The rose: good or bad

So I have to say that "The Vegetational Fatherhood" is one of the weirdest tales I have ever read. As I was reading it one of my friends came in and I tried to explain it to her and she just gave me a quizzical look and said "I'll leave you to reading then..." Yes - this story is strange.
I thought it was interesting to read in conjunction with "Eckbert the Blond" though. In the same way that we, as the readers, do not exactly know what the truth is in Eckbert and Berta's story, we do not quite know the truth in this story either. Was the mother absolutely crazy? Was the flower rape all in her imagination? A child was born, so I would say probably not, but it is still confusing. Did the flower actually turn into a man or did it remain a flower? It's hard to tell because the woman ends up pregnant, but then there are rose petals covering her lap when she wakes up. Was the rose just a symbol for everything that is appealing about men? Why wasn't the girl able to talk? Was it because she was part flower? To be honest, I don't really have a clue.
However, I would like to use this post to think about the symbology of the rose. We all know that a gift of a single red rose is seen as a declaration of love. During the Roman times, the red rose was seen as a symbol of the goddess Venus, the goddess of love. However, especially in light of the flower rape, it is interesting to note that an anagram of the word 'rose' is 'eros' or lust. I think the rose in this story represents the human feelings of lust and sexuality, not actual love. After all, the woman simply took a nap under a rose bush. It was the rose - the lust of men - that made her have a child.

April 7 Post

“The Vegetational Fatherhood” was by far one of the most bizarre stories I have ever read. However, I have come up with a few explanations/interpretations:

1. The young woman represents the Virgin Mary in which not man but “nature” impregnates the young woman, therefore making her rose bush-transforming daughter a representation of Jesus.

2. If the daughter is a representation of Jesus, then Dr. Floris Rosenberger is a representation of the Romans, those who are believed to have killed Jesus since it was Dr. Rosenberger who killed his wife (whether intentional or not).

3. The mother is locked away in an asylum, representing the general belief of the pubic about Mary in reference to her miraculous conception.

As you can see, there can be an extreme religious undertone to this story, or like Ekbert the Blond, I could have just made this all up.

My interpretation of "The Vegetational Fatherhood"

Lucky for me, my first response to "The Vegetational Fatherhood" was to interpret the story through dance, easily completing everything the prompt asked for. Here is a quick summary of what it looked like.

Growing flower, wind, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, unicorn, rain storm. Corpse pose. Egg hatching, wind blowing, seaweed; otters holding hands.

After I got that out of my system, I was able to compose a more literary response. Lets walk through this fairy tale line by line. The first paragraph seems to make a very different point than the introduction in "A wondrous oriental tale of a naked saint." Here, it is not the human mind that colors perception, but an outright fact that flowers emit a sympathetic current-to not sense this truth either makes you a person without feelings or possibly Irish. While Wackenroder seems to only be trying to make room for the possibility of his story, Mynona takes a much more aggressive angle and argues that his point of view that flowers are creatures is the only acceptable one. Even after I was immediately insulted for still questioning "whether plants have a direct suggestive effect on animals and humans," Mynona was still able to elicit a chuckle from me with the anthropomorphic flower stalking our young woman friend like a big cat.

I am going to skip analyzing/interpreting the flower rape so I don't say anything I'll regret later. However, I will say I was able to guess as soon as I read these lines that she was going to bear a child from the encounter.

I was also struck by the young girl's interactions with her two doctors. The first doctor she consults is finally able to pin down her symptoms and ask if she is having a love affair. This is a little tongue-in-cheek; for the most part physical symptoms of a love affair seem to confine themselves to angst-y Miley Cyrus-loving tweens. And for correctly diagnosing the illness, the doctor's help is no longer appreciated. I'm a little surprised that Mynona was willing to take such a direct shot at socialized health care, but it made me giggle like a angst-y Miley Cyrus-loving tween. Doctor number two is also able to correctly identify the our young girl's condition, and "When the young woman became enraged, he attributed it to hysteria." This is cute wordplay. Hysteria, of course, "was originally thought to be due to a disturbance of the uterus" (compliments of the OED and my knowledge on how to use the interwebs. Its not a dump truck, its a series of tubes.) But, we can't tell if his "hysterical" diagnosis refers to her actual condition of pregnancy via flower or the fact that she freaks out. Either way, the word choice is deliberate and hilarious.

Lets fast forward a couple paragraphs to where the flower-child reaches puberty. She starts a nightly metamorphosis, which is actually pretty run of the mill as far as fairy tale metamorphoses go. This part fits in well with more traditional fairy tales. Thank goodness the end is more exciting! Call me twisted, but I find the end where the fiance not only kills his wife but then gets convicted of murder and spends the rest of his days in an asylum delightfully unexpected. Not your typical fairy tale ending. I also think it is interesting that the beginning of the story is very specific in telling you how to correctly interpret life, but the end speculates if the truth will ever be known. Mynona is certainly willing to play with our perceptions of fairy tales. However, I am accepting enough to not have problems accepting the magical elements of the tale and twisted enough to not only swallow, but enjoy, the deranged parts of the tale. I give this fairy tale a gold star.


I'll leave you with a final literary response:

There was once a young girl made of rose (a)
whom at mattens put on quite a show (a)
she'd turn to a plant (b)
but the damage was scant (b)
till the night she went out the window (a)

Song of the Blog: "Grace Kelly," by Mika.

Vegetational Fatherhood

I thought this story was very bizarre but also very interesting. I liked the introduction and Myona’s passage about how nature and humans are connected. I believe this ties into the whole Romantic literary fairy tale we’ve been talking about. In this story, nature isn’t this scientific element but rather some sort of higher, spiritual being that has the ability to act like humans and have emotions as the rose “yearns” for the young woman in the story. But then I was very surprised at the actions of the rose. In putting the woman under a sort of spell it appears as if the rose is drugging her and raping her. This would suggest a more evil side to nature and that it essentially has some greater hold over humans and can have their way with them as the rose does with the woman.

As I continued reading the story, I thought it was very creepy and could almost imagine it being made into a horror movie. The woman is shocked to find herself pregnant and gives birth to a beautiful, silent child. The child does not say a word but is smart and artistic and paints. I thought it was really creepy when she paints the picture of the rose and writes “father,” I could picture this scene straight out of a horror film, not to mention the girl is silent, and weird, quiet kids are often key elements in scary movies.

The rest of the story was interesting in how she gets married and eventually killed. I thought it was very funny how the husband she chooses is named Dr. Rosenberger and is an anatomist. But then the ending is very sad with the girl getting flung off the balcony and how both the mother and Dr. Rosenberger were sent to an asylum. This very dark ending seemed to be saying that the mixture of nature and humans in a sexual way is not a good thing. The girls attempt to connect with her father, the rose, ultimately leads to her death.

Assignment: 7 April 2009

Please write an interpretation of/response to “The Vegetational Fatherhood.” Don't forget to post comments by Wednesday.

