Article: Fairy Tales Return to Their Horror Roots

Yay! Here's an article which I expected to be essentially more of the same sensational complaints every other article about "scary fairy tales" seems to have at the moment. This one, however, actually makes some good observations and asks an important question.

We find past common issues like child abandonment, losing limbs and being eaten by sneaky creatures so horrific that so many people feel a knee-jerk reaction ("take them away!") is required as an appropriate response to tales that include such things. As a result our children in particular end up with sanitized, "shiny" versions of tales that do little more than distract momentarily to entertain us...

From thinkprogress.org:

Mirror, Mirror looks like an anachronism precisely because it’s so pristine. These aren’t dark woods so much as they’re a Hollywood set, or an incomplete CGI rendering. It’s hard to be terrified of a world where people’s teeth literally sparkle, and curses turn people into adorable simulacra of puppy dogs. These people are plastic: even if you cut them to the quick, there’d be no blood or guts to spill into that snow.

... But even as many protest details brought to light on finding out the darker origins of favorite tales, when times get tough we can't help but look to darker tales in the hopes of finding our way through our own. Even the obvious "shiny" Disney echoes in Once Upon A Time are proving to have a different meaning now. I'm particularly thinking of this past Sunday's episode where we see Snow White sweeping and singing... (Note: emphasis in bold is mine.)

(also from thinkprogress.org):

Once Upon a Time has a bit of that shininess problem, though conceptually, it’s gone darker. There’s a girl who turns into a wolf, and an actual heart in a box that’s been identified as belonging to a character we’ve gotten to know. That’s upsetting, even if we don’t see the organ itself. Grimm, which recently got a second-season pickup, and has improved by focusing on the core relationship between the detective and the werewolf, has been horrific from the beginning: we’ve got stolen organs, fights to the death, and incredibly ugly acts of murder all of them. The premise of the show itself is deeply unnerving—that there’s something else hiding under the skin many of us present to the world.  

And Once Upon a Time and Grimm are nodding at a question it’ll be important for fairy tale storytellers to consider if this trend is to continue. In the absence of the dark woods, the arbitrary nature of feudal lords, the horror of high infant mortality rates (at least in the developing world), the wolves that steal the sheep, what are our terrors? And which stories are the best matches for telling them? The persistence of crime dramas would suggest that the big city has replaced the big woods, that serial killers are our ravening beasts. But I’m not sure we have myths to embody the new fears generated by a world that’s much larger than the village, or the disembodied terrors of the digital age.

You can read the whole article HERE.

I feel like congratulating writer Alyssa Rosenberg for finding a relevant (and helpful!) angle on a very tired and (usually) under-researched hot-button issue.

You already know how I feel about this. I don't know what I would have done without fairy tales as a kid. What I have to wonder is: what would horrify someone from, say the Grimm's time (pre to mid 1800's) about our world? I would suggest our modern society isn't quite as different as we'd like to believe. People dress differently, connect and travel differently and technology is different but the same essential issues plague us today as much as they ever did. Predators of all kinds troll both our streets and online paths, con men stoop to taking advantage of the poor, the elderly and even children and where does the most child neglect and abuse in the world? Right under our noses. (I've blogged on this before - see additions to the post in red, including the links - but it bears repeating.) Currently the US leads the developed world in deaths in children as a result of child abuse. (See HERE for some scary recent statistics which I gather have not improved since the time of publishing, including a link to a news report which lays it out clearly.)

When you look at the tales in this light how can people think fairy tales have nothing to offer people, especially children, today? This is a very sad reason for the tales to be told, I know, but if they give hope and help save lives, that alone should be reason enough to keep sharing them. Though I sadly don't think this will ever go away there are many other reasons to keep telling fairy tales as well. I can only hope all your reasons are good ones too, but just in case they're not, and just in case it helps, you can be sure I'll keep telling these fairy tales with both the darkness of the woods and the hope of the way through that they offer.

With that said, I'm going to share this 5 minute animation, also included in the article and first seen on Cartoon Brew. It's a silhouette retelling, simply called Red, and is being described in various places as "a very dark version of Little Red Riding Hood." I have to wonder what isn't dark about LRRH, even in it's most benign form. Maybe all the cute wide-eyed girls in storybooks today have rewritten the tale in people's heads more than you would think. As far as this short goes, I would rate it as a solid PG13 - not for little kids but mainly because you see some of the violence. It's beautifully done:

Red is a modern day silhouette film based on the classic fairy tale. Directors Jorge Jaramillo and Carlo Guillot, with musician/composer Manuel Borda, explore the drama, horror and realism of the story in a beautifully stylized way. (Cartoon Brew)

RED from RED on Vimeo.

