Fairy tales

I think I read once that many times a romance novel is a fairytale re-written. Certainly I've written a contemporary story which had the working title "Cinderella". There weren't two wicked stepsisters or other trimmings, but by having a fairytale hook in my mind I did keep focussed that I was telling a transformation story, with all the magic a transformation entails.

I can't really name a favourite fairytale. I like so many of them, especially when they can be rewritten with interesting twists. My story of Rapunzal was part of "Stories of Strength" and I loved writing it!

I guess fairytales are about personal change and growth, overcoming obstacles. They really are the starting point of romances.

Great idea for a thread.

I wouldn't say modern-day romance novels are a rewriting of fairy tales, but Jayne Ann Krentz makes the argument that these romances are based on a deeper female mythology, of a general sort, not the technical, Greco-Roman mythology. Certain themes play out, over and over, in the stories, including the taming of the alpha male.

I actually have a hard time looking at fairytales these days and not seeing them as fundamentally misogynistic. I once heard a romance author speak on the topic (fairytale themes, not misogyny), and one of the things that really stuck with me was that Cinderella, like many of the other female title characters, isn't even the protagonist of her own story. Heck, Sleeping Beauty isn't even conscious for a good portion of her story. So, one of the tricks to rewriting fairytales is to make the title female have an active role in the story, so she's not just a victim, and she's not rescued by someone else, but is a participant in her own rescue, responsible for any predicament she's in.

Oh, and if pick up a copy of Jenny Crusie's Bet Me,, it's great fun to go through it with an eye to the fairytale motif. You'll notice immediately that the book starts with "Once upon a time" and ends with "they lived happily ever after." In between are countless references to assorted fairy tales.

JD

As sad as it sounds, fairy tales were my first romance stories. As it were. You could almost say they were every kids first romance stories (the romantic ones anyway).

(Going back to Disney) Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King, Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, hell... even Peter Pan to a certain extent. All of them have those aspects that everyone expects to see in a romance novel: boy meets girl (or vice versa), boy and girl have conflict (with each other or outside source), conflict is resolved and relationship moves forward. I don't mention Snow White because I can't get over the fact that she's like 12 in that movie (and I can't stand Shirley Temple's voice).

Speaking of fairy tales Disney should do: King Grizzle Beard, The Frog Prince, and Coat of Many Colors. All they need to do is pick up the Grimm's Fairy Tales table of contents and throw a dart. Whatever it hits, get crackin'. I've been seriously thinking of writing a letter to the Disney execs and telling them to get off their sequal making asses and do something "original" for a change. I'd be a little more PC about it, but you get my meaning. I really want to see another big Disney production in theaters again. And, Pixar doesn't count. They are their own entity even if Disney did buy them out.

Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairy tale, although I have also always thought that the beast turning into a handsome prince was a cop-out ending. I'm not sure what counts as a fairy tale - any traditional story such as a myth or folktale? I like the one about the girl who married a horse, and the one about a wolf who fell in love with a sheep (hmm, seeing a theme here...) I also like a lot of trickster tales, whether they are aesop's fables, tales of reynard the fox, anansi stories, or coyote stories.

I love fairy tales, I collect books of them. Usually I try for as close to the original versions as possible. I have a real dislike of fairy tales that are so sugar coated they give you cavities.

One of my favorites is the Little Mermaid. Not the Disneyfied version, but the original one where she doesn't get her prince in the end, but before she turns to seafoam she becomes a spirit of the air. Charles de Lint does an excellent, modern-day version of this called Our Lady of the Harbour.

Can't remember the name of it, but my favorite was the one about the king who asked his daughters how much they loved him. Daughters 1 and 2 flattered him to high heaven, but Daughter 3 simply said, "Father, you are as the salt in my food."

He was so offended that he banished her, and after many years (during which he was neglected by his older, insincere daughters) she returned to the castle, unrecognized, as a cook.

Of course, she omitted salt from every recipe. The bread didn't rise, the hams wouldn't cure, the meals were tasteless. Only when the king was thoroughly miserable did the daughter reveal herself and say, "Get it?"

He got it.

Marlys said:

Can't remember the name of it, but my favorite was the one about the king who asked his daughters how much they loved him. Daughters 1 and 2 flattered him to high heaven, but Daughter 3 simply said, "Father, you are as the salt in my food."

He was so offended that he banished her, and after many years (during which he was neglected by his older, insincere daughters) she returned to the castle, unrecognized, as a cook.

Of course, she omitted salt from every recipe. The bread didn't rise, the hams wouldn't cure, the meals were tasteless. Only when the king was thoroughly miserable did the daughter reveal herself and say, "Get it?"

He got it.

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I know that one. But, now you have to spin it so that there's a romance and a Disney-fied ending. Maybe turn the king into her would-be fiancee and the sisters into competitors for his hand.