A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint

I know that we are specifically meant to be discussing the language of the poem at the end of the story, but I am going to deviate for just a little while. One of the first things that I noticed about this story was the evocative language - it just seemed so different to the language of the other tales we have been reading in this class. Even if the plot lines of the other tales were aimed at adults rather than children, their language remained basic and childlike. However this story had great imagery and onomatopoeia - as the sentence structure became more and more garbled and confusing, I could almost hear the wheel of time turning. The long winded sentence structure describing the saint's feelings towards the wheel made me feel nervous as I was reading it. For instance, this sentence really stood out to me: "...poured itself eternally, eternally without a moment's pause, without a second's pause, this was the way it sounded in his ears, and all his senses were geared to this roaring." The repetition and the way the sentence quickens in pace was very effective. Through the language, I could understand how anxious and stressed the saint was feeling. This difference in language made the tale more of a literary Kunstmärchen than a simple folk tale. The language was too refined and well thought out to simply be a tale passed down theough the ages by word of mouth.
However, we are meant to be discussing the relationship between the music and the poetic language, so I will move on to that. The music which eventually transforms the saint into a spirit cines durectky frin the intrinsic connection between love and the pure beauty of nature. It seems almost religious - God has finally given this soul a respite and transformed him into an angel through his beauty and love. Although the poetic language of the song adds to the transformation and no doubt helps the saint to transform, "the song arose from the undulating music." It was the sheer beauty and joy of the music that transformed the saint - the poetic language was merely an added bonus. I therefore believe that the power evoked by the music is not truly accessible to the language, rather the power of the music itself creates the poetic lyrics.
There are elements of this tale that make it fairy tale like. We first encounter our hero (the saint) , he then encounters a problem (the never ending noise of the wheel of time), he suffers through the noise, then the solution arrives in the form of the beauty of the night and the lovers (perhaps God) and his problem is solved as he transforms into a spirit and leaves the Earth to live eternally (happily ever after) in heaven. However, even though it follows the folk tale format, it is definitely a literary tale. The language is much more evocative and well developed than the language of any folk tale - which is simple and mundane in comparison.

March 31

The relationship between music and poetic language is that the language of the music evoked by the lovers created the music that transformed the genius into the “angel.” Because of this phenomenon, the power evoked by the music is also accessible to the written language. These two are forms are intertwined. Elements of the story that are fairy tale like is the genius under the spell, the transformation of him into the “angel” character, and the fact that although the story took place in the Orient, the readers do not know where or when. The elements that make it more specifically a Kunstmärchen is transformation of the genius into a “higher plane,” as well as the longing of the lovers, which leads to the transformation.

Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

It seems to me that poetic language, like a lot of other things in Wackenroder's "A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint," stems from music. poetic language cannot exist without it. Look at the first half of the story. Sure, the narrative is fairly (B,B+) poetic as far as language. It is literary, although this passage probably will not make it into any Norton anthology that does not have "Kunstmärchen" in the title anytime soon. But the spoken words within the narrative are far from poetic. Our naked saint gives "wild, garbled speeches." After he kills people for being so foolish as to try and chop wood when the wheel of time needs turning, he speaks "in a garbled manner" until he lets off enough steam. The naked monk's "desperate yearning for unknown beautiful things" goes unfulfilled until that special night with the two lovers comes along.

But even here, where the connection between music and poetic language becomes much more apparent, music seems to precede poetic language. Wackenroder mentions that "The penetrating rays of the moon had illuminated and unraveled the dark depths of their souls for each other. Their most tender feelings flowed together and formed tidal streams that no bank could contain." Wackenroder is dabbling with a pretty powerful metaphor in these lines, but that is not the important part of the passage. These two lovers are communicating on an incredibly deep level, one that only tidal flows and not mere words can communicate. Ethereal music starts flowing (or rather bumping as it is almost assuredly techno) from this boat. Only from this techno finally rises a lyrical song. Embedded in these lyrics is the idea that "Love's sweet tone does now resound./ Every note lulls love's sweet beauty/ To the sleeping palms and flowers." Love is talking in music, not in sonnets. It is notes and sounds, not words and semicolons that make love's sweet beauty sleepy. This song solves the naked saint's problem of garbled "crazytalk" and is utterly freeing. Music seems to be the cause of poetic language; without music poetic language would have no source.

What I find more interesting is the extended metaphor I see for the effects music has on life in general. It is no stretch to see our naked friend's constant turning of the invisible wheel of time as a metaphor for living a monotonous life. His perpetual work is driven by a great fear. It sounds like " a waterfall with thousands and thousands of rushing streams" that blots out all other noise. This life, living the rat race if you will, grows more and more violent, and "he wanted to bring all the energy of his body to bear on the blistering wheel, so that time would never be in danger of standing still." He is completely devoted to turning this wheel. However, the narrative makes it clear that "the wheel of time did not allow him to rest and do anything on earth-to act, to effect things, to be productive." Wackenroder is quite clear about the fact that this constant turning of the wheel produces nothing of any actual value. But even with all this wasted effort, our saint still feels a "desperate yearning for unknown beautiful things."

Before music comes along and saves the day, Wackenroder makes one pointed comment about the state of human nature. He says "The people, no longer blinded by sunlight, lived with their eyes fixed on the firmament, and their souls were mirrored beautifully in the heavenly glow of the moonlit night." People are blinded by sunlight, which can be read as the trivial daily work of the world numbing their senses to the firmament that they should actually be mirroring. The naked saint too is obviously blinded to the beauty of the firmament by the turning wheel of time. The toil we as humans do in the sunlight blinds us to the finer things in life. But music saves us. "As soon as the naked saint heard the first notes of the music, the rushing wheel of time disappeared. This was the first time that music had ever been sounded in this remote place." Simply hearing the music for the first time breaks the spell over us, so we are freed to mingle with the greater beauty in the world.

So is this story a fairy tale? Well, Jack Zipes certainly thinks so. But it has several traits in common with more traditional fairy tales. The ones that stick out most clearly to me are the indeterminate time and place in the story and the obvious transformation that occurs. However, the spiritual elements in the story are less legible in a Christian moral framework than they are in a social critique. The point I made about music freeing us from the drudgery of life backs me up on this one. Also, the transformation is to a higher plane, a very "kunst" trait. The transformation is not a taboo transformation into an animal like we encountered in the "folks" tales. There is also a sense of longing between the lovers, which is another important trait in "kunst" style tales.

Song of the blog: "My life would suck without you" by Kelly Clarkson. The "you" in the title refers to music.

Wackenroder

After reading “A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint” I feel that the beautiful language that Wackenroder uses helps to illustrate the quality of music the saint is hearing. We can’t hear the music the Saint is listening to, yet we witness the profound impact it has on him. The music is his escape from the constantly grinding wheel of time. I think the language Wackenroder uses illuminates the effect music can have upon a person. It is a break from the doldrums of everyday life. Music is an art form that can allow the human mind to travel to a different space and experience a new form of expression through sound. Yet, in this story, we do not hear anything; we simply read the experience of the saint in relation to the music and the lyrics he hears. It is not the same thing as actually listening to music with your own ears. I think the power of music isn’t quite embodied in language but can only be experienced by listening to it. Language read on a page has a different impact on the human senses than the impact of music. Although this story can be read out loud and we can experience it through sound, it does not encompass the freeing sensation elicited by music. I think you can argue against this, but from my own experience, reading language and listening to a song have two different effects on me. I feel that music often offers a greater emotional pull.
I didn’t see many fairy tale aspects in this story. The one thing I noticed that appeared fairy tale like was the transformation of the Saint at the end of story. There is that element of magic that is in fairy tales, but I feel like the metamorphoses we observe in fairy tales are often of humans into animals or vice versa. In this story the saint turns into a spirit. I think this connects much more to the literary fairy tales of the Kuntsmarchen. The fact that he turns into a spirit suggests something much more supernatural and mystical and is in line with literary fairy tales’ emphasis on the psychology of the mind. He turns into a free spirit after he has heard the music which transports him into a higher state of being. This point in the story is philosophical and less childlike and pedagogical than the elements in the fairy tales we read from Grimm’s.

Assignment: 31 March 2009

Please consider the Wackenroder text, “A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint.”

• What is the relationship between music and poetic language? Is the power evoked by music also accessible to language? Or does language merely point to music?
• Also, consider how Wackenroder’s story is a fairy tale. What elements are fairy-tale-like? And what makes it, more specifically, a Kunstmärchen?

