Tale as old as time

A tale as old as time, a song as old as rhyme.”Beauty and the Beast” does indeed seem to have been a part of human culture for hundreds of years, whether you’re looking at the ancient story of “Cupid and Psyche” or the beloved Disney film. But why has this story survived so long and in fact become an ingrained part of our culture? At its basis the story follows the path of having a lovely youth be taken into the possession of something Other. Then they are eventually married and depending on the version they either live happily ever after or the youth is in some way separated from their beloved. Not exactly a complicated plot but maybe its beauty lies in its simplicity. Every girl can imagine the horror of being forced to marry, or even just date, someone they don’t like and this lets the story become relatable by reflecting that fear and showing how it can be false. The story endears itself by allowing the reader to put themselves into the shoes of the beauty and have them overcome this fear alongside the beauty. At least on one front this may explain the continued success of “Beauty and the Beast” but is it still portrayed this way in popular culture?

The most widely recognized version of “Beauty and the Beast” is by far the animated film by Disney. This film features a plucky young girl who’s longing for adventure is only matched by her love for reading. Belle, through a series of mishaps, seeks out her father at the Beast’s castle and trades away her life for his, keeping with Mme. de Beaumont’s version of “Beauty and the Beast”. There Belle and the Beast slowly build a friendship and to the hope of the cast of household furniture the beginnings of love. Let’s be honest though, a guy gives you sweet library like that, what can you do?

Seriously, sign me up.

So they start crushing on each other a bit when Belle is forced to leave to go to her sick father’s side. Then a few more mishaps occur to Belle, her father, and the Beast due to Disney’s addition of a villain, Gaston,  an arrogant man whom once spurned by Belle now seeks to… kill the beast and win Belle’s hand? Get more horns for decorating purposes? Oh well, what’s a fairy tale without a good villain? The Beast is stabbed by Gaston who then plummets to his death while Belle professes her love to the Beast. This love then saves him and allows him to transform back to human form. So Belle and the Prince formerly known as Beast are presumably married and live happily ever after.

“Beauty and the Beast” is also thriving on TV. The CW’s “Beauty and the Beast” is a crime drama where Beauty is a detective at the New York Police Department named Catherine and the beast is a soldier from Afghanistan named Vincent. Vincent is experimented on by the US government in their quest to create the super soldier. This experiment backfires and makes him beastly. You can find the trailer for this show here. Catherine witnessed her mother’s murder by criminals who then attempted to murder her but instead she is saved by what Catherine describes as a Beast. And so their relationship begins. Throughout the show’s first season Vincent and Catherine have a  tense relationship on the brink of romance while Catherine also solves crimes using the information Vincent gathers. The show doesn’t follow the classic Mme. de Beaumont’s version of “Beauty and the Beast” but it does involve a young beauty who looks past the monstrous qualities of a man to see his true self. As the show continues it will be interesting how they continue to handle the fairy tale concept.

This story has also been retold numerous times in books, such as Beastly by Alex Flinn and Robin Mckinley has done multiple retellings titled Rose Daughter and Beauty.  Beastly tells “Beauty and the Beast” through the eyes of the Beast from his cursing to his salvation. Beastly was also adapted into a movie. Robin McKinley’s novels tell the tale in a very similar way to Mme. de Beaumont with some modification and elaboration. McKinley really fleshes out the characters and I appreciated that the two sisters were more than an evil plot device and instead were individual women with pride and imperfections. Also her version of Beauty was no longer an annoyingly perfect girl with more virtue than anyone one person should have; she has a personality and ideas, no longer accepting her fate because that’s apparently how you prove your love in fairy tales. Personally I liked Rose Daughter the best of these three versions but they all provide an interesting take on the classic fairy tale.

Beastly by Alex Flinn

“Beauty and the Beast” is an extremely popular story that has been engraved on the hearts of hundreds and hundreds of people, whether it was their love for one of the original versions of the tale or that Belle and her Beast captured their hearts. It has been retold and re-imagined countless times. Here I barely even scratched the surface of influence in pop culture but it does give you some idea of how varied it’s reach is. I’ll leave you with the most recent reference to it that I can think of:  Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and the Beat”, a play on words that may not actually have anything to do with the fairy tale but I think it’s entertaining to see how these stories can be bent and changed to suit our society and culture.

Women in Fairy Tales: Heroines or Damsels in Distress?

