"The Hunger Games" and Myth and Fairy Tale

Maria Tatar put up a link on her blog yesterday to an LA Times article discussing the too dark/not-dark-enough movie The Hunger Games.

Having just read the books this past month I finally have some sense of why they are so popular, though any talk of "teams" or fan-squee-ing has me scratching my head since they're just not those sorts of books. It's taken me a long while to get on board (since having wasted time and money on previously highly popular YA books) but I can gladly say these are well written and well worth the investment. I wouldn't be surprised if they became required reading for high school at some point.

Note: If you managed to avoid all sense of the books as I did before reading, for the purposes of this post you should know (don't worry - this is premise - no spoilers) that it's set in a near post-war (aka post apocalyptic) future in which people are divided into districts and controlled by a wealthy Capitol. In order to keep the districts under control each year the districts are forced to send two children, aged between 12 and 18, to "The Hunger Games", to fight each other to the death - while everyone watches (viewing is mandatory)  via an exploitive media and "entertainment-fest". The heroine, Katniss Everdeen, steps up to take the place of her younger sister during the reaping/choosing.

 I have since been very concerned that any movie will not do justice to the book, the characters, the story or the issues in the series and sadly foresee many people not even bothering to pick up the books after dismissing the sensationalized (by the media and of the issues) movie. Despite that the story is riveting and there is plenty of fodder that should make for an amazing film, I think the subject matter (think Lord of the Flies + 1984 + Gladiators and more), juggled with trying to keep it accessible to an under-18 audience, is a task beyond most filmmakers today. (You may have heard about the removal of 7 seconds of blood spatter to allow the film a PG rating. The result is that the direness of Katniss' situation is severely diluted from an audience perspective - exactly what the books aim NOT to do, though Ms. Collins manages to keep the peril very present without concentration on the gore, thanks to excellent writing.) From the reviews, it's suffering from just that problem, even having the author on board as writer ad consultant for the script. It's a weird feeling: wishing the film would do very well and simultaneously wishing it would pass quickly by so the books would retain their popularity and intrigue, causing more people to read them. If you at all interested in seeing the movie, please pick up the book first and give it a read before you do. It's a very quick read and you won't be sorry.

That said, I was very interested to read how the author, Suzanne Collins, was inspired by the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in particular. As a  result, it's not to much of a stretch to find parallels in fairy tales either.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the article:

Collins has said she found inspiration for her story, which is set in the future, in the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, in which the Cypriots demand Athens send seven boys and girls each year as food for the half-man, half-bull, until Theseus slays the beast. In "The Hunger Games," Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old tomboy handy with a bow and arrow, is a Theseus-type character, a young savior fighting on behalf of all the other children. 

...The brutality of "The Hunger Games," which results in the deaths of more than 20 youths, follows in the gory footsteps of many of the Grimms' fairy tales, which were first published in 1812. In "Hansel and Gretel," a pair of abandoned siblings escape from a cannibalistic witch by stuffing her into the oven; in "The Juniper Tree," a woman slams the lid of a trunk on her stepson and decapitates him; and in the axiomatically titled "How Some Children Play at Slaughtering," a little boy stands in for a pig in a child's game of butchering.

I highly recommend reading all Ms. Tatar's comments (she is quote in the article) on why we are so compelled by this subject and why Katniss is such an appealing heroine for both adults and children. You can read the whole article HERE.

While at first glance The Hunger Games doesn't appear to have much in common with fairy tales at all it isn't hard to think of connections once you start. I'm reminded of stories about Koschei the Deathless, to the Little Match Girl to Deals with the Devil to tales in which girls, all striving to appear perfect as suitors to a prince fail in their conformity and lose their heads. (It's the girl who breaks most of the rules that gets chosen in the end, though why she would want to marry someone who would have cut off her head a few minutes before is disturbing. I'm guessing, like the Miller's Daughter, you will do things you never would have considered to save not just your life but the lives of those you love.) I wish I could remember which tale this last one was! I think it had an Asian origin, although there are a few Russian ones that have similar tropes as well, not to mention Scheherezade's predicament, though she wasn't having to kill other women at the same time.