Question 2

Once again I am going to concentrate on the Grimm tales (I just found them more interesting than the other tales) However I will be making a slight detour and also looking at Thackeray's version of the Bluebeard story. Also as an aside, does anyone else find it interesting that the author of "Vanity Fair" wrote a fairy tale? I guess it makes sense though - they are both commentaries on culture and society.
Anyhow... back to the point at hand - the heroines of the Bluebeard tales. I believe in the Grimm's versions of the tale - the women are just that. Heroines. In "Fitcher's Bird" the third sister cannot be outwitted by the sorcerer. She has her suspicions about him - why on earth for instance would he want her to carry an egg as she explored her soon to be home? So she leaves the egg behind and then begins he exploration. As soon as she sees her sisters' mutilated bodies, she does not panic but begins to collect together their body parts and put them in order. She then carefully orchestrates an escape for both her and resurrected sisters. However the Grimms do make a note of differentiating between the third sister and her two older sisters. The third is described as "clever and crafty" whereas the other two were simply led astray by their curiosity... and as we all know 'curiosity killed the cat' (or in this case the sisters.)
Even in "The Robber Bridegroom," women are depicted as strong and crafty. Even though the old woman has been in the cellar for a long time, she plans to save both herself and our heroine, and carefully manipulates the robbers into doing her bidding. When the finger flies behind the hogshead she convinces them to not search there, where they would undoubtedly find the girl, saying: "Leave off looking til the morning, the finger won't run away from you." Using common sense, she saves the life of both her and the girl. The girl herself is also crafty and brave. She tells the story of the gory death of the other girl at the hands of her bridegroom, pretending all the time that she "only dreamt this." She then whips out the severed finger (which must have been disgusting to keep) to prove the truth of her tale. She saves herself from certain death.
Thackeray's version of the tale though is rather different. Fatima Bluebeard is rather foolish in my opinion, completely blinded by her love of her husband. She cannot see that he has done anything wrong - she believes that he wouldn't hurt a fly, even when her sister Anna pulls out the Bible to show her all the deaths of his previous wives.
So from these tales, it is clear that women should be crafty and clever - willing to be brave - and should not always rely on others for help. For in the Bluebeard stories, it is these women that live to tell the tale and become our heroines.

Horror in Fairy tales

This set of fairy tales is much more gruesome and bloody and much more likely to be made into a horror movie instead of a cutesy Disney movie than any of the others we have read in previous weeks. (Apart from perhaps 'The Juniper Tree' - which had a similar gruesome death scene - a little boy's head being chopped off by the lid of a box...) Each Bluebeard tale depicts the horror in slightly different ways and some tales are more graphic in their depictions then others. However it is the tales of the Brothers Grimm that are the most graphic - in fact they are so graphic that as I was reading their tales, I felt a little ill. In "The Robber Bridegroom," the suspense is built throughout the story - from the girl being betrothed to an unknown man, to the ashes - a symbol of destruction - leading her to the house, to the bird singing the song:
Turn back, turn back, young maiden dear,
'Tis a murderer's house you enter here."
The robbers are particularly brutal in their killing of the girl and as we see it through our heroine's eyes (as she watches from behind a giant hogshead) it seems all the more real. We hear the girl's "screams and lamentations" as she is cut open and her wounds salted as she is prepared to be eaten.
In the 'Fitcher's Bird" the secret room is also quite gorily described - a basin of blood sitting in the middle of the room, filled with cut up mangled human body parts. This story is also perhaps more scary as the third sister discovers her older sisters among the remains. She knows the Bluebeard figure's victims personally, and decides to pull them out of the bloody basin to unite them. Yuck...
The other Bluebeard tales are also gruesome - just not as graphic as the Grimm tales. Even though the deaths of the seven wives are described in "The Seven Wives of Bluebeard" the descriptions are much more clinical "She drowned etc." and do not fill me with the same amount of disgust.
I can't really imagine Walt Disney making a Bluebeard movie - if he did, either the essence of the tale would be lost, or it would be an R rated Disney film - an oxymoron if ever I heard one.

On The importance of the item "Bluebeard" gives "Sally" in building the sense of horror (Q1)

Just kidding! This blog is going to psychoanalyze the sense out of the specific "terrible places" that appear in different versions of the story. Lets begin with a thorough examination of Perrault's Bluebeard. When Sally walks into the forbidden room, "At first she saw nothing, for the windows were closed. After a few moments, she began to realize that the floor was covered with clotted blood and that the blood reflected the bodies of several dead women hung up on the walls (these were all the women Bluebeard had married and then murdered one after another)." Call me twisted, but I didn't exactly cringe as I read this the first time. I blame rap music and Hulu (its an evil plot, to take over the world). I am going to overlook the fact that clotted blood (think scabs) is very non-reflective. I know the first phrase mentions how the windows were closed. But if the blood is reflective, it is obviously as light as day in Bluebeard's rumpus room. This room serves a very important function in the story as entering this room is apparently punishable by death. It is an important part of moving the plot along. But I think I see a boom mike hanging in the background. Final verdict? This room is messy, and a little surprising as we didn't expect to run into his ex-wives, but not really scary. Its shocking at best. From a psychoanalytical perspective, Bluebeard obviously has a tattoo of Blake's Red Dragon on his back.

Compare that to Margaret Atwood's "Bluebeard's Egg." Bluebeard's forbidden chamber in this story is much more Utopian, and I mean that in the true "no place" sense of the word. Tartar will beck me up on this one. Atwood deliberately changed "the forbidden chamber of Bluebeard's castle into everything from Ed's enigmatic mind and his "new facility" to the anatomical cavities of the human heart and the keyhole desk before which Ed betrays his sexual infidelity." I think Atwood is trying to do too much with too little in this story. One thing she doesn't even attempt is horror. What I thought might have been suspense at the beginning turned out to just be bad writing from the 1980s. Where is the horror? Where is the blood? Ed isn't turning these women into hats, he is only using them as sexual objects. Foxnews is guilty of that! I think one could argue that portraying the "terrible place" like this, even if it is horror free, is an important function in the story. But I don't see it. And if Ed's sexual infidelity is the scary part of the story, then Desperate Housewives probably didn't belong in prime time. From a psychoanalytic prospective, I worry Ed hates his father and wants to eat his mother because he thinks she is his sister.

But forgive Ed his faults, and examine the "terrible place" in the Grimms' "The Robber Bridegroom." In this story, the castle is empty. In the basement, the setting of the "terrible place," we have one old woman (the staple of robber's dens), a large barrel, a pot of hot water, a table, some wine, a little salt, and at least one chopping instrument. Did I mention we are in a cellar? SCARY! Perfect horror props. We also get to witness a gruesome murder complete with flying body parts. The best part about this story is the level of gruesomeness is not the most important part. Sure, Sally needs the evidence of a finger and a eyewitness account for her story to hold up in court. But to me this tale seems to be more about how Sally saves the day for herself by getting out of a sticky situation. So while the actions that take place help move the plot along, the level of description (and horror) it looks like they are just elements to elaborate and entertain the audience. And it is obvious from a psychoanalytic perspective that Sally is afraid of water. I am proud of her for being able to overcome that.

Song of the blog: "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. Mostly for the gunshot noises.

Sometimes sassy, always clever (Q2)

Depending on what I was thinking about beforehand (Tartar's interpretation, what my snack will be tonight, etc...) I am able to see the female role in "Bluebeard" stories as either as a celebration of self-preservation and cleverness or as a disobedient female. But, specifically in The Grimm Brothers' "The Robber Bridegroom," I see the girl, whom I will henceforth call Sally (as an homage to the name sassy Sally, a title which any girl who can stomach having a severed finger fall in her lap and then carry it home to convict her fiance obviously deserves) as a celebration of self preservation and cleverness.

Sally is framed as a girl who, if she is not actually smart, at least has good instincts. Even though the suitor passed the "parent test", Sally still "didn't care for him as a girl should care for her betrothed, and she didn't trust him." Sally is clever enough to know something just isn't quite right with Buffalo Bluebeard (Silence of the Lambs reference; lets see if this theme resurfaces in post number 2 (Q1)). Sally also "made excuses and claimed she couldn't find the way" to Bluebeard's house, trying everything she had at her disposal to try and get out of this. When all of her efforts don't work and she is forced to go visit anyway, Sally again makes a great move towards self-preservation by being inspired to take peas and lentils with her to mark her way. She is luckier than Hansel and Gretel, because instead of birds eating these tasty morsels they sprout in the interim to lead her home. While Sally cannot exactly be credited with being clever here, because she did this "without knowing why," she still gets points for self-preservation.