A simple story can tell us much about life long ago. Fairy tales are often looked at as a source for histories of several cultures. In folklore, one can see societal views, rituals, common practices, as well as gender roles and the appointment of duties or qualities to a certain sex. Snow White tales are prime examples of a fairy tale that tells us much about gender roles and what is expected of women embedded in the tales’ plots. These tales remain popular despite their implications and are often referenced in popular culture, often in movies and shows such as those made by Disney and the TV series Once Upon A Time.

Though there are many versions of the Snow White tale, such as “The Young Slave” and “Lasair Gheug”, the tale depicts Snow White as the ideal woman: innocent and kind. The queen, though malicious, should be admired because of her cunning and plotting. If one puts her thirst for revenge aside, the queen can be seen as having an extraordinary mind, in direct contrast with Snow White who is described as a “dumb bunny” by Anne Sexton. .In the story, Snow White is still revered as perfect despite her blind trust and disobeying of the dwarfs’ orders of not opening the door. In addition, in some variations of the tale, upon arriving at the dwarfs’ house, Snow White is allowed to stay as long as she cleans up after them. Due to the implied thoughts on women in the tales, it surprises me that such a tale remains popular (i.e. the famous Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). In an age where a woman’s rights are emphasized and gender roles defied, it is interesting to see such archaic views still popularized. Despite Snow White’s weak character, in the series Once Upon A Time, Mary Margaret who is Snow White, acts as the protagonist and perhaps strongest character on the show. In the series, she slays dragons and rescues her husband Prince Charming on several occasions. Perhaps this is a modernized variation Snow White, in which she rescues herself and depends on no one, thus reflecting contemporary views on women.

Disney’s Snow White clearly embracing her helplessness.

Once Upon A Time’s Mary Margaret (Snow White) with a bow & arrow obviously taking things into her own hands.

Bibliography: Fairy Tales

Ashliman, D L. Folk and Fairy Tales: A Handbook. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2004. Print.

A discussion of the tale-types and systems used to classify these texts.

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage Books, 1977. Print.

A very important academic book, talking about the psychology of fairy tales and the necessary effects they have on children.  Considered an important text in children’s literature.

Heiner, Heidi Anne. SurLaLune Fairy Tales.  8 Nov 2012. Website.  8 Jan 2013.  http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/

A collection of fairy tales on-line, including some criticism and discussion.

Maslin, Sue. Re-Enchantment. ABC Studios. 2012. Website. 8 Jan 2013. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/re-enchantment/

A multi-genre collection of tales, criticism, images, videos, interviews with scholars, writers and filmmakers.

Tatar, Maria. The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2003. Print.

Written by the editor of The Classic Fairy Tales, this goes into great detail about the Grimm’s stories.

Warner, Marina. From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. London: Chatto & Windus, 1994. Print.

Approaches analysis of fairy tales from a contemporary feminist lens.

Zipes, Jack. Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantment: Classic French Fairy Tales. New York: New American Library, 1989. Print.

—. The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm : Texts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. Print.

—. When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition. New York: Routledge, 1999. Print.

Zipes is one of the big names in folk tale studies in the US – he is prolific and has written TONS of books on the various folk tales, fairy tales, adaptations, and revisions of these stories over time. We will read an essay by him, but he also has tons of books on the subject (these are just a few.)  He is an academic, but his texts tend to be pretty easy to read and follow.

Salutations!

At the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art!

Hi Everyone!  My name is Jess Ferro. On my children’s lit blog I describe myself in the following way: “A Faithful Catholic, Undergraduate student, Big sister, Teacher, Closet Librarian, Lover of Children’s Literature, Art History Admirer, and Compulsive book recommender”. I just transferred to UF this past Fall from the University of Pennsylvania where I was majoring in art history.  Last year I took a year off from school and served as an art and art history instructor for a Classical Learning homeschooling program in Ocala, (where I’m from, people often think I must be from Philly since I was going to school there, but no, just from Ocala 🙂 ) which I’m still a part of this year.  During my time off, I finally made the decision to transfer to UF in order to pursue my interests in children’s literature (and was blessed enough that choosing this route would also save my parents and me a substantial amount of tuition money).  So, here at UF I’m officially considered a junior, and I’m majoring in English with a concentration in children’s literature and planning to minor in art history. I have a lot of interests, both outside and inside the field of children’s literature, but I guess with my background it makes sense that one of the topics I’m most interested in is the history and current state of illustration for children’s books.  I started a blog focusing mostly on children’s literature this past summer, and it’s been great to be able to connect with so many other bloggers in the field, mostly librarians, teachers and others with vested interests in children’s books.  But one of the greatest parts has been connecting with authors and illustrators!  So far I’ve posted two official author/illustrator interviews which was really exciting, one here with Cornelia Funke and the other here with up and coming illustrator Kasia Matyjaszek.  If you want to check out more, there’s reviews, book lists and short essays, go to Alice in Baker Street.

