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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(3/13/01 11:49:34 am)
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Technology and fairy tales
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I have been reading several reworkings of fairy tales (namely Carter's Bloody Chamber and a number of anthologies) and noticed a lack of modern technology (computers, telephones, cars etc.) even if the setting is no longer pre-industrial... Developed countries have been living w/ some of these inventions for over half a century and yet from what I've read, technology still does not play a significant symbolic role in modern fairy tales. Any speculations as to why? Are there any reworkings of fairy tales that integrate technology into their stories, or does the presence of technology immediatly relegate a story into the genre of science fiction?
p.s. I'm very glad to have found a board discussing fairy tales ^_^
| Midori
Unregistered User
(3/13/01 2:21:39 pm)
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techies
It's a great question really and though I can't think off hand of any rewritten narratives with significant technology images (though Coover's Briar Rose has a dark ending with household appliances featured in the happily ever after), what does come immediately to mind are the fairy tale reworkings used by T.V. advertising. For instance, the one with Fergie and her daughter and the prince will come tale--there is definately a computer in that, and the whole point is that the princess substitutes magic security for stock options purchased on line (in case the magic stuff doesn't work out). I think television ads that combine the two sets of images do so because they are usually so diametrically opposed---and its a great way to foreground a modern product by surrounding it with a well worn tale. (have a look farther down the board on fairy tale advertisements---it was a great thread!)
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(3/13/01 5:03:03 pm)
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Re: Technology and fairy tales
Interesting point. I certainly don't think using technology in fairy tale retellings change them into "science fiction" and no longer "fairy tales."
One aspect of using technology in stories is that the stores are then dated very quickly. Even though we've been using the telephone and television for a long time, think of rotary phones and the party line, both of which have pretty much died out in America - though I still had a rotary phone until the dog chewed the cord a few months ago. Will call waiting, voice mail, and cell phones be with us in five years? I have no idea. Computers change even more quickly. The 3.5 floppy is disappearing in favor of the zip disk or DVD or CD-ROM. Pentiums bought five years ago are obsolete. Using present technology places a tale in a very specific modern age - say the turn of the millenium when palm pilots and cell phones were "in." Maybe some authors would prefer not to do that.
One example of using technology in a folklore inspired fantasy story is a children's novel by Susan Cooper - The Boggart. The Boggart is a very old magical creature who lives in a castle on a remote island. The setting is modern, but the castle doesn't have electricity. When the castle's elderly owner dies, a family inherits the castle, which they visit before selling. The Boggart comes with them when they leave and encounters electricity and computers. Wild magic meets electricity and the results are wild! Laura Mc
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Gregor9
Registered User
(3/14/01 10:23:49 am)
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Technology
It IS an interesting question. I know that, when I was writing "Root of the Matter" for Terri and Ellen's first anthology (which is a reworking of "Rapunzel"), I added cars and a cassette player to the canvas, but was not entirely comfortable with the idea even as I did it. I definitely experienced a sense of "this doesn't belong" with the more traditional elements of the story, even though in many ways the story had become more contemporary.
When I wrote a second tale for them, which was based on "The Tinderbox", the story was set in 1950, and the tinderbox became a Zippo lighter; and I did not have the feeling as if what I was introducing didn't belong--in fact, just the opposite. So, I guess I don't have an answer for you exactly, except to say that whether or not technology is part of the landscape is determined by the nature of the story. If the tale isn't *about* technology, then there isn't likely to be much/any in there, and to put it in, like some kind of product placement, will more likely damage the tale than help it.
However, Laura's absolutely right, too, that technology is now obsolete as fast as it appears. Even current science fiction is stumbling under this weight--which is one reason you see so many "alternate histories" and time travel stories instead of extrapolative sf. No one wants to be wrong, and they know just by watching that whatever is hot today is likely to have ceased to be used in 5 years.
Greg
| Helen
Unregistered User
(3/14/01 12:36:22 pm)
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Well...
Off-hand, I can think of a few really elegant fairy-tale retellings that depend upon technology for intrinsic aspects of their commentary on the specific nature of the tale that *they* are dealing with. Tanith Lee's retelliung of "Beauty and the Beast" in _Red as Blood: Tales From the Sister's Grimmer_ is one, Paula Volsky's _Illusion_ is another. Angela Carter's "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon" is actually a really good example - especially when juxtaposed against the other "Beauty and the Beast" retelling in that collection, "The Tiger's Bride". She uses the elements of modern technology - the father's car breaking down serving as the intro to the Beast's realm, the photograph that causes the Beast to see her as a potential companion, because "The camera had captured a certain look she had, sometimes, of absolute sweetness and absolute gravity, *** as if her eyes might peirce appearances and see your soul***", Beauty being tempted away by the luxories of the modern world - all of these serve to underscore the enduring messages of the tale, and to show their relevance to the "modern world.
Could be wrong,
Helen
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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(3/14/01 5:58:46 pm)
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Re: Well...
thanx for the replies and pointers to other stories!
