Zazzle Shoes Sale

Zazzle is having a one day sale on their shoes--including my fairy tale designs. Today only (12/4/2010) save $15 off a pair with free shipping included. Use code JINGLESALE43 to receive the discount.

South Side — Taapsee Photoshoot

South side Taapsee latest photoshoot gallery, More images after the break...

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Shelter of 1500 Dogs and 200 Cats

Chinese Ha Venin (Ha Wenjin) for the love of animals sacrificed everything she had, but did not regret about it. In order to take care of our younger brothers, she left her job, sold her house, car and jewelry, and now in her care are 1,500 dogs and 200 cats. Of course, one cope with such a horde tailed virtually impossible because of the cats being wooed by two with 10 employees. Several years ago, the contents of the shelter costs $ 37,500 a year, but with the onset of the economic crisis, costs have almost doubled. Now shelter exists mainly through donations and sponsorship. More images after the break...

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Draft National Museum Zayed in Abu Dhabi

We suggest you watch the first images of the National Museum of Zayed in Abu Dhabi. The authors of the project - office Foster + Partners. The project has already begun to build on Saadiyat Island, which also plans to build a series of very ambitious buildings: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a project of Frank Gerry, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by Jean Nouvel, the Centre of Applied Arts and the Maritime Museum and more. This museum will be dedicated to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Naja, the man who founded the UAE. 3 More images after the break...

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A little Genius — Video

Royale Opera Time - Piece Watch

Beat me with a stick! I just had to plod through Manufacture Royale's nine page long bloody press release - only to have reasserted what they mention in the first few lines; that they are "unashamedly elitist." Wipe my brow and hand me an ol' timey hallucinogenic absinthe, because I need to lay back in a hammock on a steamship and read some Jules Verne to appreciate this steampunk mechanaut. More images after the break...

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Rapunzel Week: That's All Folks

Rapunzel by Emma Florence Henderson

Rapunzel Week is over for now.  I hope you aren't completely burned out on her.  And if you haven't seen Tangled yet, do fit it into your busy December schedule. I did enjoy it and plan to see it again, not what I expected.

And if you do see it, you might want to read Persinette, the French Rapunzel by Charlotte-Rose de La Force. Persinette's lifestyle reminds me of Tangled in which Persinette wants for nothing but companionship beyond her mother and knowledge of the outside world. You can find translations of it in The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm (Norton Critical Editions) and Rapunzel and Other Maiden in the Tower Tales From Around the World.

You can also read Terri Windling's great essay about the tale and its history at Rapunzel, Rapunzel,Let Down Your Hair. She includes a summary of Persinette as well as other Rapunzel variants.

Thanks also to everyone who shared their Rapunzel Love and Hate.  I loved reading your stories. 

Next week we return to the random postings that spring forth from my brain or appear in the news.

Fairytale Reflections (12) John Dickinson at SMoST

Fairytale Reflections (12) John Dickinson was yesterday's weekly post at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles.

Dickinson chose to write about The Arabian Nights for his personal reflections.  I especially enjoyed his thoughts on Scheherazade, my favorite character from the tales. Here's an excerpt to whet your appetite.  As always follow the link to read more about Dickinson's own work as well as the full piece:

And Scheherazade herself. The young woman who, night after night, tells the stories to her husband the Caliph, knowing that if she ever loses his interest she will be executed in the morning like all his other wives before her. In the sweltering darkness she whispers to him, and he listens with his head propped on silken pillows as she ends one tale and begins another, only to fall silent just as her royal murderer is begging for more. Young as she is, she has mastered the art of the cliffhanger.

(I never asked myself, when I had that yellow book in my hands, what else she might have known about amusing men in bed. Nor did I wonder if the Caliph’s problem with women might have stemmed from some very private little problem of his own, and the reason the stories worked for him was because nothing else was going to. Sad creature that I am, I can think these things now. )

A thousand stories! I’m a storyteller myself, and used to being asked about my ideas. But where did she get all hers from? Maybe she walked at dawn through in the peacock gardens, her brain dull from fear and lack of sleep, plotting the twists and turns that would keep her alive for one night more. That story about the sailor went well. It must be worth a sequel or two. Is seven pushing it too far? All right, but what’s he going to do on his seven voyages? (Bird flies by with mouse dead in its claws) That’s it! Birds! Big birds, big enough to feed on elephants! That’ll make him sit up. That will get me one more dawn like this. One more…

And covers of some of John Dickinson's books, too.  I keep wanting to use his full name since he is Peter Dickinson's son and I don't want confusion to develop:

    

Shrek Forever After on Disc This Tuesday

 

Shrek: The Whole Story Boxed Set (Shrek / Shrek 2 / Shrek the Third / Shrek Forever After) [Blu-ray] and Shrek: The Whole Story Boxed Set (Shrek / Shrek 2 / Shrek the Third / Shrek Forever After) are released this Tuesday, December 7.  The four movie box set is a deal in comparison to the single movie release price, especially if you are considering Blu-Ray upgrades this holiday.