The story of the Hunger Games is told mainly through the heroine, Katniss' eyes so the stakes are very immediate and real for the reader. Fairy tales are often set in a nebulous time and are somewhat removed from us via the matter-of-fact story telling so that one tends to adjust to the story, implications and messages in it as one is emotionally and mentally ready. Not so The Hunger Games. Although the story of death, slaughter, risk and sacrifice isn't a new idea, as fairy tales from many cultures attest to, having the setting and characters be so specific in their voice and set in a time we can see as a possibility in our own futures, brings home the chill of how little mankind has changed since our gruesome, gory and bloody (recent) past. But will it be the wake-up call, the Prometheus, if you will, that society needs? Sadly, our own media machines and the tendency to rev up fandom as a response to extreme ideas results in diluting the very issues that caught out attention in the first place (we already have parodies of the books widely available and Hunger Games cookbooks and badges for "teams". Even the Twitter feed of Lions Gate Films announcing the cast is almost an exact echo of the how the children chosen for slaughter are "introduced" to the public... *shudder*). The very fact that we have a movie - and marketing - like this may just be a dark mirror of its source (though many won't even realize it).

It's a reminder (to me) that we should be familiar with our fairy tales and holding their lessons close. History has a tendency to repeat itself and we can't say we haven't been warned.

At the time of this writing The Hunger Games books are available at a discounted price almost everywhere (pharmacies, Targets, Kmarts and Walmarts etc), with the first book in paperback being available for around the $6 mark (except in bookstores like Barnes & Noble, though Amazon's price is currently low too). Online you can get the first book, which the movie is based on, HERE.

Fan Made "Snow White and the Huntsman Poster"

This is a gorgeous fan-made poster for the upcoming film, Snow White and the Huntsman by Dwayne Labuschagne (aka chronophasia on deviantArt).

Mr. Labuschagne says, about the work:

 I've always been a fan of minimalist posters with interesting designs, so I got this idea to create a unique poster for Snow White and the Huntsman using only silhouettes to represent key imagery from the film. The silhouettes consist of stock images that I have tweaked in some way and expanded upon using other silhouettes. Those that I created myself are the silhouettes for the evil queen, the mysterious forest creature and the apple.

Universal Studios are currently looking for fan-made art for the movie and this poster was one of the works submitted (I'm not sure if the artist submitted it himself or it was submitted for him).

If you are interested in submitting your own piece, you can do that HERE.

You can see more of Mr. Labuschagne's work HERE.

Guest Post at SurLaLune for Fairy Tale Music Month: Evanescence

I have a guest post over at SurLaLune today, discussing the Evanescence music video for "Call Me When You're Sober" (using Red Riding Hood imagery) and the fairy tale connections and use by fans of the hit song "Bring Me To Life".

You can find the post, Music Videos: "Call Me When You're Sober" & "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence HERE.

Camille Rose Garcia's Dark and Disneyesque Snow White

Although I had seen Camille Rose Garcia's illustrations around in the past year or so she never really caught my attention until Amy Leigh Morgan blogged about her Snow White art and related book and show over at The Fairy Tale Factory back in February. She has, however, been around for a little while (since 2007) and has made a big impact in a short period of time. Her previous book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a New York Times Bestseller.

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UPDATE: I took myself to the local bookstore for a rainy-day book browse yesterday and was delighted to find Garcia's Snow White there on the Myth & Folklore shelf. Although I had already written this post a while back and had browsed the illustrations and information about the book at length I had no idea the edition was so gorgeous. Hardcover, beautifully printed and full - chock-full! - of amazing illustrations that blew me away... and this isn't the types of style I'm usually drawn to either. I had to rush home and put it on my Amazon gotta-get Wish List and update my draft before letting it publish so I could let you know: this is worth a look-see (if you can get your hands on a copy) and well worth the price. Now back to your regularly scheduled post... ;)
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Here's the artistic description of the newly released book (the cover is shown at the head of the post), rather than a synopsis, since you're all familiar with Grimm's Little Snow White.

A breathtaking, wildly original spin on the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Harper Design’s Snow White is boldly and beautifully reimagined by acclaimed artist Camille Rose Garcia, the illustrator of the New York Times bestseller Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Delivering a fresh take on a vintage fairy tale, Garcia's dark and Disneyesque art, with its vivid colors and luscious, dripping  blacks, will weave a spell around fans of illustrated books from Daniel Egnéus’s Little Red Riding Hood to Femke Hiemstra’s Rock Candy.

