Fairy tale

Fairy Tales

I love fairy tales. Buried somewhere deep in the archives of this blog is a post talking about how I love fairy tales. I grew up on Disney fairy tales. I’ve spent my life falling in love with different reimaginings of fairy tales. In today’s day and age there’s no shortage of them, and some of them are really rather fabulous. Recently I’ve discovered a number of creative inventive fairy tales that I’ve fallen in love with. They all derive from somewhere – from a fairy tale or a fairy tale author. And they’re great. I’ve found reinventions of Alice and Wonderland and reinventions of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales which are just amazing.

And here’s the thing. What’s so great about fairy tales? Why do we love them so much? Why do we keep coming back to them?

Because they’re familiar with room for creativity. They help us deal with our own problems. They provide us with a place to escape to if life is just too much. They’re something we ourselves can create if we so choose.

Fairy tales are awesome.

BrittanyM

Love of Fairy Tales

I think I’ve mentioned this before (I’m actually fairly certain that I have) but I really love fairy tales. I’m not just talking about Disney fairy tales. Those will always and forever have a special place in my heart, but they also just sort of skim the surface of fairy tales. They’re wonderful and happy and brilliant, but they’re just one piece of the puzzle.

Lately what I’ve really been into is more modern fairy tales. I love retellings of the classic tales, or tellings of the tales from different points of view. At the end of the month Malificent is coming out and I’m so so excited. The trailers have looked really fantastic, and I love that the tale is being told from a different perspective. I love that they’re working on telling the same story but in a really different way. Perspective is everything when it comes to storytelling, and different perspectives can really change the way a story is seen.

I also think that the original fairy tales, the ones with a little more grit, sometimes aren’t given enough credit. Happy tales are great, but there’s nothing wrong with a little grit and unpleasantness.

Really I’m just on a big fairy tale kick, and I wanted to share with you guys.

What’s new with all of you?

BrittanyM

Forms of Writing

I think it’s safe to say at this point that everyone who reads my blog knows that I write. All the time. I write this blog, and I have a journal. I write a lot of lists – especially to do lists. And otherwise generally when I write I write fiction. That’s always been my chosen method for as long as I can remember. I know how to put words into sentences into paragraphs into stories. It works for me.

I’m telling you all of this to show I don’t really write poetry. Sometimes I go through poetry spurts, and occasionally I’ve had to write poems for class, and really that’s about it. Poetry has always been one of those things that alludes me a little bit. How do people do it? How do they make it sound beautiful? How do all the pieces fit together when they’re not in sentences? I don’t think these are uncommon questions, but one might think I would have a slightly better idea.

All of this is leading to the fact that when my Creative Writing II professor told us we had to write 10 poems, that seemed like a lot. And because of scheduling issues 10 had originally been 12. So really 10 was a blessing, but I went into it with fear and trepidation. Even having a set assignment for the first poem didn’t alleviate my stress. What was I going to do?

And I thought and I wondered and I pondered and I realized that I needed a common theme. Then at least I would have something to work with. And because of what I’ve been reading and writing lately I decided on fairy tales, but not happy fairy tales. I wanted to focus on the darker side. (Note, this is not the darkest side which I’ve discovered through research for a paper. I just didn’t want everything to be all sparkly and shiny, because what if it really wasn’t?) And having some order helped. I wrote a couple of poems and realized the world wasn’t going to end.

By far my best poem thus far though has nothing to do with fairy tales. My professor had us do a collage poem which is (seemingly) incredibly complicated to explain. But think of the process of a collage. You take different pieces and fit them together. That’s kind of what you do with a collage poem. You take inspiration from artwork and ambiance and other slightly abstract things and weave it together into a poem. And not only was the process a lot of fun, but I love what I came up with. Personally I think it’s my best poem so far.

Poetry might not be my chosen form of writing, but I think I need to cut it some slack and maybe give it some more opportunities. This semester has reminded me that it really isn’t all that bad.

BrittanyM

Fairy Tales

There are a lot of things I could write this blog post about tonight. I can easily think of another two or three. But I’m choosing to focus on fairy tales. I happen to really really love them and always have. I grew up on the Disney versions and spent a long time not knowing that there even were other versions. (There are, in case you were unaware.) There are actually a lot of other versions. (This I’ve just really begun to learn this year.) And that’s just talking about original versions. It has nothing to do with modern retellings, even though these days there are a lot of those too. (And that’s actually what I really want to talk about.)

But first some attention should be given to those older and more original versions. These aren’t the Disney versions but the versions that inspired the Disney versions. The fairy tales I’m talking about are dark and twisty and really kind of creepy. There’s a lot of subject matter that’s been taken out in more modern versions (and even in the Brothers’ Grimm versions). I’m not entirely convinced that these early versions were meant for children because I think these versions would give children nightmares. I know that they freak me out a little bit. They’re important though. Not just because they’ve inspired the Disney versions and the retellings that are now becoming more popular, but because these versions told stories too. They showed that the world wasn’t always a happy place, but that happy endings could and usually did prevail. And that’s important knowledge to have.

What I really want to talk about though is the fantastic retelling of Sleeping Beauty that I read yesterday. It was set in modern day and turned my idea of fairy tales on its head. Initially I wasn’t engrossed in the story and found it easy to put it aside and do other things. But as I read more and more I couldn’t put the book down, and finally I gave up on doing anything else and settled in to read. The book, you ask? (Because apparently I haven’t mentioned that yet.) Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross.

If you haven’t read this book, go read it. It’s that good. It’s a modern day version of Sleeping Beauty, the characters are fantastic, and the story is captivating. It was yet another reminder that the reinvention of the stories we grew up with is a fabulous thing. And there are a lot of reminders of this fact these days. It seems like every story is being reimagined and being reimagined in wonderful and fabulous ways. There are movies and books and fan art and fan stories. Because the fact of the matter is, at the end of the day, fairy tales are really a wonderful thing.

BrittanyM

Books and Other Loveliness

Today I read an entire book. Which, for me, really isn’t a huge accomplishment. I read a lot and this certainly isn’t the first time I read an entire book in a day. It is the first time it’s happened in a while, but that’s because I’ve been at school and have been super busy. So yesterday I got to go to the library and today I managed to find the time to read an entire book.

It was a good book – “Between the Lines” by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer. It was all about fairy tales and the secret lives of book characters and ultimately happy endings. It was exactly the type of book I would fall in love with and I’ve been meaning to read it for a while. I was ecstatic to find a copy of it at the library yesterday, and I’m glad that I was able to read it. The only sad part is books can only be read for the first time once, and while I’m sure I will read this book again and again, the initial magic is gone.

In other happy news work for my internship is picking up. Already I have several different things lined up to do and I can’t wait. I have my first story assignment which I’m slowly working on and my first photography assignment which I am equally excited about. Essentially I am excited for everything concerning my internship, and I can’t wait to have more details to share with you.

I think that’s it for tonight. Thanks for reading.

BrittanyM