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Author
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Comment
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(4/14/05 2:59 am)
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Re: wooden Mona Lisa
Heh. That's a thief with some bad planning skills.
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JennySchillig
Registered User
(4/15/05 10:52 am)
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Cinderella
My own take on the Cinderella story (and I love most versions, from Perrault to Grimm, from Disney to Rodgers and Hammerstein to The Slipper and the Rose) is that nobility of spirit can neither be hidden with rags and dirt, nor feigned with jewels and fine clothes.
That's why I rather like the versions in which Cinderella forgives her stepfamily...it shows that Cinderella's nobility of spirit wasn't crushed with her treatment, and can, in turn, reform those who formerly did evil to her.
Although The Slipper and the Rose split the difference rather nicely. Cinderella tells her stepfamily, "In my happiness, I forgive you all." Stepmother is left snarling, "FORGIVE us?!...How DARE she?!"
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sagana
thas me
Registered User
(4/16/05 1:09 pm)
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Re: Cinderella
For pagan motifs, the tree growing from her mother's grave would be the point... a reincarnation in plant (or bird or deer) form is common in lots of folk songs and tales (everything from The Girl and the Harp to Barbara Allen who becomes a briar and her lover a rose or vice versa). If there is a remnant of a pagan/animistic belief system, the tree is her mother.
For me, that's not a hard concept to understand. When my mother died we scattered her ashes in places she'd loved. One of those was around a stump where she'd planted tulips. The tulips have been mostly gone for many years now, but last week my first grandchild was born and this week also a lone tulip has managed to resurface. I can't help but think of it as my mother peeking in to see her new great-grandchild.
I personally believe the "magic" in fairy tales is part
of their continuing popularity, and we tend to be somewhat dismissive
of it. Modern tales that have the feeling of fairy tales or myths,
archetypal, to me continue that tradition - Neil Gaiman, Harry Potter
etc. Harry Potter also does the "poor mistreated" who
is secretly special, downtrodden, and makes good (and provides another
male example) - as I understand it, the basic plot is a typical
boarding school English story. Then again, perhaps I'm just attracted
to fairy tales - fantasy is what I read
I don't find it surprising that pagan elements are acceptable -
especially in folk tales (that is, of the "common" people).
We have lots of extant sources of that kind of thing (the priest's
rod *does* blossom when he's asked if elves have souls ) The later
Morgan is portrayed rather badly, but in comparison to The Morrigan's
role in Cuchulainn, for example, that's not surprising - she seems
to have always been an ambivalent and dangerous character. The ladies
of the lake and the bardic Merlin don't seem to bother anyone, and
folk and fairy tales (Shakespeare, all of our literature maybe?)
are full of pagan allusions and elements which might annoy some
clergy and fanatics (although I'm not aware of it, except in response
to Harry Potter type things (not that there's any pagan in there))
but the general public doesn't seem to have a problem with.
(um and hi - I'm new on this board
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Here there be dragons. |
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