This new gift edition presents the unabridged version of the Grimms’ tale, with an original interpretation by renowned artist Camille Rose Garcia that artfully combines wit and dark romance. 

Ms. Garcia's (gorgeous illustrated, laid out and printed!) book is available through Amazon HERE.

 I also recently came across this article about Ms. Garcia and her reworking of the newly released Snow White book thought I'd share. Orange County (Los Angeles) is rightly proud of this underground artist's success and the Los Angeles Times posted an interview with her just this week.

From the LA Times:

Garcia, when deciding on her tone and text, looked back to the Brothers Grimm’s 1812 version of the story but, having grown up near and in Disneyland, she also couldn’t resist the tug of the classic 1937 animated feature film. “I did look to Disney’s animated ‘Snow White’ as the watercolor backgrounds were especially beautiful,” Garcia said. “I wanted to reference Walt Disney’s style but bring in the creepy Germanic folk-tale element.”

The latter explains why, in this version, the Evil Queen devours  Snow White’s lung and liver in one passage — or, more precisely, she believes the organs that she’s snacking on belong to Snow White. Garcia’s dark-tinged retelling of the classic is in the spotlight with an exhibit at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Beverly Hills that runs through April 14. On Thursday, Garcia will be at the gallery for a 6-8 p.m. signing event and in the weeks to come she’ll be on a book tour with stops already announced for San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

You can read the whole article which details more of her artistic influences HERE.

For those interested in her Betty Boop meets Tammy Faye Baker style and who no doubt see other classic "old world" cartoon influences in her work and would like to know more, here's a video of Ms. Garcia working on some of the paintings for the book. When you see her skill in working with lines it's easy to see how she became an underground art darling who transitioned wonderfully to the respected art world. Her paintings have been shown internationally, she's been published in a variety of well known magazines and she now has works in several mainstream galleries:

There is a new book coming out in August on s. Garcia's art titled Mirror, Black Mirror. The official blurb gives us quite a bit of insight into why this artist paints as she does:

Camille Rose Garcia & her new book

Mirror, Black Mirror, chronicles the prolific and life changing time period of 2007-2011, when Garcia fled the sprawling mecca of Los Angeles, her lifelong home, and moved to a cabin in the woods of Northern California. Living so close to the natural world has given the artist even more insight into the major themes of her work, disenchantment with modern civilization, and the problems of becoming too removed from the natural world. 

Camille Rose Garcia was born in 1970 in Los Angeles, California, The child of a mexican activist filmmaker father and a muralist/painter mother, she apprenticed at age 14 working on murals with her mother while growing up in the generic suburbs of Orange County, visiting Disneyland and going to punk shows with the other disenchanted youth of that era. Garcia's layered, broken narrative paintings of wasteland fairy tales are influenced by William Burroughs' cut-up writings and surrealist film, as well as vintage Disney and Fleischer cartoons, acting as critical commentaries on the failures of capitalist utopias, blending nostalgic pop culture references with a satirical slant on modern society... She recently moved to the Pacific Northwest after 38 years in Los Angeles.

See the whole blurb HERE, which details lots more about her success and where her work has been published and can be seen.

You can see more of her Snow White illustrations HERE and her book is available HERE and HERE.

Ballet Preljocaj & Jean Paul Gaultier's "Blanche Neige" Comes to the US

Ballet Preljocaj's Blanche Neige (modified poster)

I started a draft of this story early in the week but was unable to finish it and I'm now glad I didn't. I originally focused on the world famous fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier and his unique take on Snow White for Ballet Preljocaj's Blanche Neige, which is finally touring the US. Despite that it was Gaultier's collaboration that initially caught my eye (that's the Gaultier of the infamous cone-shaped bra for Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour in 1990), the more I read about the work, the more I wanted to share other aspects of this new-to-us Snow White as well (the ballet actually debuted in France in 2008 and has since won awards). From a study of strong females and the evil queen, through to comments from the choreographer on the story of Snow White's relevance today, there's a few treats ahead in the excerpts.