I don't fault Sally for not taking the caged bird's warning at face value and running away. If I ever get a parrot, that phrase will be one of the first things I teach it to say. What impresses me most about the whole story is her ability to play it cool when the robbers come in. Again, it does not display her cleverness, but it does showcase her obvious black belt in self-preservation. The old woman tells her to hide and she does what she is told, ducking behind a big barrel. Would I have found her? Yes. But she isn't working with much (remember how empty the castle is) and I am excellent at hide-and-seek. Once behind the barrel, Sally is told "Don't stir and don't move or it'll be the end of you," and for once in fairy tales, Sally is able to do as she is told. So much so that even after she has sat in silent horror as she watched the robbers drug, strip, dismember, and salt one of her less-clever classmates she is still undetected. Even when a dismembered finger complete with the best cracker-jack prize ring ever falls into her lap, she can keep quiet.

Sally escapes, mostly from the fact that she is lucky enough to be Irish as far as I can tell. When her ax-murderer fiance arrives to celebrate the wedding, she entertains him by talking about her "dream." But clever Sally really just retells her experience at the bachelor pad. Sally is apparently as clever as Hamlet, and Hamlet is regarded as a pretty clever guy. She catches him by monitoring his reaction, the robber "turned white as a ghost while she was telling the story." Bingo-bango, clever Sally has all the evidence she needs to get Bluebeard locked up and passed off to the proper authorities.

Is Sally touted as clever from the beginning because of how well she does in spelling bees? Not exactly. But when you look at how she handles herself throughout the tale, it is pretty obvious that Sally is presented as clever and concerned with her self-preservation. And like all good stories, it ends in a public execution.


Song of the Blog "Heartless," by Kayne West. I'll bet Bluebeard feels this way about Sally.

Question #2

In “The Robber Bridegroom” by the Brothers Grimm, the cleverness of the heroine’s character shines through at the wedding celebration when she reveals what she knows about the true character of her bridegroom, even though she reassures her finance “My dear, I must have been dreaming all this.” Having possessed all the desirable traits for a bride-to-be, she finally sets herself free when “confesses” that what she knows to be true by saying “And here is the ring with the finger.” Without being disobedient, the young maiden frees herself through her cleverness and initial intuition.

Question #1

One of the elements of horror in Perrault’s version was Bluebeard’s past - his numerous wives who disappeared and were nowhere to be found. This made an eerie impression on the women of the town, especially his future wife, whom was disgusted by this. Her initial concern is the foreshadowing of her almost death, in which Bluebeard’s true colors come to surface. In comparison to Thackeray’s “Bluebeard’s Ghost,” the wife loves her husband that much more because of the death of his wives. As she tries to prove to her sister Anne through the family Bible, that all of Bluebeard’s wives died of natural causes, she reaffirms her love for her deceased husband. She even implores Anne, stating that “Every one of the women are calendared in this delightful, this pathetic, this truly virtuous and tender way; and can you suppose that a man who wrote such sentiments could be a murderer, miss?” Although it is seen as “horror” in the Perrault version, Bluebeard’s six previous wives in the Thackeray story showcases the “hero” Bluebeard truly is.

Clever heroine

In Joseph Jacob’s Mr. Fox, I believe that the main woman character in the story, Lady Mary, is actually made out to be clever rather than disobedient. First of all, there is not prohibition that Lady Mary shouldn’t enter a certain room or go to a certain place. Mr. Fox describes his castle where they will live and the story simply says, “but, strange to say, did not ask her or her brothers to come and see it.” But he also does not say to NOT go see it, so Lady Mark goes and when seeing the castle decides to enter. Also the sign at the gate instructs her to “Be bold, be bold” which if I were to see, would make me think I was supposed to enter the castle. Then again the signs continue on to say “but not too bold” but still this does not caution Lady Mary from entering the castle, so she is not being disobedient.
Once inside the castle Lady Mary witnesses the murder done by her groom to be, Mr. Fox, and how he chops off the hand of the woman in order to get at a ring. The hand flies off and Lady Mark retrieves it while hiding so Mr. Fox does not know she is there or where the hand has gone. The next day, Lady Mary shows her true cleverness as she is able to reveal the true murderous identity of Mr. Fox from telling a “dream” at breakfast about her trip to the castle. She then brings out the hand at the end to show that it indeed was not a dream and Mr. Fox suffers his punishment. Lady Mary’s actions of telling her story through the dream, just like the girl in “The Robber’s Bridegroom,” is very clever because she tells it in public and then shows her proof so that her evil fiancée will not be able to escape. Never does she truly disobey her man and is therefore not punished. Rather, the heroine is presented as outgoing and clever, and it is her slight bit of boldness and independence that allows her to save herself from her murdering fiancé.

Horror elements

I thought each story that we read had different aspects of horror. Overall, I thought that Perrault’s version of Bluebeard was the least scary as the only real aspect of horror it had was the key and the room with the dead girls. The key becomes bloodied and is the evidence that the girl has wondered into the forbidden room, this is the same in the Grimm’s version of the story but with the egg rather than the key. Though in Perrault’s version, after she has dropped the key he simply says “Prepare to die” and he never kills her and you never read about the gruesome deaths of the other two. Yet in the Grimm’s version of “Fitcher’s Bride” the death of the other wives is described rather brutally. This could tie into the fact that Tatar had said that the Grimm’s appeared to like making their stories more violent. In this story it reads, “He threw her down, dragged her in by the hair, chopped her head off the block, and hacked her into pieces so that her blood flowed all over the floor” This is clearly a very graphic passage and a great example of horror reading. Some of the other stories also give in detail the description of hacking up the women victims. For example in Grimm’s “The Robber Bridegroom” the death of the woman is extremely graphic and horrifying. I had to cringe as I read the passage in which the drunken robbers “paid no attention to her screams and sobs” and ripped off her clothes and proceeded to eat her with salt. The image of the finger then being chopped off, which the hiding girl takes as evidence, is also grotesque and could easily be pictured in a horror film. The mutilation of bodies as it compares to startling the audience and providing horrifying images is much more severe in the other stories compared to that of Perrault’s original version of Bluebeard.

Assignment: 24 March 2009

Since class had to be cut short today, there will be two posts for this evening.

Question 1: Compare the elements of horror in the various versions of Bluebeard that you read for today. Please name the elements you are comparing and discuss how they function in the story. Do they help move the plot along? Elaborate the story? Startle the audience? etc.

Question 2: Tatar offers two readings of the heroine’s character: either as a celebration of self-preservation and cleverness or as a disobedient female. Using a version other than the Perrault, consider how the heroine gets presented. Use quotes to support your reading.

Again, please post two separate entries by midnight tonight.

DEFA

I just wanted to say I'm sorry this is a day late -- I completely forgot :(

I thought the DEFA film was a little wacky to say the least. I felt as though it was a combination of a few of the Grimms tales (IE: Clever Hans) and never really quite understood the humor behind it. The main character is completely out of it and cannot correctly comprehend anything he is told. He is also extremely scared of mice (weird since he's not a little girl but okay...). His naivety is akin to DEFA's Snow White; Hans' spaciness reminded me of DEFA's Snow White's persistent need to count all the cutlery in the dwarfs cottage. This change in character from the original tale makes him completely undesirable.

What I also found odd about this film was the ending -- how the devil was made to eat a whole ox, drink all the wine, and dance. What did this accomplish? It just added to the unneeded quirkiness of the film.

I'm copying Chester and adding a song to this blog. "Let's Here It For The Boy" Footloose Soundtrack.

