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JaNell
Registered User
(3/18/02 8:26:44 pm)
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Are new, original fairy tales being written?
Are Fairy Tales being written today? Real, original, not-based-on-a-previous-historic-work Fairy Tales?
Sometimes I see, on various websites and such, indications that some people see fairy tales only as something to be studied, in the same way dead languages are, or as only being FT if they are a new variant of an old story.
I think that people are still writing fairy tales today. Completely original, non-derivitive fairy tales.
(Mine are more, um, allegory?)
What do the rest of you think?
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(3/19/02 3:24:44 am)
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art fairy tales
If you mean in the same ilk as HC Andersen, Oscar Wilde, Frank Stockton, Laurence Housman, James Thurber, Isak Dinesen, etc.--I do. You can see mine in some of the following collections: Girl Who Cried Flowers, Moon Ribbon, Neptune Rising, Dragonfield, Tales of Wonder, and the Here There Be collections (dragons, unicorns, witches, ghosts, angels.) Not all are ft in these collections, but many are.
Terri W does.
Greg Frost has on occasion.
Tanith Lee.
Jay Williams.
Angela Carter.
Mainly, though, you need to be looking at children's books.
And I believe we have covered this subject before.
(But that may have been on another board.)
Jane
Jane
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JaNell
Registered User
(3/19/02 5:24:12 am)
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Re: art fairy tales
I didn't mean to offend, at all.
*I* think they're being written today, but some of the posts here made me wonder about *other* people's opinions, how *other* people define "fairy tale" and if *other* people thought it was a dead art, or one that has transformed into something else...
Before starting this topic, I did scan the five pages of threads to see if there was a similar one; if there was, I missed it.
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(3/19/02 5:27:29 am)
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boards
No offense at all. As I said, it might have been on another board. I keep having the same conversations and forget where.
Jane
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JaNell
Registered User
(3/19/02 6:33:20 am)
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Re: boards
*laughs*
I only post on three boards, fairly unrelated ones (local, author, here) and I still have that feeling!
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(3/19/02 6:42:05 am)
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Re: art fairy tales
I don't think it's a dead art at all, though -- as you say -- it may depend on how you define fairy tale. Jane listed several good examples. For my own part I hesitated a good long while before I added the sub-title to my collection THE OGRE'S WIFE: Fairy Tales for Grownups, afraid that it might be interpreted as a put-down, but nothing else really captured the flavor of what I was trying to do.
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Lotti
Unregistered User
(3/19/02 12:27:42 pm)
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What is a "real" fairy tale?
As Jane so correctly pointed out, there are the artistic fairy tales of Wilde and Andersen, to start with the "old stuff" :-) , and then there are those fairy tales that are part of the folklore. Strictly speaking, for me at least, that would encompass primarily the tales that are not written, but TOLD. As soon as they are written, they loose some very important aspect, the adaption to the situation, the audience, the mood of the storyteller etc. As for the written tales, for me, the early Grimm and the Afanasjew collections would be more of the "real thing", as opposed to the later Grimm or Perrault collections. Collect, write it down, don't edit.
Having said that, I would say that as most peoples have lost their oral tradition, there are few if any new traditional folk tales. As for the artistic folk tales, there are very many new ones out there! And of course, some of them might in time become as much part of our cultural heritage as the stories of Wilde and Andersen.
A typical answer for me, I guess: Yes and No...
Best regards,
Lotti
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(3/19/02 2:15:18 pm)
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stories
Lotti--I do both oral storytelling and writing down stories. They are simply different animals. They share some characteristics, but the real difference is in the audience and the author/teller's response to the audience.
Jane
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JaNell
Registered User
(3/19/02 2:28:27 pm)
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Re: stories
Now, re: Neil Gaiman, as an example, since I've never seen any of the rest of you read, I'd *love* to hear him story-tell one of his originals, as opposed to doing a reading.
Hmmm...
Do any of you story-tell your originals, without reading from anything?
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Kate
Unregistered User
(3/19/02 2:35:29 pm)
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Reading
For myself, yes, I 'recite' my work from time to time, the shorter chapters (I memorize everything I write--not intentionally, it just happens). I first saw work recited when I saw the poets Jane Miller and Olga Broumas read from their collaborative work, Black Holes and Black Stockings, in 1985. In all honesty I sometimes pretend to be reading it from the page though, which of course makes this NOT storytelling. Out of shyness.
Related to this topic: though much of my novel draws upon the themes and motifs of traditional fairy tales, I would consider the entire work 'original' (lord, I hope I can, in any case).
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(3/19/02 3:20:57 pm)
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oral telling
My oral programs are a mix of folk tales and folklore and my own stories. But I always warn the audience not to read along with my oral telling since things change when I am telling.
Jane
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swanchick
Registered User
(3/19/02 5:16:33 pm)
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new, original fairy tales
Yes, there are writers out there writing new tales as well as resetting the old ones. Jane Yolen already mentioned her own. Patricia Wrede has a collection on the YA shelves. A.S. Byatt has two collections out. One, _The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye_, I've read. The other is called _Elementals_, and I haven't read it yet. Ummm...I'm sure I could think of more if I sat here for an hour. The Neil Gaiman novel I mentioned is another one. Susan Wade wrote new fairy tales for the Datlow/Windling anthologies; the stories were "Like a Red Red Rose" and "The Black Swan". Old archetypes, new stories. No doubt as soon as I get off the computer I will think of more...
swanchick
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