One final note: the premise of the article is that fairy tales have their roots in horror. I would argue that, that isn't actually the case. They have their roots in dealing with the realities of the time, which because the gore is often so "seen" then, we regard it as horrific. Unfortunately one of the main differences between then and now is we're better at hiding the gore (both visceral and psychological) from plain view. Just because we don't see people bleeding in front of us every day doesn't mean it isn't happening and it doesn't mean there isn't horror present. Fairy tales just tell it like it is. I find that very refreshing. It helps me know when a wolf really is a wolf. There's nothing quite like a heads up on that.

Note: In case it wasn't clear, the images throughout this post are from the short silhouette film Red as well.

Peau d'Ane Fashion Shoot by Carter Smith

This fashion shoot is largely inspired by the 1970 French film, Peau d'Ane, starring Catherine Deneuve. it was shot by fashion photographer, Carter Smith, who in 2006 turned his talents to filmmaking and is the same year this shoot was done.

Carter Smith started as a fashion photographer, moved into directing fashion related commercials then submitted his first short film, Bugcrush to the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, winning the top shorts filmmaking prize. He still works in photography but filmmaking is now his main focus.

This particular fashion shoot clearly shows an interest in telling stories via images, beyond the fashion shoot requirement of making both the clothes and model look beautiful. Though these images are bright and pretty there's still a hint of darkness in them, something which apparently appeals to Carter Smith.

From Bangor Daily News:

Asked what draws him to a project, Smith replied: “It’s usually dark and it’s usually, in some way, mildly unsettling — or extremely unsettling.”

I have no idea if using Peau d'Ane (Donkeyskin) was his idea (as far as I understand usually the design of the shoot isn't the photographer's choice) but it is the type of tale that would appeal to his sensibilities and the lush style of filmmaking of the 1970 film would have meshed well.

While we're on the subject of the film, via a (very substandard) online translation of the French Wikipedia page for the 1970 film Peau d'Ane are these interesting references to other fairy tales used in the film, as well as some cultural references. I'll copy and paste directly so please forgive the weird phrasing among other things:

The film also contains many references:Other tales of Perrault 

• When Donkey Skin arrives at the farm during his flight, all the characters are like sleeping, frozen in their activity, as in The Sleeping Beauty

• "Old" hosting Donkey Skin spitting toads, as the eldest in Fairies . It refers to Little Red Riding Hood , addressing the prince; (Edit FTNH: I'm a little lost on the connection between The Fairies and LRRH here)

• Two farmhands make fun of Donkey Skin in the nicknaming "Cinderwench", as does the elder half-sisters of Cinderella 

• The "ball of cats and birds," organized by the Red Queen, to host the 
Marquis de Carabas , a character appearing in Puss in Boots , but quoted in the story

• Thibaud said Donkey Skin it is the ugly beast after the wolf .

Other Stories

• The glass coffin in the film for the deceased mother of the heroine, is a reference to 
Snow White and Grimm

• The mirror of Donkey Skin, who reveals to distance the reaction of his father after his escape, is a reference to the magic mirror of Beauty and the Beast , which can reveal truths through images of distant.

Modern Literature

• The blue king bed to his daughter, verses written by poets of the future, in a collection which was donated by the Lilac Fairy:

• Love of Guillaume Apollinaire , taken from The Watcher melancholy

• The Muses of Jean Cocteau , extract Ode to Picasso

• Dialogue between the prince and the rose is an evocation of the dialogue between 
the Little Prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and his rose.

Popular tradition

• Entitled to a cake recipe of love , a song of the film takes the analogy between the bean of the Twelfth Night cake and the sign of love (ring) left by Donkey Skin in the cake for the prince.

• The king's beard is red flower, a reference to Charlemagne , "the emperor with the flowing beard"

 

MusicThe Lilac Fairy, Godmother of Donkey Skin, is the name of the last fairy godmother commuting the fate of the wicked fairy to sleep for one hundred years in the ballet of Tchaikovsky , The Sleeping Beauty .

There are quite a number of historical references too. Makes me wish there was an "annotated version" released of the film with commentaries and mini-documentaries showing all the connections, like I've seen appear recently since Bluray has gotten popular. Maybe this fashion shoot would make it to the extras these days.