Just how do you respond to something like that...

My heavens, how quickly those communists seem to stray from their ideals. My first reaction to DEFA's film is to cringe at the physical comedy-I hate that crap. The role it took in the film, the focus in my opinion, obviously moves the audience to kids. That is really no surprise, given DEFA's historical background, but seems much more "kid only" focused than the Grimm's edition. I enjoyed reading the Grimm's version of the story. I did not enjoy watching this film.

But back to the Communists burying their high ideals for the proletariat under a pile of balsa-wood cars and hats with furry ears. Look at DEFA's version of Snow White. We talked about how it stresses the traits that bright, individualistic children need to become cogs in the machine. There was that scene working in the kitchen, showing children how important inane work really is. The social elite are portrayed as pigs in Snow White. By the time DEFA made The Devil and his Three Golden Hairs it looks like they were pretty much out of the brainwashing business and looking to be the next Disney. Sure, the king is still a pig, but that is about it. The change I was least pleased with in the story line was how they made Jacob just a stupid boy as opposed to marked by fate. I understand that Marx hated fate because it turned down his offer to escort her to the communist prom. However, DEFA freely switches between two very distinct male hero story archetypes. They make no attempt to explain why it is good to be stupid. All it does is make the implicit point that fate should not be considered a guiding force in life.

The major change, or rather subtraction, of fate in the movie, coupled with the cinematics obviously designed for children make the DEFA version of the story really not worth telling in my opinion. I feel like they should have either done their job better and properly brainwashed the soft minds viewing it to be better cogs in a better machine or found a more interesting story to tell. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Grimm's version of the tale. I just wish DEFA had given me what I wanted.



Song of the blog: "Nobody's Perfect" by Hannah Montana. Just like DEFA.

I found this movie very silly and really meant for a main audience of children. The character of the boy is ridiculous and I can see kids thinking that his idiotic actions are funny. Also there are a lot of visual gags like the hammers flying in the air or the king’s hut catching on fire. I rolled my eyes at most of them, but I could see myself laughing hysterically as a kid. The evil aspects of the film were also played down a lot. The devil was not mysteriously dark or scary but rather funny and simply portrayed as a glutton and children would not be afraid of him.

The whole idea of gluttony and overindulgence played a big role in this film and it reminded me of aspects of the DEFA Snow White. In Snow White you have the scene of the court eating disgustingly at the table, and they appear fat and lazy, somewhat like pigs. In The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs, the King is seen as a drunk and constantly abuses alcohol. Then the devil eats everything that is at the wedding feast. Clearly overindulgence and excess in food and liquor is looked down upon as it is associated with the villains of the film, the King and the Devil. Rather commoners, like Jacob and the “robbers” are the heroes of the story which ties into the political views of Eastern Germany.

Assignment: 17 March 2009

This week we are going by the normal schedule, so please post by Tuesday at midnight and leave two comments by Wednesday night.

Prompt: Respond to the film “The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs” (DEFA). You may wish to consider one (or more) of the following:

• Target audience
• How it uses the medium specifically in order to tell its version of the story
• Comparison to the DEFA version of “Snow White”

The Prince/Beast/Avenant

One element that I found interesting from Cocteau’s “La Belle et La Bête” was the ending of the story when the Beast transforms into the prince, revealing a more sophisticated and chiseled version of Avenant, Belle’s original suitor. What I also found interesting was when Avenant was shot by the statue Diana, he himself turned into the Beast. One reason for this subtle change could have been to showcase the fact that although Belle loved Avenant (as well as the Beast), she could not live with him, therefore transforming the Beast into a Prince Charming hybrid of the Beast’s character with Avenant’s good looks.

Cocteau seems to have gotten "Beautiful" and "Creepy" confused

The element that interested me most when comparing Cocteau's film and Madame de Beaumont's version of Beauty and the Beast is how the castle is portrayed. Beaumont's description of the castle, although sparse, seems like a precursor to the Disney version of the castle. When Beauty's father arrives the first time, there is no one to be seen, but the castle seems very inviting, with a "warm fire and a table laden with food, with just a single place setting." I almost expected to read about enchanted teapot servants next. In contrast, when the father arrives at the castle in the film, the castle seems to have been inspired by a horror film. Creepy floating arms hold candelabras that magically light. There is a hand in the middle of the table that scares dinner guests before pouring drinks. The statues in the wall are obviously alive. Terrifying. Very different images from the ones Beaumont presents.

This creepy/beautiful theme also carries over to when Beauty sees the castle for the first time. In Beaumont's version, "She could not help but admire the castle's beauty, and...was dazzled by the radiant beauty of that (her) room. She was especially impressed by a huge bookcase, a harpsichord, and various music books." The castle is beautiful and entertaining to Beauty. Cocteau again portrays a castle with body parts sticking out of the walls holding candles. The changes to Beauty's room are also substantial. In the film, there are vines growing everywhere, which to me adds to the "wild v. civilized" influences in the film. There is also a lack of the bookshelf and musical instruments, removing the air of culture from both Beauty and Beast.

Cocteau obviously had to pay much more attention to the setting of the castle because he was making a film, something incredibly visual. However, I am boggled as to why he decided to portray a castle that is beautiful in the story as something so much more sinister.

Song of the Blog: "Cemeteries of London" by Coldplay

Beauty and the Beast ending

One thing I found particularly interesting between the story and the film were their endings. In Beaumont’s version, the Beast is saved because Belle says she will marry him. Yet in Cocteau’s film, the Beast says that Belle saved him because she gave him a look of love. In the beginning of the film the Beast says that Belle should not look into his eyes. I don’t believe this was evident in the text and the film seemed to include a lot more aspects of looking and was preoccupied with the component of the gaze. Finally in the film, when Belle is able to look the Beast in the eyes with true tenderness and love, he becomes a man again. In the text it is the contract of marriage that releases the Beast from his spell. I enjoyed Cocteau’s version because the whole aspect of the look seemed more romantic and was carried throughout the film. I’m not sure if this is correct or not but it appeared that when Belle gazed upon the beast, smoke came from his body. This seemed most evident in the scene when she stands behind the statue and is staring at the Beast and you can see smoke coming from his paws. I wondered if this foreshadowed the whole idea of the look of love being able to save the Beast.

Assignment: 10 March 2009

Since many of you still need to watch the Cocteau film, posts will be due at midnight on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.

Pick one scene or element from Cocteau's "La Belle et La Bête" and compare it or contrast it with de Beaumont's version. You might pick something that interests you, that seems odd, or something that you missed in one version or the other, for example.

Pepelyouga - the Serbian Cinderella

Now this version of Cinderella was much more like the Brothers Grimm's version of Cinderella than Charles Perrault. It had the same kind of deep set magic, tied in with death, rather than the happy-go-lucky magic of the French version of Cinderella. However there are some major differences between the two stories.
Firstly, one of the major differences is that Pepelyouga's real mother, before she dies, is first turned into a cow. Now I do not know the significance of cows in Serbian culture, but I believe it would be quite interesting to find out. This cow then helps Pepelyouga with her seemingly impossible chores. It is after this little cow interlude, that the story returns to a more Grimm-esque fairy tale. The talking cow (mother) asks to be buried under a certain stone of a house and tells Pepelyouga that if she ever needs help, she is to come to the grave and ask for it. Also she asks Pepelyouga not to eat the meat of the slaughtered cow - this is interesting as it appears the Serbian tale puts emphasis on the evilness of cannibalism. It is okay that both the father, the evil step-mother and the step-sister eat the cow (who is actually the mother) but good sweet innocent virtuous Pepelyouga is forbidden to eat it, lest she turn into an evil person like the rest of her family.
There is also a great emphasis on religion in this version of Cinderella. Instead of going to a ball at the palace, the stepmother and stepsister leave Pepelyouga at home slaving away, whilst they go to church. The doves sitting on top of a chest on top of the mother's grave tell Pepelyouga to go to church dressed in the beautiful dresses, and it is here in the church that she meets her Prince Charming, the Czar's son. It is whilst she is being pious and virtuous that she is discovered by her Prince and of course, he immediately falls in love with her.
The Serbian version of the fairy tale ends in a similar way, however to the Perrault fairy tale. Instead of their being blood and maimed feet and faces, Pepelyouga is simply carried off into the sunset by her handsome Prince. However it is interesting to note though that it specifically says that "Later he won her love and they were happily married." This Cinderella seems to be more level-headed than the other Cinderellas. Instead of just swooning into the arms of the Prince, he has to win her love. This makes them seem more on an equal level. It would be interesting to see when this Serbian version of the tale was written - to see if it was written during a time of feminism etc.