I admit I haven't seen the final Shrek film yet. I know I will someday, perhaps this holiday season. I know it wasn't great according to reviews, but I've been so disappointed with almost all of the movies I've seen this year that I won't mind if the kids in the room enjoy it at least. Truly, until I watched Knight and Day last week with the hubby, my only faves of 2010 were Tangled, Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon along with Babies. Granted, I haven't see Inception, Salt or Secretariat yet, but probably will see those in the next few weeks as they become available on DVD.  I am still anxiously awaiting The King's Speech to be released in Nashville, too.

 

Rapunzel by Ray Harryhausen

I didn't share any video shorts this week, so here is Rapunzel by Ray Harryhausen for your Saturday morning cartoon viewing pleasure. (Did I just reveal my age? Not that it's a secret...)

Rapunzel Week: Zel by Rapunzel

Zel by Donna Jo Napoli has to be featured in Rapunzel Week or I will feel like I left the week incomplete. Zel is not light reading although it is fine for YA readers.  It is my second favorite of Napoli's fairy tale explorations, coming in a close second to The Magic Circle (a book almost impossible to surpass).

Zel explores Rapunzel's psychology, the psychology of all three characters in the tale, including Mother Gothel and the Prince.  I haven't reread it in years, but images and feelings remain etched in my memory from my first reading when the book was released years ago and I refresh them every so often, realizing they are still accurate and strong. It is highly recommended especially if you love the tale.

Here's the publisher's description, since I usually include that:

High in the mountains, Zel lives with her mother, who insists they have all they need -- for they have each other. Zel's life is peaceful and protected -- until a chance encounter changes everything. When she meets a beautiful young prince at the market one day, she is profoundly moved by new emotions. But Zel's mother sees the future unfolding -- and she will do the unspeakable to prevent Zel from leaving her...

If you haven't read it, do.  Don't be afraid of it.  It's a beautiful book even with the dark parts--and it is not nearly as severe as Magic Circle.  Zel has an unbreakable spirit that is pushed to its limits by confinement, but she triumphs over her adversities. Her loss is stronger for she isn't confined until adolescence when the witch realizes she wants to protect her adopted daughter from her oncoming sexuality and adulthood.

VIII. Rapunzel Love and Hate by Rachel M.

Rapunzel on the Tower by sugarcream

Here is the final of your Rapunzel Love and Hate thoughts, part VIII. by Rachel M.

"Rapunzel" has long been my favorite fairy tale, specifically because I relate to it more than others for a number of reasons. Here are three:


1 – She's not a princess. She's an ordinary girl who happens to get caught up in something, well, very odd, and becomes a princess after her trials are over. So unlike Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, for example, she earns her status rather than being born into it. Because she acquires her princesshood, and there are some good qualities in the “fairy tale princess” archetype - like kindness, grace, optimism, etc. - she makes those qualities seem a bit more attainable by anyone.


2 – She'd be messed up. Being locked alone in a tower, completely sheltered for her whole life, would create really interesting psychological problems. Horrible ones, yes, but interesting. So not only is she a normal girl, but she'd be very messed up as a result of her upbringing and her escape. This also makes her a more real character to me.


3 – She chooses to escape through love. No, she doesn't chop off her own hair and climb down of her own volition. But in choosing to get involved with the first man she meets she sets her fate into motion, since she knows how her Mother would react if she found them out. This seems very different from stories like Sleeping Beauty, for example, where everything is done to the heroine, not done by. So even though Rapunzel's actions are sort of passive-aggressive, I'm still comparatively impressed by her.


Also, I'm a sucker for “love conquers all” situations. Her belief in love frees her and dooms her at first, as she is cast from the tower and has to wander the wilderness alone. But she keeps believing in it, especially as she cares for her children – a living symbol of that love – and in the end love saves her as she finds her prince and heals him.

by Rachel M.