Even if I can't have my wish for such a print, it definitely makes me want to see the film again. It also makes me curious about how the current Christophe Gans production of Beauty and the Beast is going to go. Peau d'Ane has definite homages to Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête and I can't imagine a new French fairy tale film not giving at least a subtle nod to the 1946 black and white classic.

A poster I haven't seen before for Pea d'Ane

An Update on the 500 Rediscovered Tales With Notes From Maria Tatar & Jack Zipes

Sergey Tyukanov

Note: My apologies I didn't get this up sooner to join in the discussion as it was happening, never having completed my initial draft. I've adapted my post to reflect comments already published as a result.

Unfortunately my posting may be rather more erratic than usual these few weeks with some "life stuff" on my end but I will do my best to post as often as I can.
(And no matter how many times I fix it the formatting keeps changing! I've contacted Blogger about it but have had no answers as to what to do about it yet.)

You've probably read Heidi's post on Professor Maria Tatar's column in The New Yorker, discussing the "500 rediscovered fairy tales" of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. If you didn't click through and read The New Yorker piece on March 16th: "CINDERFELLAS: THE LONG-LOST FAIRY TALES Posted by Maria Tatar", I highly recommend it.


There is also another post you should be aware of by The Sussex Center for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy, who were given permission to publish a cautionary note on the tales rediscovery by Professor Jack Zipes. You can find the post, "AN EXTRAORDINARY NEW FIND AND JACK ZIPES ON THE 500 NEW FAIRY TALES" HERE.


Since the whole rediscovery has been touted as such an important "event" in the world of fairy tales, and since I've done a lot of reading of various posts on the subject, including a lot of comments and followed a lot of links, I wanted to add my own two cents to back up what Heidi and the rest of the fairy tale scholars are saying right now and to mention the Cinderfella issue too.


To summarize (I'm going to do my best to keep each point short with just a few notes on each):


1) The 500 "new" tales are not new. 
    a) Of the 500 tales quite a number are versions of tales we already know and love - just in raw, incomplete (and, from what I've read) barely readable form. (Yeah... I know.)
    b) The tales are barely able to be classified as "rediscovered" either since it turns out that quite a number of them existed ON THE INTERNET in some form already - just not in English. (I know!)

Sergey Tyukanov

2) As mentioned before, the tales are in their "raw" form, which, while still of much value, isn't the same as discovering an unpublished book of tales by Grimm or Perrault or Andersen. 
        a) As far as I can understand it, the  Schönwerth  tales are straight oral dictations and don't include any cultural observation and research (which would include direct transcriptions of oral tales as told to the writer, along with notes to help in later understanding of what was recorded) nor are they immediately readable by the average person (ie. the reaction would likely be: "What the..?!").
      b)  The Grimm Brothers get a lot of flack for having used their writing skills to shape and mold the tales to their preferences. While some of that criticism can be justified (especially from our perspective in history) there's a lot to be said for using artistic sensibilities when relating or retelling a tale. When you think about it, aren't you glad the Grimm collections can be read beginning to end without skipping over um's and ah's and stopping to jump back and forward to try and make sense of a story? Can you imagine trying to read something that included common oral goofs such as "..hang on, that happened before she picked up the egg, so I guess she must have pulled out the other thing at the river..."? (If you don't know what I'm talking about with that example, well, that's kind of my point.)
      c) By their nature, fairy tales have an oral heritage that changes with the teller, the listener*, the period, the situation and culture too. Written down fairy tales have to do the same thing - otherwise the story can be - literally - lost in the (lack of) translation. There's a reason Editors are so highly regarded and good ones are sought after. Storytelling is an art form. Writing down an oral art form has a number of challenges if it's to convey any sense of that art and bridge the gap between listener and reader audiences. Just like a movie writer/director adapting a book to screen, an artistic sense is key in bringing the tales to a new medium and audience. No matter how good the book is, if the director doesn't understand the medium of story telling via film and how to put the "magic" of the book's story into moving images, the movie will likely flop. Not only that, it can also have a negative affect on the original source. A filmmaker has to make a new creation out of the old that continues to give to the story. So too for any tales changing form (in this case from oral to written). Extra "skillz" needed!