Fair, Brown, and Trembling (or) The Irish love a good fight

I read "Fair, Brown, and Trembling," Jeremiah Curtin's Irish tale on Ashliman's Website. The tale is based in Tir Conel, nowadays Donegal, up in the Northern part of the Republic. The first thing that jumps out to me is in this version it is neither the father nor the mother who is the main catalyst for Trembling's (Cindarella) mistreatment; it is the sisters. While the father is a non-factor like the half of tales that portray the (step)mother as the bad guy, the sisters being the main oppressors stand out.

The next major thing that sticks out to me is how Trembling's identity is connected to her looks. Many other tales revolve around her being recognized as the right girl only after she is cleaned up; she must show up wearing all three different outfits to prove her identity, really stressing the appearances aspect of the tale.

Another fun addition is the fight scene. The prince has to fight several other princes over a series of epic battles until no one else is willing to fight him. Epic contests of this nature are very "Irish folktale," but don't really seem to surface elsewhere in Cinderella tales. It makes the prince seem more worthy, but doesn't really give Trembling any more agency in selecting her mate.

Towards the end of the tale, Trembling is swallowed by a magic whale. While this is not the only Cinderella tale where the sister tries to do Cinderella harm after she is happily married, this episode has a lot of detail in this version. Again, the prince must perform an epic feat of strength to save her, asserting his right to be her husband.

I am most puzzled by the henmother. Not surprisingly, Catholicism is an important part of this story. However, whenever the henmother helps Cinderella, she puts on her cloak of darkness and gets the clothes magically. It is not clear, but this sounds like witchcraft rather than magic to me. I don't have any problem accepting it, it just seems very un-Catholic and out of character for the story.

Overall, I like this tale a lot. In addition to being a retelling of the basic Cinderella plot, it incorporates lots of other motifs from completely different fairy tales. It also has a distinctly Irish flair.


Song of the Blog: "Coup D'Etat" by Lord T and Eloise

Cinderella Post

From the Ashliman website, I read the Norwegian version of Cinderella, Katie Woodencloak. I found this version not as exciting as the Perrault or the Grimms version, despite the fact that there were some magical elements in the story. Although many of the versions are unrealistic, the magic within the stories is enjoyable. I found the magical elements in Katie Woodencloak unappealing, especially the three trolls in the forest that the talking bull has to fight; however, I do realize that trolls are a part of Norwegian culture. I also did not like the fact that the prince was so mean to Katie Woodencloak when she was in her wooden cloak and that despite this, she still went to see the prince in church those three times. The storyline with the dead bull was also left in the open; did he magically turn into the man who gave Katie the copper, silver, and gold kilts? Overall, I was not impressed.

Creepy Fairy Godmothers

I looked at the illustrations of Cinderella on the Sur La Lune website. After looking at many of the different drawings done to accompany Cinderella I noticed that there were many different depictions of the fairy godmother. Some of the illustrations showed the godmother to be rather evil looking, almost as if she appeared as a witch. But we all know that the fairy godmother is good and actually helps Cinderella so I thought it was interesting to portray her in this dark, ominous way. For example in Arthur Rackman’s drawing the godmother appears darkly cloaked and boney, almost as one would picture the witch in Hansel and Gretel to look like. She does not appear jolly and bright like the Disney fairy godmother. There is another illustration done by Paul Woodroffe which shows the fairy godmother with a black witch’s hat on. She is wearing a red cloak and a tight black dress. Her face is very pale and almost skeletal looking and she hovers creepily over Cinderella. She really does appear more like an evil sorcerer than a gift bearing godmother. I wondered why the illustrators chose to draw the godmother in this way. If I were a child reading these stories and viewing these pictures I would immediately associate the pictures of the godmothers as evil due to the way the illustrators drew them. Perhaps these artists were hinting at the moral that Perrault highlights at the end of his story, that beauty isn’t everything, but rather graciousness and a good heart. Although these fairy godmothers appear wicked, they have inner goodness and grant dear Cinderella’s wishes.

Assignment: 24 February 2009

Look through the sites below and choose either an illustration(s) or a version of the Cinderella story which we have not read for class and respond to it.

• D. L. Ashliman’s folktale site
• Sur La Lune
• The Cinderella Project at the University of Mississippi

No posts this week

Good luck on your exams!

Walt, Prince of Fairy tales

I, along with Chester and sloanesc believe Zipes' thesis to be "The great "magic" of the Disney spell is that he animated the fairy tale only to transfix audiences and divert their potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images he cast upon the screen." (333)
Although Zipes' thesis may be true, I do not view Walt Disney in such a pessimistic light as Zipes seems to. If we take a pragmatic view on this, it is highly likely that Disney wanted to "transfix audiences" with his animations. In order to make more money, he would have wanted audiences to keep coming to the cinema to see his movies over and over again, and ways of doing this were to wow them with the filming techniques or to provide a happy feel-good movie. Disney did both of these things.
Since childhood I have loved the Disney movies (if you were interested, my favorites were the Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and the Sword in the Stone) and I still love them today, but that is part of the beauty of the Disney movie. They appeal to both adults and children. Children are amused by the talking animals, the beautiful princesses and of course the handsome prince who saves the fair maiden from the evil stepmother/sea monster/unwanted lover. At the same time, Disney appealed to adults by having a number of levels. For instance, it is only as you get older that you begin to understand all the humor in the movies. Also, a child would not get the reference to Hitler in the Lion King - as the hyenas march past Scar (during "Be Prepared") it is very reminiscent of the Nazis marching past Hitler at Nuremberg. Walt Disney was trying to appeal to as many people as possible to make as much money as possible. For instance, if the original ending of Snow White had appeared in the Disney movie with the evil stepmother being burnt to death by shoes provided for by Snow White and her new husband, children would be terrified, and parents would not take their children to see the movie. In the end no one would watch it and Walt Disney wanted his movies to be seen.
Many of the false promises and cutesy nature of the Disney movies are there simply to explain the fairy tale more thoroughly. It is very hard to explain the end of the Brothers Grimm's version of Snow White, where she wakes up in her coffin to find the Prince (who she has never seen before) sitting next to her, and falls immediately in love with him. In Disney's version, the Prince sees Snow White at the beginning of the film and they sing a love song together. Although this brings in a Prince Charming figure (which could be seen as a false promise) it better explains why Snow White agrees to marry him at the end.
If it was Disney's intention was to "divert... potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images he cast upon the screen," I do not believe this fact should be viewed cynically. Disney movies are loved worldwide by children and adults alike, providing happiness and laughter for all who watch them. It is true that his animations hold false promises; after all not every story ends with a Prince Charming and a happily ever after. However, as Zipes says, this is a part of their magic - they provide an escape from day to day life, where disasters happen, good people die and evil is not banished. In the Disney movies, we can live in a world where we know everything will turn out right in the end. Whatever motives he had, Disney rejuvenated the fairy tale, creating timeless classic after timeless classic, which live on in the hearts of many.

Post #4

“The great ‘magic’ of the Disney spell is that he [Disney] animated the fairy tale only to transfix audiences and divert their potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images he cast upon the screen,” (Zipes, 333).

