tales of Fairytales

Dear Reader,

I interrupt your daily routine to discuss, of all thing, fairytales. You see, these past few weeks I have felt quite surrounded by them. And they seem to come at me from the strangest places. For example, as last week was the half-term holidays for the primary and secondary schools, my beloved little monsters, I mean cousins, (ranging between 5-12 years old) came to stay around my house. Now, one morning as I was eating breakfast with the youngest one, Codename: Weedy, in Urdu he began telling me a very Grimm-Brothers-esque story he had come up with. It went something like this:

"One day, a Baker made a Ginger-bread man. But the Baker was really fat and so the Ginger-bread man ran away out of fear. While he was running through the forest, he came across a Giant who had a sweet tooth. The Giant said 'I want to eat you, Ginger-bread man.' And just as he reached down to take the Ginger-bread man, a Wolf jumped out of a bush and stepped between the Ginger-bread man and the Giant. He told the Ginger-bread man that he will protect him from the Giant but he should run and hide in the bush just in case. And the Giant did get scared of the Wolf and ran away..." At this point I was thinking 'Awww what a nice wolf, so much for stereotypes' before he continued to the end of his story. "Once the Giant was gone, the Wolf went into the bush and ate the Ginger-bread man!"   

I guess the moral of this story would be not to trust strangers ... or make assumptions about people by how fat they are ...

Do you, dear reader, see what I mean by 'Grimm-Brother-esque'? I had no idea my little Weedy had such a morbid streak, given his penchant for Disney movies and happy endings, his favourites so far being 'The Princess and The Frog' and 'Cars' (which he has made me watch at least fifty times with him now, to the extent that I now know all the dialogues off by heart).    

This reminded me of the importance that fairytales play in our childhoods, and how much influence they can have on children's lives, especially now with mass media companies like Disney. And because of this, it's important that we allow fairtales to retain they're original role in providng basic lessons like 'do not trust strangers' and not focus on the intanglible 'happily ever after'.    

Relating to this is this youtube video I reacently watched,  by author Jackson Pearce. Most of her videos are quite informative when it comes to writing and she give quite good tips. But in this video she talk about how fairytales adapt and change over time according to what society need them to be at the time.  

I only became interested in Jackson Pearce after I read her book Sisters Red last month (this book is part of my 2011 Reading Challenge, for more info click here or here, your choice). It is essentially a modern twist on the old fairytale, The Little Red Riding Hood. It's a very well written fast-paced book. And though I saw the main twist coimg from a mile away, it still kept me on the edge of my seat and still made me cry. I also love Pearce's use of symbolism and metaphors: from the scar on SCARlett's face, and the weapons of choice, to the actual wolves themselves. An incredibly enjoyable read overall, but not recommened for the faint hearted who do not like blood and gore.  

I'd like to end this post with link to Shelina's blog post about fairytales and breaking out of the stereotypes that girls 'need to be rescued' to find their 'true loves'. Read it. It's really quite interesting and enjoyable  

Nida