Sergey Tyukanov

      d) On the opposite side of the same coin, there is one aspect of having such "rawness" in the tales that could be to the advantage of modern transcribers. To quote Prof. Tatar: 

"Schönwerth’s tales have a compositional fierceness and energy rarely seen in stories gathered by the Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault... 

The stories remain untouched by literary sensibilities. No throat-clearing for Schönwerth, who begins in medias res, with “A princess was ill” or “A prince was lost in the woods,” rather than “Once upon a time…” 

Though he was inspired by the Grimms, Schönwerth was even more interested than they were in documenting the oral traditions of Bavaria. He hoped to preserve remnants of a pagan past and to consolidate national identity by capturing in print rapidly fading cultural traditions, legends, and customs. This explains the rough-hewn quality of his tales. Oral narratives famously neglect psychology for plot, and these tales move with warp speed out of the castle and into the woods, generating multiple encounters with ogres, dragons, witches, and other villains, leaving almost no room for expressive asides or details explaining how or why things happen. The driving question is always “And then …?”

This is of great value to new storytellers but means, essentially, there is quite a bit of work to be done before these stories can enter a storybook for publication or to be passed down through generations. In other words, before a public can appreciate and "access" them (in the tale sense of the word) they need a bit of work. Think basic ingredients without herbs, spices and a cook's attention for taste! In tales it's the details that often capture attention and imagination... eg from Grimm's Little Snow White, emphasis in bold is mine: Three drops of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful that she thought to herself, "If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in this frame.") Our scholars have their work cut out for them.

   e) Since we already have a love and understanding of various Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Rapunzel and Cinderella's via Grimms and Perrault, among others, it would be interesting to see what light these raw versions of the same tale might shed on them. If they bring a new understanding of tale, history, culture and more then we have a valuable find indeed. If it brings only a scratching of heads then it might be indication that the rest of the tales should be considered with the same number of grains of salt. (Note: this is my speculation only. I'm not a translator. I cannot make any useful sense of what I've seen in the German texts online beyond direct  - and my very amateur - translation of the words. I'm just following logic here.)

Sergey Tyukanov

3) It turns out there are MANY collections awaiting translation to English and to being made more accessible databases and libraries. Schönwerth's volumes are just a few of many yet to be properly studied and translated from all over Europe. From Prof. Jack Zipes in a post on the Sussex Center for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy: An Extraordinary New Find and Jack Zipes On The 500 New Fairy Tales:

  ...I can point to some brilliant German collections by Theodor Vernaleken, Johann Wilhelm Wolf, Ignaz and Joseph Zingerele, Heinrich Pröhle, Josef Haltrich, Christian Schneller, Karl Haupt, Hermann Knust, Carl and Theodor Colshorn, etc. etc. and even more brilliant French collections by François-Marie Luzel, Paul Sébillot, Emmanuel Cosquin, Jean-François Bladé, Henry Carnoy, etc. etc. that contain tales fastidiously recorded by these folklorists, who translated them from dialect versions. They also include raw dialect versions with their translations. You can also see this in my and Joseph Russo’s translation of Giuseppe Pitrè’s Sicilian tales, The Collected Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitrè (2008). Pitrè’s tales are also raw like Schoenwerth’s, but more fascinating because his ear was better and he wrote them down in dialect. Indeed, we have not yet translated the best European folk-tale collections into English and given them their due recognition, and I would not put Schönwerth’s tales at the top of my list of collections that need more study. We must ask what the significance of Schönwerth’s collection is within the development of oral folk tales during the nineteenth century, and it is too early to do this, whereas some of the other collections are clearly important for understanding how and why the tales were disseminated.

       a) As you can see from the quote, interestingly, many of these are "raw" tales too but contain additional notes and writings that may assist in translating the tales and adapting them for modern day readability. This is not to take away from the value of the find necessarily, but to say this should perhaps point the way to more of the same and some possibly even more exciting treasures awaiting our attention.
      b) We have a lot of tale-catching (up) to do! 
      c) And translators should be better valued than they are.

Sergey Tyukanov

Returning to Prof. Tatar's New Yorker post, the main focus, beyond, the "nothing-new"-ness of it all is that one thing Schönwerth's collection does appear to shine a spotlight on is the "missing Cinderfella factor" in the Grimm's tales in particular. 