I disagree with Zipes’ thesis. Although I do believe that Disney created these animated fairy tales to help audiences get away from the struggles and banality of their everyday lives, I also believe that Disney tried to instill some hope to his viewers, not by simply “transfixing” them through his animation of “false promises,” but by helping them realize that everyone can achieve the “American” dream.

Disney himself was the epitome of “the American dream.” Growing up in a poor family with weak parental relations, he was destined to become nothing more than what he was born into. He, however, showed that with hard work and effort, time and patience, anyone who puts their mind to it can achieve what they want out of life. Although Disney’s films were based on fairy tales from lands far away, with the events depicted lacking realness in today’s society, I do not think that it was with “false promises” that Disney tried to show his interpretations of many known fairy tales.

The "magic" of Disney

I agree with Holly in that the lines she presented are very important to understanding Zipes’ argument about Disney. However, I think the main argument to the essay occurs two lines later: “The great “magic” of the Disney spell is that he animated the fairy tale only to transfix audiences and divert their potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images he cast upon the screen” (p. 333). While Zipes’ phrase “Disney was a radical filmmaker who changed our way of viewing fairy tales, and that his revolutionary technical means capitalized on American innocence and utopianism to reinforce the status quo” is very revealing, all of those statements are fairly quantifiable; there is much more of an argumentative edge in Zipes statements about the Disney magic.

If Zipes’ argument was not persuasive enough the first time around, I doubt that my summery is going to change your mind. However, I think there are several parts of his essay that support his definition of Disney magic, so that overall his essay is convincing of his point. He starts with a fairly detailed history of the fairy tale genre and how the oral and literary traditions interacted for so long. The point of this history is to show “the literary fairy tale’s ascent corresponded to violent and progressive shifts in society and celebrated individualism, subjectivity, and reflection” (341). But even with the societal shifts, fairy tales continued to play an important role, be it for adult entertainment or to teach morals. However, fairy tale film had a very different aim: “It did not matter what story was projected just as long as the images astounded the audience, captured its imagination for a short period of time, and left the people laughing or staring in wonderment” (342). Animated fairy tales in general have a very different and less laudable focus. Zipes also argues that “Disney sought to replace all versions with his animated version and that his cartoon is astonishingly autobiographical” (343). Pushing for the audience to only remember his version and using his animation to astound the audience is half way towards arguing his main thesis. Zipes has shown that Disney is using his magic to transfix audiences through the images he cast on the screen, the only question remains, what is he transfixing the audience to?

That question is answered in the text as well, supporting his thesis. Two major points stand out arguing this point: the first is Snow White’s historical context. It came out during the Great Depression, and it “was to bring together all the personal strands of Disney’s own story with the destinies of desperate Americans who sought hope and solidarity in their fight for survival during the Depression of the 1930s” (346). So there is a definite utopian component in the masses. Disney’s own story was a tale of success, but projecting that on the screen even though it was the story of a small minority could give the masses false hope. The final point that shows how Disney only aimed to divert the masses with false promises is how Disney acted once he was firmly in power. “The manner in which he copied the musical plays and films of his time, and his close adaptation of fairy tales with patriarchal codes, indicate that all the technical experiments would not be used to foster social change in America but to keep power in the hands of the individuals like himself” (351). Disney was willing to use his entrancing art form to chain the masses. With all these facts in mind, Zipes’ argument about Disney’s magic seems much more convincing.

Song of the blog: “I kissed a girl” by Katy Perry.

Zipes Thesis on Disney

After reading Zipes’s essay, this is what I have pulled as the thesis, “…Disney was a radical filmmaker who changed our way of viewing fairy tales, and that his revolutionary technical means capitalized on American innocence and utopianism to reinforce the social and political status quo.” (333). So basically, Zipes does not seem to be the biggest fan of our “beloved” Walt Disney. According to Zipes, Disney has changed the way fairy tales are meant to be viewed and extracts new meanings from these tales. After reading through Zipes’s essay, and reflecting on the many Disney movies I have viewed in the past, I have to say I agree with him, though under certain terms.
I grew up on Disney movies and would watch classics like Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid over and over again. They are part of most children’s upbringing and to this extent I think Zipes is a little harsh on Disney because I would never want these films to change or disappear. However, I believe Zipes is correct in his criticism of Disney in that he indeed does change our way of viewing fairy tales. In his films we are not seeing accurate portrayals of the Grimm’s tales. Disney installs new themes, like that of the Prince in Snow White that does imply a patriarchal society, and that innocent and beautiful Snow White can only be saved by this male figure. Here, as Zipes claims, Disney tries to enforce a “social status quo” as good woman are seen as objects that are only useful in their domestic nature, while males take on the active roles.
The Disney franchise also takes away some of the grotesque features of the Grimm’s fairy tales in the reproduction of The Little Mermaid. The Disney tale does not mention the pain the little mermaid must suffer upon walking on her feet, which in the Grimm’s she is described as having to endure the feeling of walking on knives while on land. Disney, indeed, tries to preserve an innocence and cheeriness in his films that is acceptable for children.
Although Disney does change the classic fairy tales so they are not as rich and complex as before, he has created something that Americans love and deem part of their cultural identity. Rather than thinking of Disney’s movies as adaptations of fairy tales, I like to think of them as their own entities and forms of entertainment that should continue to be shown to children for years to come.

Assignment: 3 February 2009

First, please identify the thesis of the Zipes article from this week’s reading. Then, respond to his thesis: do you agree or disagree, and why?

Don’t forget to post two comments by Wednesday at midnight.

Goldflower and the Bear: a Communist battle

This version of LRRH, written by Chiang Mi in China in 1979 is more an allegory of Soviet-Chinese relations than a simple fairytale. On the surface it appears as a simple fairytale should: young girl saves herself and brother by bravely facing down and outwitting an evil creature determined to eat them. In fact Goldflower even outwits the creature in the same way as LRRH outwits the wolf in the early French versions of the tale - by feigning an urgent need for a bathroom. However when you look at the cultural context of this tale, a hidden agenda is discovered and a lot of the author's choices begin to make sense.

The most obvious difference between this Chinese version and the original version of LRRH is the use of a bear rather than a wolf as the evil creature . During the 1960s, a decade before this story was written, relations between the Soviet Union and China became strained due to different beliefs about Communist theory. Then in 1979, the year "Goldflower and the Bear" was written, China launched the Sino-Vietnamese war by invading Vietnam. Vietnam was a Soviet ally and during this time Soviet-Chinese relations became even more tense. It is therefore interesting to note that the antagonist of this tale is not a wolf but a bear - an animal which is often used to depict the Soviet Union.

Goldflower is shown as a resourceful young girl, who can perfectly take care of not only herself, but also her little brother in the face of danger. Instead of being described as a 'dear little girl' as she is in the Brothers Grimm's version of the tale, she is described as 'clever and brave.'
Written in the aftermath of the cultural revolution in China during which time most intellectuals in China were put into labor camps, bringing the education system in China to a halt. However by describing a peasant girl as clever, the author is perhaps suggesting that anyone can be clever - not just the intellectuals.

Finally at the end of the tale, after the heroine Goldflower has killed the "wicked old bear" i.e Soviet Union, the mother returns as "the sun was rising red in the east." Numerous propaganda posters during the cultural revolution used the image of the red sun to describe the Communist leader Mao Zedong. He was often referred to as 'the red sun in the center of our hearts.'
A new day has dawned with Mao ruling over all.

There is perhaps a lot more cultural significance to the tale of "Goldfinger and the Bear" than one would have first assumed after reading this tale. As the fairytale draws to a close, Goldfinger and her brother are safe at home, knowing that the evil bear is gone once and for all. China and its brand of communism are safe, having outwitted and bravely faced the brute strength, power and might of the Soviet Union. China will prevail and be strong.