Note: Ballet Preljocaj's Blanche Neige is a contemporary dance work, not a traditional tutu ballet.

I'll begin with this wonderful article by Pamela Trokanski of The Davis Enterprise who's actually familiar with Grimm's Little Snow White and fairy tales in general so, amongst the images of Gaultier's amazing costumes, I'll give you excerpts from here and a few other places.

From The Davis Enterprise on the ballet itself:

I grew up reading fairy tales — the real ones — before political correctness and cultural “sanitization” took place. They were stories of love and terror, of cruelty and revenge, of retribution and atonement. Good ultimately conquered evil, although there was often a price to pay, by both victim and perpetrator. 

Choreographer Angelin Preljocaj understands this in his bones. And he certainly speaks the language of fairy tale, fluently and faultlessly. His “Blanche Neige” (“Snow White”) is a stunning, visually opulent, work that captures the Grimm fairy tale version exquisitely.

On the story and characters of the ballet:

The entrance of the pregnant mother, danced by Nuriya Nagimova, her slow progression as she toils across the stage, desperate in childbirth, says a great deal about the power of well wedded movement to sound. The appearance of seven miners (not noted in the program) out of caves, high above the stage, rappelling down a rock wall, dancing vertically and horizontally above the stage, was unexpected and joyous, toying with our expectations that dance happens on a flat surface and is bound by gravity. 

Also captivating: the reappearance of the dead mother, materializing from above, hovering over and lifting her dead daughter momentarily, before leaving. 

There are small, but crucial choreographic touches that convey the story. The passage of time, between the King finding the baby, and Snow White’s growing up, is neatly conveyed by a simple, yet effective, use of set. The King moves behind a column of material, the baby sheltered in his arms, only to reappear with the young girl, beautifully portrayed by 9-year-old Camilla Pedrosa of Davis. (McKenna Lincoln, 10, of Woodland, danced the role Sunday.) Dancing with his young daughter, he circles yet another column, this time reappearing with Snow White as a young woman, danced by Virginie Caussin. 

The cats, minions of The Queen, were perfectly matched and moved sinuously across the stage, menacing and mischievous. Dancers Natacha Grimaud and Lorena O’Neil were perfectly suited for these roles. Athletic and elegant, they were able to convey both the bonelessness of languid felines and their willingness to play with prey. 

The Prince, danced by Sergio Diaz, made a marvelous partner for Snow White. While their opening interactions at the ballroom were everything they needed to be, it was the duet of the prince and the dead/unconscious Snow White that was incomparable. A pas de deux with one partner required to act limp and unresponsive calls for strength, timing, trust and true connection.

(Edit FTNH: Sounds like choreographer Kenneth MacMillan's tomb pas de deux of Romeo & Juliet - which is also amazing and heart wrenching.)

Did anything not work for me? An opening scene at court went a little long. Also, the program notes, by Preljocaj, state his belief that the wicked stepmother is, to him, the central character. I didn’t see that at all. But all in all, these are very small things, nothing compared to the torment of the wicked stepmother, forced to wear red-hot iron shoes and dance to her death.

On the costume designs (source):

“Snow White has this beautiful flowing costume, but it’s almost nonexistent on the side,” said Renae Williams Niles, director of programming at the Music Center. “So you see far more of Snow White than you ever thought you would.” 

...(Jean Paul Gaultier's) costumes make it to the Music Center thanks to Angelin Preljocaj. The artistic director of the French ballet company and choreographer of the work said there’s a purpose to the revealing elements. The outfit shows both the character’s childhood purity and how she is in the process of becoming a woman.“The costume is half [a] costume of a woman and half [a] costume of a child,” he said in heavily accented French. 

In terms of costume design, it’s hard to get more contemporary than Gaultier. The fashion icon, who worked for Pierre Cardin before launching his own label, brings his unique style to all of the outfits while maintaining perfect harmony with the rest of the production, according to Niles.