Our own culture, under the spell of Grimm and Perrault, has favored fairy tales starring girls rather than boys, princesses rather than princes. But Schönwerth’s stories show us that once upon a time, Cinderfellas evidently suffered right alongside Cinderellas, and handsome young men fell into slumbers nearly as deep as Briar Rose’s hundred-year nap. Just as girls became domestic drudges and suffered under the curse of evil mothers and stepmothers, boys, too, served out terms as gardeners and servants, sometimes banished into the woods by hostile fathers. Like Snow White, they had to plead with a hunter for their lives. And they are as good as they are beautiful—Schönwerth uses the German term “schön,” or beautiful, for both male and female protagonists. 

Why did we lose all those male counterparts to Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and the girl who becomes the wife of the Frog King? Boy heroes clearly had a hard time surviving the nineteenth-century migration of fairy tales from the communal hearth into the nursery...

Personally, I'm not convinced that mothers and nursery maids are the main reason boys didn't suffer as much as the girls in our canon tales. They survived just fine before the mid-1800's in Europe and through and after in cultures such as Russian, Chinese, Norwegian, Indian and many more. I do think the Grimm's editing and the availability of their tales in print form had a lot to do with this narrowing of focus though. To continue the movie metaphor, it's like blockbusters versus independent films. Which do you think has the greatest chance of surviving history to be studied in the future? Considering the power and dollars in "princess marketing", do you think in a few hundred years that The Walt Disney Company will be remembered for the boys club it's actually known to be?

Sergey Tyukanov

Regarding the Grimm's editing (a.k.a. censorship), again, this isn't "new" news but Schönwerth being a fellow countryman of the Grimm Brothers does help shed light on just how much editing the brothers did for the sake of boosting a paternal national identity and, specifically, not exposing the males in the stories to the same vulnerabilities as the females, something which seemed to be very important politically at the time.


Note: I'm not an expert - there are many books on the Brothers Grimm that can explain this far more accurately and succinctly! Please go check them out.


What I'm really chiming in to say is that, despite this no-new-news news, I'm still excited about three things:

1) We really do have a wealth of tales yet to explore - and Schönwerth's Turnip Princess should be easily equaled - and has a good chance of being surpassed in terms of story quality - among the myriad yet to be studied.2) There is a wealth of "Cinderfella" tales related to those we're already familiar with (from a Western canon point of view) that mothers like me cannot wait to see put together as collections to share with our sons. Schönwerth's volumes may help dust those off for the public and help bring them back into circulation. (I would dearly love more fairy tales for boys books, beyond myths and dragons, to share with my son!)3) Anything that gets the public excited about fairy tales and what they may have to offer is, in my opinion, of value!

Sergey Tyukanov

I'm actually quite surprised at the enthusiasm I've seen OUTSIDE of fairy tale circles. (See this Metafilter thread HERE as an example and note the many, many comments). It's fascinating to see what people are hoping will be "found"/uncovered. It says a lot about how fairy tales in general and as a part of our history and heritage, are considered: as precious. It helps explain why, when times are bleak and in times of wide spread depression and tragedy, fairy tales become popular again and why we feel that within these tales we will find hope and a way through the woods.


* The listener, yes! Whom the tales are told to - the age, the situation, the cultural norms etc etc - seems to be overlooked much of the time only to become a sticking point later when everything gets lumped together. It's like someone in the future saying everyone went to see all the movies playing at the local theater in 2012. It just doesn't work that way. Who told the tales to whom can be somewhat paralleled to this.


Note: All the amazing etchings featured in the post today are by Sergey Tyukanov. And yes - they very much reminded me of some fairy tales I've read for boys! I think some of these would go very well in a volume of tales for boys. You can find more of his etching work HERE. His wonderful website with work in all media and colors is HERE (including some really different and interesting Alice In Wonderland paintings - honestly, you've never seen anything quite like this version of Alice!) and his blog, in Spanish, is HERE.

"Snow White and the Huntsman" Featurettes

 Three brand new featurettes to get the buzz going for Snow White and the Huntsman. They're largely hosted by Charlize Theron (who plays Ravenna, the Evil Queen) but other cast members chime in too.

First up is "Setting the Stage" and discusses the approach to the visuals and the use of imagery. I like the idea that the Queen symbolizes death (more on this in the costume featurette) while Snow White is the "beating heart of life".

Next is "Reflecting on Charlize Theron's Evil Queen". I'm sure we'll hear more about the challenges Ms. Theron had in playing her when the movie is released and there's no chance of ruining the 'big' spoilers. (I love the slide into the sewer. I wonder how much rehearsal that took and how big a bruise that caused!)

