Blog Ritemail: 2010-12-05

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Fairytale Reflections (13) Juliet Marillier at SMoST

Katherine Langrish, what can I say but that you rock?

This week's offering on Seven Miles of Steel Thistles is Fairytale Reflections (13) Juliet Marillier. I am beginning to wonder if Katherine is capable of contacting Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to contribute to this series. (Not that the authors she is presenting are unapproachable by any means, but the breadth and diligence is impressive.) I'm excited to see who appears each week. And, no, this is no pressure on you Katherine. But this is like getting supplemental essays for Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales and A Narrative Compass: Stories that Guide Women's Lives, but, well, for free. How very generous of Katherine to arrange it and of the authors who are participating. I've enjoyed them all in some ways, especially from the ones whose work I am not familiar with.

Daughter of the Forest (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 1)

But this week I am most certainly familiar with Juliet Marillier's work. I'd have to fire myself from SurLaLune if I wasn't. I haven't credited her enough, but her Daughter of the Forest (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 1) was part of my inspiration for expanding SurLaLune beyond the original ten or so popular tales I focused on when it began. Six Swans and its variants had to be explored after I read that book just a little over a year after I started SurLaLune. Then she kept going with several more fairy tale inspired novels as well as others. I'll image and link some of them at the bottom of this post.

No surprise to me that Marillier chose Beauty and the Beast for her wonderfully long piece about the tale for SMoST. Here's the first few paragraphs to inspire you to follow the link and read all of it.

I’ve loved Beauty and the Beast ever since I discovered it in Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book at the age of eight or so. As a child, I was captured by the magical elements of the story: the mysterious empty house with the meal ready on the table and the bed turned down for the weary traveller; the shock of the Beast’s first appearance; the mirror that allows Beauty to see far away; the cast of invisible retainers; the sixth sense that lets our heroine rush back to her dying Beast just in time to save his life. As a child I was untroubled by the fact that Beauty was so much the victim of her family’s poor judgement. I simply revelled in the spellbinding romance of the story. It was probably that tale, above all, that shaped me into a writer who puts a good love story in every novel!

All my books contain elements of traditional storytelling. I thank both my Celtic ancestry and a perceptive children’s librarian for providing me with a very early passion for myth, legend, fairytale and folklore. Of my twelve novels, three are loosely based on well known fairytales, and the others dip frequently into the cauldron of story that we all share, borrowing themes and motifs from its rich brew and, I hope, adding something new each time to the nourishing contents. I’ll write more later on my use of Beauty and the Beast as the framework for a gothic fantasy-romance for adults, Heart’s Blood (Roc, 2009.) First let’s look at the history of the fairytale itself.

Wonderful reading. And here are some of her books, including her newest title, Seer of Sevenwaters:

Son of the Shadows (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 2)

Child of the Prophecy (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 3)

Favorite Fairy Tales of People Past: Totally Fun Silliness

So when I gushed in my previous entry about the Fairytale Reflections series at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, I started daydreaming about Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte writing entries as well as some other authors. Anyone want to play the game with me?

What would the favorite fairy tales of favorite deceased authors be?

Charlotte Bronte is rather easy. Jane Eyre and her other works lead me to think Beauty and the Beast with Bluebeard. That one's really too easy.

Would Jane Austen pick Beauty and the Beast, too? She certainly liked Cinderella tropes but would she claim it as a favorite? She predates The Ugly Duckling, but she would probably have embraced that one, too.

And speaking of Bluebeard, it had a special influence with L. M. Montgomery. She references it much more frequently than just in her The Blue Castle which is certainly partially inspired by it. I learned about Bluebeard from Montgomery actually. She referenced it so often that I had to learn just what the tale was when I was an adolescent reading anything by Montgomery I could get my hands on.

And, by the way, we already know somewhat that Dickens loved Little Red Riding Hood. He once wrote: "Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood I should have known perfect bliss."

Several years ago I acquired a copy of Favorite Fairy Tales: The Childhood Choice of Representative Men and Women illustrated by Peter Newell to share the illustrations on SurLaLune. I was thrilled to find a list of important figures from that time who had chosen some of their favorite fairy tales. Mark Twain put his name on Aladdin and Ali Baba. Howard Pyle chose Little Snowdrop (Snow White). Julia Ward Howe chose Beauty and the Beast. Henry James chose Hop o' My Thumb. Jane Addams chose The Ugly Duckling. Grover Cleveland chose Cinderella. You can see the entire list in the table of contents provided at Project Gutenberg where the book has been digitized much more recently.

Many of the people are not as well known today, but their choices are interesting. It's always interesting how the gender lines are drawn in the choices, too. Arabian Nights and Jack and the Beanstalk tends to be a male choice although the men are more willing to choose female heroines, too. Apparently, they listened and cared about those stories decades ago despite socialization that makes us think they can't or won't. (Hollywood I'm looking at you!) Of course, these days Scherazade gets more press so women pick her story from Arabian Nights pretty frequently too.

So play the game and pick an author and speculate over his/her favorite fairy tale. I've already found myself devoting too much time to the exercise.

Tangled Toys

Okay, I couldn't resist a list of Tangled tie-in toys. The plush doll and the tower charmed me. And looking at the sell-outs and inflated pricing of some sellers, I think these are selling well this holiday season, a sign of a successful movie. And this is by far not all of the choices, just some of the most expected or fun ones with a few uh-huhs thrown in.