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
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