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Author
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Comment
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mylesaway
Registered User
(12/29/03 8:44 pm)
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Know any fairy tales about not being able to leave a town?
Hi, everyone. this is my first post.
I'm a screenwriter and I'm writing a TV pilot with lots of myths and fairy tales in the stories.
I am going to take a lot of these stories and use them with modern characters in modern situations.
I'm looking for fairy tales and myths in which the main character can not get out of town or a place he's stuck in.
For example: Ulysses stuck on Calypso's island for 10 years is one. But it is rather ominous in nature.
Do you people know any other stories like this?
There was a movie Red Rock West in which Nicolas Cage kept running into different circumstances and problems which kept him in town.
I'm looking for more of a fairy tale/mythic twist to this sort of story.l
thanks so much,
mylesaway
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RBrunea
Registered User
(12/30/03 3:45 am)
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stuck in town
It's not a fairy tale, but how about the movie Brigadoon, starring Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse? All of the townspeople must stay within the boundaries of their town due to a bargain made with God for their protection. If anyone leaves, they all die.
Rhonda
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mylesaway
Registered User
(12/30/03 9:15 am)
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Re: stuck in town
Great suggestion. But I would love to get actual fairy tales that haven't been done into movies yet...since I'm going to use these to write a pilot for a television series.
Thank you so much for replying to my question and hopefully I'll hear from you again.
Mylesaway
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RymRytr1
Registered User
(12/30/03 9:32 am)
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not a FairyTale
but, just to keep folks thinking; Dr. Who did one like this and I believe Rod Serling also... in Dr. Who, there was an invisible, physical wall, but I can't recall how it was done on The Twilight Zone.
Neil Simon's "Fools", if I recall, was about people trapped in town, cursed with stupidity, untill someone married or got smart, or some such...
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Valkith
Registered User
(12/31/03 2:17 pm)
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Fairy Mounds
Hows about the tales involving fairy mounds, where if a mortal eats or drinks with the fairies they can never leave?
Sorry at work and nothing specific springs to mind.
Could Bluebeards wife leave the castle?
Good luck
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Ron McCutchan
Unregistered User
(12/31/03 6:33 pm)
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Merlin, Ariel, Danae, Rapunzel
These may be too claustrophobic for your purposes, but:
The enchantress Nimue (or Vivien) traps Merlin in a cave or a hawthorne tree in Arthurian legend.
In THE TEMPEST (not quite a fairy tale, but . . . ) the airy sprite Ariel is imprisoned by the witch Sycorax in the "rift of a cloven pine" until Prospero releases him.
And in Greek myth, Acrisius, the King of Argos, shuts up his daughter Danae in a tower made of brass, to prevent her from conceiving the child predicted to be his downfall. Zeus manages to foil his machinations by descending on Danae as a shower of gold, resulting in the conception of the Greek hero Perseus.
Similarly, the witch cloisters Rapunzel in a tower, accessible only by Rapunzel's copiously long hair.
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Mark
Unregistered User
(12/31/03 11:10 pm)
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I think the Twilight Zone episode
was the one where the people are characters in a book an author is writing, which he keeps ending at a certain point and re-writing with minor changes. The characters wake up and don't quite know who or where they are, and they are just figuring it out by the time the writer gets blocked and discards the story again. Great episode. I'm sure the writer of Groundhog Day must have been inspired by this show...
Is that what Brigadoon was about? It's been so long since I've seen it I didn't even remember that part!
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RBrunea
Registered User
(1/1/04 4:29 am)
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stuck
Rapunzel trapped in her lonely tower?
Seal maiden (selkie) stuck on land until she recovers her sealskin?
Rhonda
P.S. In Brigadoon, the entire village sleeps for a hundred years when they go to sleep each night, and the village disappears. When they wake up, it's a hundred years later. This way, they won't be in any century long enough to be influenced by the evils it contains, but simply go on as they always have - but they cannot cross certain boundaries.
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Don
Registered User
(1/3/04 10:59 am)
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Re: stuck
I believe the Twilight Zone episode is called "Is Anybody Here?" (or something similar).
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(1/3/04 11:38 am)
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Re: stuck
Not really stuck in a town but thought I'd post anyway.
Tam Lin is stuck with the fairy queen until Janet saves him:
www.tam-lin.org/
The animal bridegroom tales have some sense of being stuck in a place.
The man, the lover, in East O the Sun West O the Moon is eventually stuck with the troll queen until the girl saves him:
www.surlalunefairytales.c...index.html
The seal woman is stuck on land until she gets her skin back:
www.pitt.edu/~dash/type40...silkiewife
As the swan maidens sometimes are:
www.pitt.edu/~dash/swan.html
LauraMc
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Helen
Registered User
(1/5/04 1:06 pm)
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Re: stuck
There was actually a very recent take on this motif from the makers of "Carnivale," which added the twist that it was not only the *inhabitants* of the town who could not leave, but also their spirits, as well as those of any "outsiders" killed within the town line ... I found it to be a rather disturbing approach. A very literal interpretation of "hell is other people ..."
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White Rabbit G
Unregistered User
(1/13/04 11:48 pm)
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cannot leave
i was infact just in English class a couple of days ago and one of my friends mentioned a fairy tale that told of a character not being able to leave their town until they are mentally ready.. unfortunately she didn't remember the name... an interesting twist, i thought
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PatrickTsai
Registered User
(1/14/04 11:22 am)
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cannotleave
It sounds corny, but how about the motif of not being able to leave an area in a figurative sense rather than a literally. For example: how Tarzan may literally be able to leave the jungle, but in reality he is stuck in a jungle state of mind.
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PatrickTsai
Registered User
(1/14/04 11:24 am)
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cannot leave
I mean my idea is corny, not the idea for the pilot, sorry about my use of language and grammar.
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mylesaway
Registered User
(1/26/04 7:07 pm)
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Re: cannot leave
I want to thank this wonderful board for all the ideas you've given me. Not only were they incredibly helpful and creative, but you are all very generous with your time and enthusiasm.
Thanks again,
And keep those posts coming.
Mylesaway
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