Really awesome building at Penn!

Mini Pollocks

I’m really excited for this class!  The main reason I transferred to UF was to get a chance to start my studies of children’s literature as an undergraduate, so I’ve just been really excited to take as many children’s lit courses as possible.  Last semester I took two courses with Dr. Cech (Children’s Literature and Grimm’s Fairy Tales) as well as one with Prof. Ulanowicz (Literature for the Adolescent).  This semester along with our class on the Golden Age, I’m also taking Prof. Ulanowicz’s Literature for the Young Child and doing an Independent Study with her as well (with projects on the illustration/high art divide, the Catholic imagination in children’s literature and possibly one more topic).  This semester I’m hoping to continue to improve my academic writing specifically for children’s literature.  When I was still at Penn I had finally gotten a better grasp of how to write academic art history papers, but then I had to take the year off and now I’m trying to adjust to the way papers are written in the English field.   In terms of the syllabus, I’m a little bit worried about the group presentation; I actually really like doing presentations, so the part that worries me is the “group” part only because I haven’t had the best experiences with them in the past, but I think this semester will change that.  I’m honestly really excited for the entire booklist, when I saw it over Christmas break I just knew I really wanted to take the course because the list was incredible!  I’m especially excited to read The Water Babies because I heard about this book recently and was curious to read it, as well as Pinocchio and The Secret Garden.  I have a little brother who is eight and he is really excited about the list as well, I promised him I’ll try and read most of them aloud with him; we’ve already read some of them together but surprisingly he’s really excited to read them again, other than the Wizard of Oz, he’s not a fan of that one and informed me that he doesn’t plan on reading that one again!

Children’s literature means a few things for me; it’s the books that have had the biggest impact on me throughout my life because most of my favorite books are children’s books, it’s the books that I read with my little brother, the field of study that I’m pursuing, and the books I hope to one day write.  Children’s literature makes me think of classics like the ones we’ll be studying this semester, books which many believe don’t capture children’s imaginations any more but which I believe still have the power to do so.  But on the other hand it also makes me think of the fact that unfortunately, especially in the United States, the group of books that we consider to be children literature is composed of a lot of junk, books that really, if we’re being honest, aren’t worth your time.  So then for me, the classics are those books which were created at a time when both the writing and illustrating that was being done for children was truly an art form.  Writing filled with beautiful imagery, writing that was lyrical and that has the ability to create this incredible magical space between text and reader.  They are books that hold to the ideals of the true, the good, and the beautiful.  And because of these three characteristics, these books beautifully meld the moral or didactic with the mimetic and entertaining, because if the stories lived up to these ideals, in that there is something to be learned. Children pick up on subtleties, they don’t need to be hit over the head with lessons, and the classics are books which in many cases are the ideal example of the perfect children’s books, if such a thing exists.

Before I finish up with my favorite children’s books, I just wanted to address some of the questions that the above paragraph brings up: Why are we, as a society, as academics, as consumers, why are we so weary of the classics, or hesitant in general of that term?  Is it in part a belief that the new is always better than the old, and thus why should we read these outdated, irrelevant books?  Why is it that children today have such a hard time just even understanding the classics? What is it about childhood, or education, that has unfortunately changed to the point where most elementary aged children aren’t even able to comprehend or stay engaged with these texts which have been dubbed classics? I’m also interested to see the role that religion plays in this Golden Age, and digging deeper to see if these texts uphold what C.S. Lewis called the three great ancient transcendentals (these go back to Plato): the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.  And also, are we witnessing an attempt to resurrect the classics, both the actual books considered classics, but also new books that are being written in the style and voice of those Golden Age classics?

So I’ll end with my favorite children’s books, it’s hard to pick so I just put down the first few that came to mind:

My two favorite picture books:

My three favorite children’s novels:

My favorite audiobook (I have a bunch of favorites, but I’m controlling myself and just putting one; but if you like audiobooks as well you can check out my top audiobook lists here and here:

And last my favorite YA novel is Between Shades of Gray (not to be confused with that other “book” Fifty Shades of Gray)