Wow - the costume featurette is just amazing and is easily my favorite of the three.  The idea that The Evil's Queen's various costumes reflect death, including the wedding dress at the beginning of the movie, is fantastic. There's been so much talk of Mirror Mirror's very stylistic costumes that Colleen Atwood's work hasn't really had a spotlight until now. Based on this I'm tempted to go just to see the details of Ravenna's wardrobe. We do get to hear more about how Snow White as a character is approached and her basic arc from how the progression of her wardrobe is described. At the moment, I'm far more interested in thee Evil Queen's story which seems to me to be far more layered.

"Lips red as blood, hair black as night. Bring me your heart, my dear, dear Snow White."

 Finally here's a "sneak peek" at the coming trailer. I can't help but be reminded of Legend and The Neverending Story at various points, not in a bad way mind you (although... please don't let the horse die, please-don't-let-the-horse-die, pleasedon'tletthehorsedie!). It reminds me the director was probably influenced when he was younger by the same movies and images I was.

The costume featurette settles it though. I'm definitely going to need the "Making Of" book of this movie and I might even attempt to see it in a theater.

 In case you've lost track with all the fairy tale news going on at the moment Snow White and the Huntsman is set to open on June 1st.

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.

Mirror Mirror's Social Queen

How to make a very fantastical fairy tale movie relevant to people today? Use social media. Or, should I say, watch this Queen use social media and get this incredibly familiar feeling you've seen her somewhere before...

First seen on Maria Tatar's Breezes From Wonderland blog, I was so tickled to see this use of advertising and had to share and make a few comments.

But first, if you haven't seen it yet, take a look:

Do we know this Queen? I think we do.

I really like that this clearly shows the archetype is not only (eerily) familiar and (sadly) relevant today but puts yet another modern spin on the Snow White story. (It may even make a few people do a double take at their own actions... one can hope.)

The video reminds me of the Christmas Story as viewed/told via Facebook. It's well done and, again, clearly shows how people simply haven't changed as much over hundreds of years as we (would like to) think.

This is also another example of how to effectively use various forms of social media for spreading the word about niche ideas and topics, how to network with people who are normally scattered and hard to find (since they're not necessarily the ones in popular circles with lots of money to "announce" their presence online) which is exactly the point of viral marketing (well, that, and to persuade these people to spend their money but that's another topic).

Why am I spending so much time on this little piece of advertising? Because it suggests how effective a tool social media can be for many reasons and what magic may be lying at the fingertips of the fairy tale community - if we can figure out how to harness it. We just need to figure out what it is we actually want to do for fairy tales first. It's time to think outside the box.

It's clear even the big media outlets are struggling to keep up with this technology's potential but you know who's figured out how to make this work? Evil Queens. And Kings. And other not-so-stellar types. Social media is this very strong neutral resource - or power, if you like - and has already proved to be very effective when put to use by deviant minds (identity theft, hacking the CIA and blocking resources). But what this really means is that it also has great potential for good too. It just takes a different type of heart to find how. Did you know sites such as Care2Causes and other petition sites have saved lives, stopped abuse, highlighted and halted corrupt lawmaking and much much more? All because people take 3 seconds to sign their name and spread the word (ie. expose) what's actually happening.

What does this have to do with fairy tales? Everything. Imagine if Snow White (who already had a high profile and was a clear winner in any popularity contest) had the tools of social media at her fingertips. No more running alone through the woods, hiding out or being cornered alone. What if the little bird spreading news about Snow White was actually a tweet? Emergency services would have arrived before she'd have hit the floor. The mirror of today? It's those invisible thousands who's interest you've caught and who anonymously "like", comment on or even just mention what you've said to someone else. In it's own way it's magical and, like magic, using it comes with both risk and reward. These are the tools of today and the way stories are told, popularized and archived. The nice thing about this era? No wizard skills required. Being involved is often simpler than checking your email. We owe it to ourselves and the tales we love to use this to our advantage.*

The question would then no longer be "Would you dare "unfriend" this Evil Queen?" but "Would she dare "unfriend" you?"

Something to think about.

*Yes: there are a billion people trying to teach you how to "market yourself" using social media these days and yes, it CAN be both overwhelming and a fulltime job maintaining it - IF you let it. The key is to make it work FOR YOU (re the fairy tale community: "us") - not have you work for it (which is what some sites are trying to do. You and your information are far more useful to them if they have you do all the work).