Two and a half reasons why Thurber appears more humerous than the Brothers Grimm

The picture of James Thurber on Wikipedia shows that he had awesome hair. And everyone knows the saying, “Those who have awesome hair tell awesome stories.” His contemporary retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, which he titled, The little Girl and the Wolf, is certainly an example of his story-telling ability.

The moral of Thurber’s fairy tale is that “It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.” This point is made after Red pulls an automatic out of her basket and shoots the wolf dead. There are a lot of major differences between Thurber’s version and the Grimm’s version. I am not a psychoanalyst (remember, I’m Irish) so I am not willing to make any sweeping claims about Red’s sexual exploration or her urge to kill her father, but I am willing to consider how Thurber’s audience and how the culture surrounding the time-period might be incorporated into his version of the story.

I think there is a pretty good chance that this fairy tale is addressed exclusively for adults. Thurber spent most of his career writing and drawing for the New Yorker, a magazine geared towards adults. Also, while one could argue that his collection of fairy tales was a contemporary update for children, one major flaw stands out from this point of view. The moral does not make any sense if the reader does not know the original ending to the story; or at least know how naïve Red acts. Since Thurber spent much of his life writing humor and satire for a very sophisticated magazine; there would be little surprise if this was also geared for the same audience who read the New Yorker in the mid-20th century.

Two other major cultural themes are also probably at work. The first is Feminism. Thurber lived through the First Wave of Feminism. The First Wave is characterized by a push for political, economic, sexual, and reproductive rights for women. Red is not as naïve as she was previously in Thurber’s version. For once, Red is able to notice that it is a wolf and not her grandmother in the bed, even at some distance. The Second Wave of Feminism is typically estimated to start in the 1960s, and Thurber’s death was in 1961. So, while he probably wrote this piece before the second wave was in full swing there is a chance he was a forerunner for the ‘women’s liberation” movement. Whatever his personal views, Feminism probably had a role in Red’s behavior.

The second major factor is more of a guess than a fact, but I think a rise in violent crime might also be involved. Red: 1) Is carrying a concealed weapon. 2) Pulls it out and shoots a wolf. 3) Is unfazed by such action. Thurber lived in a big city, New York City, through prohibition and the rise of organized crime, World War II, and well into the “modern era.” Guns were a part of these changes, and their new-found prevalence could also surface in having Red shoot the wolf on-sight.

Song of the blog: “All about Us,” by t.A.T.u.

I also chose to look at Roald Dahl’s poem “Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf.” However, I believe that the audience Dahl intended for this poem is an adult. It is clearly a satire of the original tale of Little Red Riding Hood and much different from the Grimm’s version or other typical nursery tale forms of the story. He intended for this poem to be a joke although they did end up being published in the 1980s in a book called Revolting Rhymes. The fact that it was originally made as a joke further explains its intention to amuse adults rather than children. An adult reading this poem and observing Little Red Riding Hood take a gun out of her pants and then shooting the wolf while proceeding to wear his fur as a coat would most likely laugh. However a child might be horrified at such a story.
I think that Dahl most likely made this poem to amuse his friends who perhaps often read sugar-coated versions of fairy tales to their children. By the 1980’s most fairy tales were pretty tame and aimed at teaching children a lesson without subjecting them to large amounts of violence. It is doubtful that a story made for children at this period of time would include Little Red Riding Hood pulling out a pistol.

Post #3

Dahl’s version was written in 1982, and according to “Poetry Archive,” his rhymes were written as a joke, not intentionally meant to be published. Due to his own comments, I believe that his version of Little Red Riding Hood is a parody on fairy tales as a whole, not specifically representing the culture of the 80’s, the time period in which the poem was written.

In line with his other stories, I believe that children are the audience for his poem(s). His amusing take on the fairy tale gives children a fresh and interesting way of looking at a more serious story and getting a good laugh at it.

Assignment: 27 January 2009

Please respond to the following by midnight tonight. On Wednesday, read over the other posts in your sub-group and comment on at least two.

You have read Shavit's essay comparing the Perrault and Grimm versions of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Using Shavit's method, consider one of the other versions you read for this week (Dahl, Calvino, Thurber, Chiang Mi). With a little research (you may use Wikipedia, since this is not a research paper), outline who you think the audience is and what the fairy tale’s retelling says about the culture and time in which it was written.

Hansel and Gretel: the movie

In my opinion, the most important aspect of the tale of 'Hansel and Gretel' is the forest. Not only can it look imposing, dark and frightening from the outside but its sameness on the inside - the seemingly ongoing tree trunks, the muffled sounds absorbed by the leaves and branches and the strange animals rustling nearby but out of sight - can create a great sense of fear in adults, let alone young children, and would cultivate the sense of abandonment if lost inside. My film of 'Hansel and Gretel' would therefore place great emphasis on the forest.
The forest in Hansel and Gretel would be a pine forest, full of great evergreens - their dark color would hopefully give the film an even darker atmosphere.
Hansel and Gretel would be twins aged around 7 or 8 years old and would live with their father, the woodcutter, and their new stepmother. In order to ensure the viewers know that the stepmother is in fact their stepmother and not their real mother, Hansel and Gretel would look like their father - blonde, blue-eyed etc. compared to the dark, more witchy qualities of the stepmother.
The movie could begin with a shot of the dark forest, and a voice over (perhaps from Hansel and Gretel's real mother) warning them never to enter the forest without an adult. This fear of the forest would be paramount to the children - who would really feel the sense of abandonment and lonliness once in the forest. However then the film could move to the present day and Hansel and Gretel sitting at the kitchen table looking at a crust of bread, with the stepmother looking into an empty pantry. The father, having been injured in an accident in the forest, is lying in bed unable to work for the foreseeable future.
After a few weeks with little food and no change, the stepmother orders the children to go to the nearby town (on the other side of the forest) for a doctor. She tells them she has to stay with the father to look after him. Although scared they go into the forest and begin to follow the path. However the path comes to an end and they have to venture into the dark forest without a guide. However Hansel still has some bread left over and begins to crumble it to make a trail for them to follow on the way back.
Night falls and they still haven't reached the other side of the forest. They lay down to sleep and when they wake up the next morning all the bread crumbs have gone, eaten by birds in the early morning. They wander blindly through the forest for many days, eating berries for food until they come across a clearing with a small house. As they approach, an old crone hobbles out and says that she will go with them and help their father, once her back has healed. (However her back is not really injured - she is just faking) She keeps Hansel and Gretel locked in her house for many weeks, working them to the bone helping her get well. It is only one night when Gretel sees her chopping wood outside that she realizes it is a trick.
Hansel and Gretel then decide to escape and follow a little white bird to the outskirts of the forest. Once they get there, they are able to find their way home.
They have been gone for many months and their father is well again. However the stepmother is still alive and there is no knowing whether there will be a happily ever after.

Post #2

If I were to produce a version of Hansel and Gretel, I would set it in a European forest, most likely somewhere close to the Scandinavian Mountains. I believe that Hansel and Gretel would be around the ages of 7 and 5. I believe this because during the Middle Ages, it would not have been uncommon for children, especially males, to become independent and take the next step forward in their lives. With this being said, the notion that the children have to fend for themselves in the forest is not so outrageous.

As for the father and the (step)mother, I believe that the woman would be thin and petite, and the father, small and lean. I would portray them in the film like this to show that they are not necessarily bad people, and that they are just behaving in such a way to give their children an opportunity that they can not provide them, and/or uphold European standards of the time.

The main problem that would feed into the Hansel and Gretel story would be that the children need to be sent forward and become independent due to some illness, most likely the bubonic plague. It is not necessarily the parent’s choice to send them away, but they want what is best for their children.

The woman/witch that they encounter in the movie could be an outcast from society who was deemed a witch and ran away. One possible situation is that she befriends them and tries to teach them her sorcery, and they run away. When they come back, the plague is gone and has killed the mother, and the children and father live together in good health.