VII. Rapunzel Love and Hate by Erin K. C.

Rapunzel by Ellyn Lusis

More of your Rapunzel Love and Hate thoughts. Here's part VII. by Erin K. C.

I have always wanted Rapunzel’s tower. The story’s most iconic image is of our heroine letting down her infamously long hair, ready for witch or for prince, but when I was little, I loved seeing the inside of her tower. In my storybook’s illustrations, it looked like a wonderful place to live, decorated in silk and velvet with a beautiful bed and tapestries on the walls. I imagined a long winding staircase leading down to a stone wall where the door had once been. The idea of being locked up in such a place was scary, but it was exciting too, and I secretly thought Rapunzel must have liked it. After all, if she was unhappy, why didn’t she just cut her hair and climb down herself?


This thought stayed with me as I grew up. My interest in fairy tales flourished during my teen years, and I returned to Rapunzel often. I related to the idea of being cut off from the world, only my exile was self-imposed. Being an only child, I was comfortable living within the walls of my imagination. Now that I was a teenager with adulthood ever encroaching, the pain leaving childhood behind started to grate on me. I had wonderful friends, but I always kept one foot firmly planted in another world of my own making. Rapunzel’s tower came to represent this inner world, safe and apart from adults. Looking at the tower this way, it was easy to forget what it really was: a lovingly made prison.


Like many fairy tale heroines, Rapunzel has a reputation for being passive. Things happen to her; she doesn’t make them happen (except for restoring her prince’s eyesight with her tears, but that’s really a happy accident). Her story offers no easy answers about to save yourself from the tower of your childhood. After all, the prince brings the real world to her; she makes no effort to see it for herself. Then Mother Gothel banishes her from the tower, finally forcing her to be on her own. These outside forces determine her life; she only reacts. Maybe she would have been content to stay in her tower forever with her mother close at hand, and men safe and distant in the realm of fantasy. But then there would be no story.


Fairy tales tap into the subconscious, allowing us to better understand ourselves and our lives. One reason I love Rapunzel is that it shows how easy it is to stay hidden inside our personal towers, torn between childhood and growing up. Inside each of us, there is a Mother Gothel who doesn’t want things to change, and a prince who tempts us into the outside world. Though Rapunzel remains a passive character, she represents the powerlessness we all feel in the face of growing up, and the ultimate triumph that comes with making the journey. Her story reminds me that though my imagination will always be a source of joy, I have to be careful not to let it consume the real world and all it has to offer.

by Erin K. C.

VI. Rapunzel Love and Hate by Rossichka

Rapunzel at Night by Blumina

More of your Rapunzel Love and Hate thoughts. Here's part VI. by Rossichka.

During the last couple of years I’ve been connected with “Rapunzel” as never in my life before. After directing it for the puppet stage, I had the chance to follow the reactions of the audience (especially the children) who were always enchanted and lived the story to the full. I enjoyed the pleasure the actors worked with as well as their love towards the show that never fails. Now I can say that this fairy-tale intrigued me more than any other else did during the last few years. Why? Because it has several layers . Because it puts a lot of questions that may receive different answers, because it can provoke different art interpretations . The themes that I was moved by were: the child’s necessity of independence and self-determination; the parents’ control and custody; the right to make your own choices in life and, of course, the power of love that gives strength, hope and meaning of one’s life. So that’s why “Rapunzel” is so special to me.

P.S. “Rapunzel” is not among the most famous fairy tales in Bulgaria.

by Rossichka

V. Rapunzel Love and Hate by Marissa Meyer

Rapunzel by Gustaf Tenggren

More of your Rapunzel Love and Hate thoughts. Here's part V. by Marissa Meyer.

One of my favorite parts of reading and studying fairy tales is being able to spout off at any passing comment all the nitty, gritty, creepy, peculiar, uncomfortable aspects of the tales that have gotten lost in our Disney culture. Whether it's the rape of the sleeping beauty, the cannibalism of Little Red's grandmother, or the evil queen being forced to dance in piping hot shoes, there's always a weird fairy-tale tidbit that makes people stop and ask me, "Really? In a children's story?"

Rapunzel is one of my all-time favorite tales for this very reason. To many, the story is about a girl in a tower with long hair. Not much to it, right?

But what about the husband who was so afraid of his wife's food cravings (of all things) that he willingly sold off his unborn child to a witch?