(from  shopfair:) The costumes were designed by Jean Paul Gaultier and really suited the modern interpretation of the classic fairytale choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj to music by Gustav Mahler. The designs ranged from subtle JPG touches like straps and suspenders to full-blown JPG with the stepmother's bondage queen outfit (which was wonderful) and the best use of fringe I have seen this year (pictured on the right). "This is not the first time that Gaultier designs clothes for dancers. He has collaborated with Régine Chopinot, the choreographer, for 11 years in the past(1983-1994), during which he had sewed costumes for –more or less- 18 ballets choreographed by Chopinot." 

And excerpts from a completely different sort of review fro a 2009 performance, focusing on the evil queen, by Claudio from iHeartBerlin,de:

Being a fairy tale expert and a psychologist I was always indulged by the strong female characters appearing in Grimm’s fairy tales. I appreciated their impact in the stories as an evil and intense element of the plot. One of my favorites has always been the evil queen of Snow White who is obsessed with her vanity to the point where she loses everything.

...If I had to describe the style and the feeling the piece was giving me I would say that it is a great mixture between a stylish gothic music video and a really classical nice Midsummer Night’s Dream production. What perhaps sounds like an odd combination results in an emotionally touching balancing act between both styles. 

...Most intriguing was obviously the charming Beatrice Knop who proved herself as an enormously powerful solo dancer. Especially in her mirror scenes I totally believed that she was doing real magic instead of dancing. Also the scene where she kills Snow White with the apple really had a disturbing intensity. I literally saw the poison entering the body through the movements of the witch. (Read the whole review HERE.)

And finally, some very interesting comments on his Blanche Neige from the choreographer, Angelin Preljocaj (who, by the way, is referencing Bettelheim):

Preljocaj said the fairy tale remains relevant today, in the age of plastic surgery and other ways that women can remain young-looking.

"It's a very modern story, in the sense that today with scientific and medical progress, women can stay young and beautiful for a long time," said the choreographer. 

"That creates a potential conflict between generations. Daughters, faced with mothers who want to remain lovers, desirable and active socially, can develop a kind of Snow White complex."

"Generations are coming together. You often see 50- or 60-year-old women in the street with their daughter, dressed the same, swapping clothes and handbags. They can even be love rivals."

As with the upcoming big screen versions, Preljocaj's production does not follow the Disney version of the fairytale, rather putting more focus on the cruel stepmother. 

"It's the same as with 'Swan Lake', with the black swan and the white swan: Snow White is the positive character, beautiful and pure, while the stepmother is the opposite, also beautiful, but dark and hate-filled," he said.

"Snow White' is "really a thriller," he said. "The story of 'Sleeping Beauty' can be told in two lines. 'Snow White' is full of twists... leading to lots of ways of interpreting it choreographically." (source)

Here's a video of excerpts from the ballet. though the first courtier scene is a little long, the rest of the video is very dynamic and shows off choreography, costumes and the Snow White story beautifully:

For it's US debut gala at the Mondavi, Magrit Mondavi, Don Roth and Jeremy Ganter got together round table style to discuss Blanche Neige of KVIE's Studio Sacramento. It's about 20 minutes long but for anyone who likes theater and ballet production as well as Snow White, it's worth watching:

Watch Mondavi Center on PBS. See more from KVIE.

I've only seen ballet school versions of Snow White so to see a full-length professional work, complete with world famous set and costume designer collaboration would be amazing.

"Snow White" will be staged in Los Angeles from March 23-25, before heading to the East Coast at the end of March, through to April 21. The US cities where the work is to be performed include Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (source)

Lovecraft Jack and The Beanstalk by Ellis Goodson

Something very different and fairly self-explanatory via the title.

The piece, "Lovecraft Jack and The Beanstalk" is by Ellis Goodson (you can find his website HERE). It  underwent a number of edits on the TAG Tuesday Art Group blog HERE.

I wish there were a bigger version of the final edit - which I like best. It has quite a pulp noir novel cover or 70'/80's sci-fi cover feel - I can almost smell the yellowed pages that have been hidden in the back shelves of an old used bookstore somewhere. :)

You can see more details in the other edits at the TAG blog link if you're interested.

Apparently he intends to re-do the idea with a whole different art direction at some point. I'd be curious to see that too, though it's been a while since this was posted and I can't find any update.

NBC's Grimm Picked Up For 2nd Season

News I forgot to post from last week:

From hitfix:

NBC has announced that they're renewing the Friday drama "Grimm" for a second season.

