunately, her mother's bones turn into coins and beautiful magic dresses. It's no fairy godmother, but you don't look your mother's gift bones in the ... mouth, I suppose.

Ba-dum-bump. OK, so Cinderella wasn't always such a "gourd girl". And this isn't the only version in which she does some.. less than "good girl" things.

It's not really that far a leap from bones to an oft-visited grave, though, is it?

But for all the weirdness and downright "heck-no!" factor in the more gruesome variants, Holmes explains how, somehow, Cinderella, the basic story, is still recognizable and remains as durable as ever.
                             
From there she goes on to discuss what a Cinderella story actually is and discusses one of those things I wish more people understood: the great differences in how people use language with regard to fairy tales - something which mixes up a lot of messages. For example, the use of the word "fairytale" (wish fulfillment/idea state) is completely different from the phrase "fairy tale" (a wonder tale) which, now that people are once again looking back to see where these stories came from is beginning to get mixed up with "folktale" (a traditional tale or legend that's considered false or based on superstition) all over again. Holmes discusses how the phrase "Cinderella story" is actually a different entity altogether from discussing "the story OF Cinderella" (or a Cinderella tale-type) and 'why' and 'how' they're an interesting reflection of the time period in which they were made (including all those spins and spin-offs).

All of this is walked through step by step with much humor, pithy historical recaps and some interesting social commentary until she ends up at... Captain America. Yes. The super hero. Like this:

If it's just a rescue of a deserving underdog from an ordinary life and delivery to an extraordinary one, then... to be honest? — Captain America is Cinderella. Lots of our current stories are. What is a fairy godmother, after all, that isn't also present in the idea of being bitten by a spider and gaining the ability to climb buildings? What is that pumpkin coach but ... the Batmobile? And not to return to the tone of cannibalism and murder, but what consideration of unloved pop-culture girls whose evil mothers won't let them to go dances is complete without Carrie? 

Too far afield? Sure. But this is folklore, and it doesn't end, it just takes new forms...

This is why I feel it's important to follow fairy tale news. Not that I will be posting on SpiderGodmother or the BatPumpkin anytime soon, but maybe this will help people understand how some of us see fairy tale connections EVERYWHERE. Sometimes they're overt (I try to put those here in the blog, to point out conscious uses of the tales) but mostly they're not (and sometimes I might nod in that direction as well) but the point is, tales are being told - and retold - continuously. We influence them just as much as they continue to influence us.

How did Holmes get from gourds to pop-culture edginess being (possibly) just another version of another fairy tale? You'll have to go read it, but she ends on one of my favorite subjects. To continue from above (emphasis in bold is mine):

It isn't as if folklore goes up to 1900 and then stops, and everything after that is "pop culture." The production is different and the financing is different, but the appeal of stories that overlap and wind together, and the appeal of stories told and retold in different forms in different voices and variations, is not only a function of greed. It's also a function of instincts to tell and share and revisit stories you've heard before, not because they're new, but because they're not.

Now go read it all. It makes you feel extremely glad (and possibly a little ahead of the curve), to know that we love one of the most cultural defining and describing (and predicting!) subjects of all time: FAIRY TALES.

Review: "The Rabbit Back Literature Society" by Caitlin Postal

"The Rabbit Back Literature Society"

Review by Caitlin Postal

Editor's Note: This is one of those books I dearly wished I'd had time to review personally, with the use of folklore motifs and fairy tale-like echoes in the characters. Fortunately, partnering with Timeless Tales Magazine means we're able to begin building a "review posse" so Once Upon A Blog can post book reviews far more regularly (and Timeless Tales Magazine's Editor in Chief can get to know some new writers as well). Today, Caitlin gives you a glimpse as to why you might just be intrigued by The Rabbit Back Literature  Society too.

Jacket description: 

Only nine people have ever been chosen by renowned children’s author Laura White to join the Rabbit Back Literature Society, an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a tenth member has been selected: a young literature teacher named Ella.  

Soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual known as "The Game"? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura White’s winter party? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? Was there once another tenth member, before her? Slowly, as Ella explores the Society and its history, disturbing secrets that had been buried for years start to come to light. . . .

To put it simply, The Rabbit Back Literature Society is not a fairy tale, nor does it claim to be. Instead, author Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen serves up an intriguing mystery woven with elements of folklore, which make the reader just as contemplative as the protagonist, Ella Milana.

The tale begins in the small town of Rabbit Back, best known for its renowned author Laura White and the nine students she hand selects to groom into writers. When Ella becomes the Society’s tenth member, she finds herself drawn into a fantastical conspiracy shared only by the nine other members.

Upon Ella's induction to the Rabbit Back Literature Society, however, Laura White disappears into thin air, like an enigmatic Snow Queen, leaving only flurries of snow behind. Willing search parties cannot find her and they refuse to venture into the forest. It's nearly impossible to discuss the folklore elements of this novel without spoilers, but suffice it to say, things are not what they seem. At first, I saw Laura White as an eccentric benefactor but I couldn't have anticipated the truth.

Many folktales use the wild mysterious forest as a contrast to the safety of town life. But this novel subverts that trope. Jaaskelainen’s woods are certainly mystical, but the town is also inexplicably touched by magic. From the garden gnomes in Ella’s front yard to the wild dogs who patrol, Rabbit Back is not a normal town. What has returned to Martti Winter's garden? Why is Ingrid Katz burning books? How did Laura White disappear? What happened to the Society’s first tenth member?

What the forest takes, it doesn't give back and Ella comes to realize that "Under one reality there's always another. And another one under that." And so the reader is drawn into teasing out the mystery, just like Ella herself.

The Rabbit Back Literature Society’s patented small town charm has a deliciously sinister undertone, thanks to the shadowy presence of the woods. For readers looking to add a touch of the Fae to their cozy mystery collection, this novel is sure to be a hit.

Disclosure: A complimentary copy of the book was provided by Thomas Dunne Books in exchange for an honest review.

Caitlin Postal is a marketing specialist who loves literature, history, and pop culture. When not writing, she can be found sewing costumes and donning medieval armor. You can find her on twitter: https://twitter.com/goingpostale.