And why, exactly, did the witch get so mad just because her ward's clothes were a little too snug? (Perhaps because she had excellent deduction skills.)

And of course, one of my favorite fairy-tale gore moments is when the brambles beneath the tower poke out the prince's eyes. I mean, ew.

Although I don't expect Disney's variation to make much use of the darker side of the tales, I can't wait to see what they have done with it. But, like a true Grimm geek, I'm perhaps equally excited to talk to people once they've seen the movie and be able to tell them, "Sure, that was cute, but here's how it really went down . . ."

by Marissa Meyer

Marissa has a series of fairy tale based novels due out in 2012, the first will be Cinder: Book One of the Lunar Chronicles.

IV. Rapunzel Love and Hate by Luciana

Rapunzel by Becca Thorne

More of your Rapunzel Love and Hate thoughts. Here's part IV. by Luciana.


Regarding Rapunzel, I like to imagine it a little different from the earlier versions. I like to give fairy tale characters other perspectives in their own story. This is a version I made for Rapunzel ( I love the tale), and there are other fairy tale based poems at the Wooden Box blog, in case you´re interested. As the blog name says, I keep it as a repository of these poems I make sometimes.


The Girl in the Tower
 A flap of wings.
An open window.
A beautiful creature inside, waiting for the black bird, ready to go.


They have been flying together for a long time now.
Appreciating each other´s company and talking about things of their different worlds.
The witch is always cursing the princes who climb the girl´s prison. She never sees the only one who flies in.


One day he alighted on her windowsill and she invited him inside.
And that´s how the Raven-Prince met The Lady of the Tower.


Funny the way things are.
People only see what they want to.


A young woman locked in a tower.
A witch who thinks she owns the girl.
She breaks the girl´s heart, she even cuts her braids.


But she´ll never, ever, suspect Rapunzel has a hidden pair of wings.

by Luciana

III. Rapunzel Love and Hate by Rachel A.

Rapunzel by Heinrich Lefler (1905)

More of your Rapunzel Love and Hate thoughts. Here's part III. by Rachel A.


As a child, I was never a huge fan of Rapunzel. The story was so problematic--a woman who craves greens to the point where she tells her husband she'll die without them? (But then, I've never been pregnant...) A father who offers up his first child to a witch, seemingly without a qualm? A witch who becomes a loving mother, yet leaves her daughter locked in a tower out of fear? Etc.... I was intrigued by the story, but couldn't overcome my distaste for the washed-out picture-book versions where the young woman simply waits in a tower for a prince to rescue her.


Then I got a book of REAL fairy tales--no cleaned up contents, no bowdlerization--and suddenly Rapunzel was a whole different story! Sure, it included some of the same problems, but that was only HALF the tale! Imagine my surprise to discover that after Rapunzel should be rescued and home-free, she's actually sent to live alone in the desert, where she bears twins and survives with them for years... and her prince is blinded and wandering for those years... and only after this trial do they come together.

Once I took a deeper look at the story, I came to appreciate it more. It's one of the few stories where the hero and heroine aren't madly in love at first sight--sure, they like each other, but the prince comes and hangs out with Rapunzel every day. They get a chance to get to know each other. They get to have a REAL relationship--which is then set upon with problems, which are then overcome (admittedly through some luck, but also through patience and endurance).


Now, of course, there are wonderful retellings, such as Shannon and Dean Hale's Rapunzel's Revenge, and Donna Jo Napoli's Zel, as other writers have discovered the deepness and intricacy buried in the simple telling of the original tale. Now it's one of my favorite stories.

 

by Rachel A.
http://fairylayers.blogspot.com/

http://www.nearandfarcomic.com/
http://richlayers.livejournal.com/

II. Rapunzel Love and Hate by Sam V.

From his book Rapunzel. Visit his website. 

More of your Rapunzel Love and Hate thoughts. Here's part II. by Sam V.

What I like best about Rapunzel is what I like best about all the truly memorable fairy tales - it has an specific image in it that tells you exactly what it is. Hansel and Gretel have the gingerbread house, Cinderella has the glass slipper, Red Riding Hood has, well, the red riding hood - and Rapunzel, of course, has the hair. Attributes like these are almost like hagiographic iconography. Just like seeing keys and knowing it's Saint Peter, or a broken wheel and knowing it Saint Catherine, you need only to see that one image and you just know what the story is. That's what, to me at least, makes some fairy tales stand out far more than others - that instant visual, that shines out even in an unillustrated text.


by Sam V.