...Going head-to-head with similarly themed sci-fi/fantasy shows "Fringe" and "Supernatural," "Grimm" has maintained a healthy following in the ratings. 

Good for them! More fairy tale based entertainment for us. I'm curious to see how the second season develops. Will it weave in a layered story and bring us a modern reworking of myths and fairy tales? Will it mine a little deeper from fairy tales and give us some new takes on old? Or will it be more of a solid, steady procedural drama with a supernatural element?

StitchPunk's Dark Fairytales

Remember my recent post about the use of red against a single color to illustrate and bring out the symbolism in a fairy tale? These beautiful embroidered designs from StitchPunk - Urban Threads, released in August 2011, do the same and with quite a few fairy tales.

I'm not really a crafty and needlework person, though I have been known to work on a tapestry or two, but beautiful and graphic art in any medium is fascinating to me. Embroidery, needlework and stitching of every kind is making a contemporary comeback with some creative and very non-traditional uses of the craft (like embroidery on metal HERE and stitched portraits HERE. You can see a whole lot more unusual stitching via these artist links at Mr. X Stitch HERE.)

Rapunzel

Jack & the Beanstalk

 So much you could infer from the blood red beans Jack threw away!

Snow White

Red Riding Hood

 I find it interesting to see where the red appears. Some, like the two above, are obvious while others, such as the Jack & the Beanstalk one, less so.

Sleeping Beauty

When I see red roses surrounding Sleeping Beauty in this context of a series of fairy tales, it makes me think of roses blooming out of the blood from her pricked finger. Vampire roses... hm. Yet another version of Sleeping Beauty.

Hansel & Gretel

 The red in the candy for Hansel and Gretel is a nice touch. Candy, in this case (as well as others) equals danger!

Cinderella

I like that they used the Aschenputtel version of Cinderella for the text, though they substituted rose blooms for bleeding. (Gives a whole new meaning to the pharse "love lies bleeding..". Even more if you change the punctuation: "Love. Lies. Bleeding.")

The Little Mermaid 

I'm not sure it was intentional, but the shape of the hair looks a lot like a ragged tongue here.

The Ugly Duckling

These designs are available for machine embroidery or as designs for hand embroidery and can be purchased HERE.

They have a few other designs such as a fairy tale castle (see below for design and an example of use), a book of fairy tales and a mushroom house in the same series and style.

I always wanted to do a contemporary Jack and the Beanstalk quilt & stitching wall hanging for my son (his name is Jack) but I quickly realized it would be an expensive and long term trial and error project. Projects like the ones shown here (and the non-traditional embroidery works I've linked to) make me want to dust off that project again.

Pinterest Board Spotlight: Grimm (group board)

I don't know if I can manage to post a regular Pinterest "Board of the Week" so let's just call it a Pinterest "Fairy Tale Board Spotlight" feature. :)

The plan is for them to fairy tale themed, of course, but from time to time I may send you over to something that's more related to topics and/or illustrations  or photos fairy tale people may be interested in as well.


As you're probably aware by now, Pinterest is an image collection site in which you "pin" images you like into categories, known as "boards" that you create.They're being used for everything from digital scrapbooks to inspiration boards and one of the cool features is the "group board" feature. Whoever sets up the board has the option to invite pinners they know to participate and add their own images.

Today's board of the week is a group board and is titled Grimm. Here's a small preview:

Although there are many fairy tale boards on Pinterest (from fanciful fairy tale like images to collections of illustrations for a specific tale) this board contains images that are mostly collected because they remind the participants of certain tales, rather than the image having been created based on a tale to begin with, like specific illustrations, though it has a few of those too. (See throughout post for examples.)

There's much more to the board so go check it out and be sure to read any descriptions posted so you can see what images reminded the posters of which fairy tales. (I thought of a couple of different ones for a few of them.)


The participants of the board tell me they originally created it as a party planning tool for Halloween but enjoyed the theme so much they kept going with it. I'm glad they did. :)

You can see the whole board - which I gather is still growing - HERE.

Please note: this first post spotlighting a board is a lot longer than these posts will be. It'll really just be a giant blog-based arrow to send you to some cool fairy tale finds.