Window of Past

Window of Past, 75 more images after the break...

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Tattoos of American soldiers

 Tattoos of American soldiers, 46 more images after the break...

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Little Red Riding Hood on SYTYCD

Yes, you can see the fairy tale/folklore influence in pop culture waxing strong again. For example, last night on So You Think You Can Dance (U.S.) featured a routine inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. This after the siren/mermaid one from last month. And, yes, this is one of my favoritest shows and I'm rooting for Melanie to win it all although I love many of the dancers this season.

Here's a video of it:

Disney's The Order of the Seven

From Disney's 'Order of the Seven' Lands Director (Exclusive) by Borys Kit:

While Universal and Relativity jockey over their rival Snow White movies, Disney is quietly making moves on its own revisionist Snow White feature, a live-action project now called The Order of the Seven.

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The unique project, which Disney has been developing since 2002, focuses a bit more on Snow’s seven companions, who aren't as cute and jolly as in the 1937 classic Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In fact, the project, which was initially known as Snow and the Seven and had scripts by writers ranging from Michael Chabon to Jayson Rothwell, is evolving into more of an original action film, with the Snow White elements being minimized.

In this iteration, the seven are a 19th century-set disparate band of international warriors belonging to a centuries-old order who have lost their way. Their meeting with an Englishwoman being chased by an ancient evil is the catalyst for their redemption.

While the project is set in China, the warriors will be from locales near (the U.S.) and far (Russia), and each warrior will have a unique fighting style.

Description of ABC's Once Upon a Time

Not much new here, but I liked this brief description of what to expect from ABC's Once Upon a Time.

From Comic Con 2011: Steven Spielberg, 'Once Upon A Time', Sarah Michelle Gellar Television shows promoted heavily by Susan James:

Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, and Robert Carlyle, the show mixes the real world with a fairy-tale alternate universe. “We’re not interested in retelling fairy tales,” explained Edward Kitsis during one of the press conferences, “but in telling the parts you don’t know.”

In a town where time stands still, familiar characters from fairy tales—Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, and Little Red Riding Hood among others—live like ordinary folk and have no memory of their fantastical origins. The Wicked Queen is town mayor and Snow White teaches school. Drawn from the outside world into this alternate dimension by a small boy seeking help, comes the confused, unhappy Emma Swann (Jennifer Morrison) on a mission that she doesn’t understand, with a destiny she can’t remember.

“We’ll go back and forth between the worlds,” said Kitsis, “and we hope you love it.”

The Princess is Dead, Long Live the Princess! by Helen Pilinovsky

Fantasy Magazine also published an article last month, The Princess is Dead, Long Live the Princess! by Helen Pilinovsky. Helen has been writing about fairy tales for years now and I always enjoy her work. She has also been co-editor of Cabinet des Fées.

Here's the first paragraph introduction to entice you:

Princess. These days, it’s practically an epithet, but when the fairy tale was at its zenith, there was a clear correlation between hereditary rank and innate worth. Somehow, despite the shift in our values, there’s a certain segment of the population that is still held by the spell of the fairy tale princess. It’s not the fans of fairy tale retellings—who tend to subvert the princess—but little girls and their mothers, a demographic targeted by Disney. Between the two extremes, the princess occupies an uneasy territory between traditional values, progress, and reclamation. From word-of-mouth storytelling to printed texts to cinematic adaptations, the princess has been defined and redefined in remarkable ways.

  

PS: I know an image of Shrek Princesses was an odd choice to illustrate this post, but when I used "princesses" in Google images for inspiration, this was one of the few images that wasn't of a Disney princess or princesses. How many people in our cultures now associate the term with Disney at first thought? The Shrek princesses made me happy after all that Disney overload...

Short Story Online: Swans by Kelly Link

Fantasy Magazine Online reprinted the short story, Swans by Kelly Link, last month. The story originally appeared in A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales edited by Ellen Datlow & Terry Windling. It is a Wild Swans/Six Swans retelling.

Here are the first few paragraphs to spark your interest but you'll have to visit the site to read the rest:

My name is Emma Bear, and I am eleven years old. I live on Black Ankle Road beside the Licking River. I live in a palace. My father is a king. I have a fairy godfather. This summer I read The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and learned how to make blue dye from a flower called woad. I have six brothers. My mother is dead. I’m in the seventh grade. My father remarried this summer. My favorite class is home ec. I love to sew. I make all my own clothes. My mother taught me how to sew. I can also knit, crochet, and quilt.

Yesterday my stepmother pointed her pinkie finger at my brothers and turned them all into swans. They were being too noisy. I’m never too noisy. I don’t talk at all.

This year I was failing choir. I opened my mouth to sing, and nothing came out. I hadn’t been able to say a word since my mother died. In my other classes, it was okay. Homework was okay. Math was okay, and English. Art was okay. I could write down answers on the black board. I carried around a pad of paper and a pen. You’d be surprised how often you don’t actually have to say anything. Mostly if I just nodded, it was okay. But choir doesn’t work that way. You can’t sing by writing on a pad of paper. But nothing came out of my mouth when I opened it.

And if you enjoyed the story, you might also enjoy some of Link's other works, including Stranger Things Happen: Stories and Magic for Beginners and Pretty Monsters: Stories.