fandomhigh | Traditional Fairy Tales, Class Twelve (04/09)

Monday, April 9, Period Two

The class assembles in the Danger Shop. To one side is a small clearing with a pleasant cottage, to the other side is a forest full of flowers.

CLASS EXERCISE: "Your assignment today deals with the story of "The Fairy Serpent". I'm certain you're all familiar with variations of this story -- "The Fairy Serpent" is a Chinese tale, but the story is better-known in Western countries as "Beauty and the Beast". It also has strong similarities to several of the stories we've read throughout our class. You may have noticed that this tale presents examples of four fairly typical gender roles: the father, who dotes on his children but whose foolish actions put the family into trouble; the serpent, really a prince under a curse who needs help in being freed; the older daughter, who is too selfish to put the needs of her family before her own; and the younger daughter, whose self-sacrifice and cleverness rescue them all.

"For this exercise, I'd like you to break into groups of four. Each of the four should take on one of the four roles. But instead of playing out the story as you read it, I'd like you to think about the stereotypes for the role you've chosen, and then try to break those stereotypes. Can you present us with a new interpretation of these four characters?"

ASSIGNMENT: "Next week we will have our last test of the term, and the week after you will present your final projects to the class."

[OOC: Please use the OCD threads to join up into your groups. You can simply discuss the possibilities for turning around the stereotyped gender roles, but please also feel free to play out the story with your new and "improved" characters. Tag the OOC thread if you have questions. ~~And, of course, please wait for the~~ OCD is up and class is in session.]

Unexcused Absences
Jude Lizowski (one absence)
Miley Steward (one absence)

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Liz hesitated, "about last week...um, I..." she couldn't figure out how to word what she wanted to ask.

Lana's face went white. "Did I do something to you, too? Oh God, Liz, I don't remember anything from when I was possessed, but I'm so sorry. So terribly sorry."

Liz felt bad, "it's okay, I've had worse things done to me," she said quietly, "but um...did I ever tell you that I was normal?"

Lana looked at her, a little confused. "Normal? I don't remember. Not that I'd know what was normal in Fandom. And I'm also sorry, but I don't remember anything about last week or what I might have done."

Liz was silent for a while before she said slowly, "well, I'm...um not normal," she glanced at her hand and cautiously summoned flames for a few seconds before she made them disappear again.

Lana smiled at her. "That's really neat. You and Bel should get together and talk. he does fireballs."

"Has he ever lost control of them?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know," Lana said thoughtfully. "I'm sure he'd be glad to talk to you about it though."

Liz nodded slowly, "um...well I've lost control of my powers," she said quietly, "I've lost control of them twice before but last week it was nearly three times,"

Lana's face went white. "Did I - did she - do that to you? Oh God, Liz..."

"I was able to control it but only just...anything could have happened if I didn't control it..."

[now the right person]

"I'm so sorry," Lana said, looking devastated. "I, oh God, Liz, I'm surprised you even want to look at me. Are you okay? Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

"It's okay," Liz gave a small smile, "I just...well where I'm from a lot of people don't like the idea of me having powers...it's not exactly common and I..."

Lana nodded. "That must be really hard. But here you'll find more people with powers than without."

"It's been hard but I've sort of gotten used to that," Liz admitted quietly, "at first I wasn't sure if I could believe my guardian when he said that I'd find people like me at this school,"

"Well, you can," Lana said. "And most of the people are more than willing to accept you and help you out."

Liz nodded, "It's the first school that I've been at where people have been willing to do that,"

"I'm glad you found your way here then," Lana said sincerely.

Traditional Fairy Tales, Class Twelve (04/09)

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