Heather Zundel is an aspiring author and the mastermind behind the writing blog The Secret Adventures of Writer Girl, which, besides for being an awesome name, is also a beautiful, well-written, and irreverent blog. A couple weeks ago she did a whole series on fairy tales and fairy tale retellings, and since ASH is a loose retelling of Cinderella, I asked her to write a guest blog for this ASH Celebration. Enjoy!The Enchantment Behind Fairy Tales
I love fairy tales. I still have my first books of fairy tales my mother read to me, though because they are paperbacks, they've suffered a bit from my irreverent baby hands (and spit. Lots of spit). :)
They are very hopeful things, fairy tales. Now that may sound like an odd thing to say, considering that in "The Goose Girl" the impostor princess is put in a barrel spiked with nails and dragged through the streets until she is dead. The stepsisters cut off their heels to fit into the glass slipper in "Cinderella." And then birds peck out their eyes in the end. (Bet you haven't heard that version before). "Hansel and Gretel," anyone? Stepmother wants to murder them and the witch gets cooked in an oven? It really makes you wonder why we love these things after all.But no matter how bad it is, no matter the odds piled against them, the characters of these stories always triumph. That is the one guarantee in fairy tales, even more than "happily ever after" (very few fairy tales actually end with those words, if you can believe it). For the characters that tried so hard and gave their absolute all, all turns out right for them in the end.
Modern retellings are an extension of this, I believe. No matter what we try, we cannot get over the enchantment, the hope that came when we read fairy tales. They are a new branch on a living tree, one that never died because it has been growing since the time when stories were first told. Fairy tales were never meant to be set in stone. They were oral tales, told with family and friends by a fire. They adapted and changed, pieces taken out and in. They were living things. Retellings are only another testament that this is still true today.
But you will see they follow distinct rules of society. They adapt to what people need/want to hear. Take the gamut of Disney. Do you think there is a reason Snow White of 1937 doesn't appeal to modern audiences as much as something like Mulan (1998), Beauty and the Beast (1991), or even Lilo and Stitch (2002)? Lilo and Stitch might be a very good example to go off of. Nani is the older sister of Lilo, but takes care of her like a mother. Not something you would see in typical medieval or even pre-1960 material. But it contains many of the same elements of a fairy tale, and still rings true with a fairy tale in many respects. And who says new fairy tales can't be invented? I could easily argue many already have, in the form of various fantasy novels you may have read.
There are a ton of retellings, all dealing with a new angle that is pertinent to the time that it was created. When Snow White was created, there was a certain ideal of how she looked and how she should act. That is very different than today. Nowadays you will hardly see a weak or frail princess among the lot. They have evolved as our perceptions have changed. And so the stories change to fill this new need. Because we do need these fictional metaphors, just much today as they did then. And the stories will continue to evolve, because they are living things, not stagnant and certainly not dead. Will the fairy tales in the future differ from those being written today? Most definitely.
But I believe we often miss what the core of fairy tales are. They are something very special, which I believe extends to all stories of the fantastic. They help us remember. Remember to hope in the impossible and have a delight in the unknown. They teach us to search our minds. In fact, you can even say they guide our first steps to discovering our own imagination. One of my absolute favorite quotes comes from an old time relic by the name of Chesterton. I think he says it more perfectly than I ever could.
And I believe this also has a lot to do in the context in which we heard them. They were our first stories. In them they hold memories - memories of family, and safety, and a beautiful time, perhaps one of the most beautiful because of our innocence as children. It's not just the stories, the "happily ever after" we always hear, but that perfect time we were living when we heard them. I think that is often a forgotten part of why we love them. Besides helping us remember our own world, and the majesty it once held to simply see a sunrise, they also help us remember ourselves.
But I believe we often miss what the core of fairy tales are. They are something very special, which I believe extends to all stories of the fantastic. They help us remember. Remember to hope in the impossible and have a delight in the unknown. They teach us to search our minds. In fact, you can even say they guide our first steps to discovering our own imagination. One of my absolute favorite quotes comes from an old time relic by the name of Chesterton. I think he says it more perfectly than I ever could.
"These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water."
"The Ethics of Elfland," Ordthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton.
And I believe this also has a lot to do in the context in which we heard them. They were our first stories. In them they hold memories - memories of family, and safety, and a beautiful time, perhaps one of the most beautiful because of our innocence as children. It's not just the stories, the "happily ever after" we always hear, but that perfect time we were living when we heard them. I think that is often a forgotten part of why we love them. Besides helping us remember our own world, and the majesty it once held to simply see a sunrise, they also help us remember ourselves.-
Thank you, Heather, for so eloquently revealing a truth about ourselves to all of us. I completely agree with what she's saying. Fairy tales are eternally appealing because of what they represent: youth, imagination, hope, triumph in the face of adversity. That's why I think that ASH is not merely a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, but a tale that makes us all reconnect with our desire to simply be loved as we are.
For more information about and links to the ASH Celebration Giveaway, click HERE.
For one entry into the ASH giveaway: Do you like fairy tales and/or fairy tale retellings? Why or why not? What is your favorite fairy tale, and why? What is your favorite fairy tale retelling, and why?