I was thinking that technology isn't as powerful symbolically b/c it only applies to a certain group of ppl at a certain time period and consequently authors writing fairy tales now would prefer to use images that... resonate deeper... Having said that, Carter manages to pull it off in Mr. Lyon, dating the fairy tale w/o losing its universal appeal. Maybe the lack of tech stems from its association w/ money and business and external things that do not help individuals in the whole Campbell/Edinger ego trip. Although I think it would be cute: instead of puss in boots or elves or fairy godmothers there's sentient computer networks and talking microwaves :P
| Kate
Unregistered User
(3/15/01 10:53:39 am)
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Technology
I am NOT plugging my own work, but do want to jump in to say that in my forthcoming book, the narrator is a transcriptionist for a group of private detectives--working with a Dictaphone and a variety of machines from manual typewriters to a computer. Many reasons for that, mostly to do with playing with notions of retelling/orality . . . but also the recorded secret, private language, I suppose also ecriture feminine (not in a doctrinaire sense though), etc. At night the character practices her typing by retyping fairy tales. So, technology in a way is very much a part of the book, in connection with fairy tales, though I would not say the book AT ALL foregrounds ideas of technology. Of course, transcription works as a metaphor throughout ('works'? I hope!). Really this is not a plug, I am so sorry for mentioning my own book especially as I have been so mute on the board for weeks, engulfed in work myself . . .
| Terri
Unregistered User
(3/16/01 8:15:36 am)
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Kate's book
Kate, please don't apologize for discussing your own work. A lot of us work with fairy tale material here, and it would be a pity to have a ban on discussing our work as it pertains to the subject. I, for one, love hearing about what other writers are doing. And it can be helpful to beginning writers to get a glimpse of an established author's creative process.
Do you have a pub date yet? Or can I weasel galleys out of your publisher in my role as reviewer for the "Year's Best" series? I'm looking forward to reading it.
| Kate
Unregistered User
(3/20/01 12:24:48 pm)
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Novel
Terri,
Thanks for reminding me not to apologize. I am a chronic apologizer.
Thanks also for requesting galleys--and, in fact, I think I already put you on the list for bound galleys (without asking permission--sorry). I'll make sure you are on the list, though. Galleys, I hear, will be ready around May 1. The publication date is September 2001. You are right that it is probably good to be open about the publication process on this board. Earlier (and sometimes still) the publishing world seemed to me to be a realm requiring a secret handshake I would never learn. Anything that helps demystify it is a good thing.
To others, yes, I know this is a digression from technology--and I will be happy to go back to that if anyone is still interested. As I mentioned before, my poor little narrator, Ketzia, is a typist for a group of private detectives, and 'typing' figures largely in the narrative both literally and metaphorically, and in relation to fairy tales (as a way of life, in a sense). I am very interested in machines and offices, strangely enough. (Even found links between the film 'Clockwatchers' and folklore--so I must really be projecting this interest willy-nilly.)
Kate
| Kate
Unregistered User
(3/21/01 11:22:55 am)
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Address Confirmation
Terri,
The address I gave my publicist for sending you galleys is the Campbell Avenue, Tucson one--is that correct? Just making sure. I used to live on Campbell Avenue--just past River Road, behind that church, in a tiny territorial cottage in the river wash. The group of ancient homes was called "Frisch's". Do you know if it's still there?
Kate
| Terri
Unregistered User
(3/22/01 8:30:08 am)
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address
Kate, yes, that address will work. It's the P.O. Box address for Richard and Mardelle Kunz, who are the assistant editors on a bunch of Endicott Studio projects (Year's Best, the web site, etc.), since I don't like to make my own home address public. They'll pass it on to me promptly, and also log it in for Year's Best review. But if you e-mail me privately, I'm happy to give you my home address too.
I don't know much about the Campell and River area, other than that it's still real pretty up there, despite all the developement going on in Tucson. A territorial cottage??? That sounds divine! I'm a big fan of American Arts and Crafts architecture and design. I've always lived on the far east side of town, myself. The house I've just moved into is on a dirt road near Saguaro Monument East, with my beloved Rincon Mountains peering down on me as I type. I bought it with three other writer/artist friends -- Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Elisabeth Roberts -- to use as a writers/artist retreat, a part-time gathering place (since we each have our own homes in other places), which we've named Endicott West. (All these women were connected with the original Endicott Studio, which was started on Endicott Street in the North End of Boston.) I'm living here out of unpacked boxes at the moment, and we've got a *lot* of work and construction to do on the house, but it's going to be very nice eventually, and the desert land it sits on is gorgeous.
| Kate
Unregistered User
(3/22/01 10:19:40 am)
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A Side Note on the Desert
Terri, your retreat sounds incredible! A friend of mine, also a writer, just bought property far west of you, in the West Saguaro Park (a small section of the land that somehow is designated residential, right inside the park), past the Tucson Mountains. 15 acres of old desert bliss. She added on a whole guest unit to the rickety house that already existed. I spent January there doing the last haul-over of Ketzia, and am going back--I hope--for August (monsoon season, my favorite). I want to try to get a few friends to go in on acreage near her. We'll have to get all the desert writers together someday.
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Terri
Registered User
(3/23/01 6:09:03 am)
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...another side note on the desert
She's not on Sweetwater Road, is she? I looked at land out there, and it was incredible. Your friend's place sounds wonderful -- 15 whole acres! I hope you'll come out sometime in the winter/spring months, which is when I'm here, so we can get the east-west side writers together. I'm usually here from Dec. (or early Jan.) to June.
| Kate
Unregistered User
(3/23/01 3:12:33 pm)
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One last desert side note
Terri,
To get to her house, you go out Gate's Pass Road, out toward the desert museum (and past Old Tucson) and wind around a back road through the saguaro park--a nearby big(gish) road is Manville, and she's off that. It is stunning. She scraped together the money for the 15 acres from small book advances over ten years, and is doing the building herself.
I also love the east monument area where you have your place.
I'll be in Tucson for most of next January, and would love to meet.
Kate
| Terri
Unregistered User
(3/24/01 6:22:41 am)
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..last desert note (I promise!)
She must be close to Sweetwater then. It's lovely out there. And yes, that's a date for next January!
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