fandomhigh | Traditional Fairy Tales, Final Class (04/23)

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traditional fairy tales

Traditional Fairy Tales, Final Class (04/23)

Monday, April 23, Second Period

The classroom was arranged so that all the chairs were facing an open space at the front of the class, to allow room for the students' presentations. Off to one side was a table full of fresh treats – scones, muffins, cookies, mini-cheesecakes, spice breads, and plenty of hot drinks and juice. Someone had spent a lot of time baking over the weekend.

Aziraphale himself looked to be caught between a very good mood in general, and a feeling of sadness over having reached the end of the semester. He entered the room with a definite bounce in his step, but as the students filed in, the angel's face began to fall.

"Good morning, everyone. As I'm sure you're all aware, we've reached our very last class of the term. Today you'll be presenting your final projects to the class, and then I'd like to invite you to use any leftover time to talk with your classmates and enjoy their company. I'll be holding my last office hours for the term tomorrow, and will post final grades on my office door by the end of the week.

"It's been an honor having the opportunity to teach you, and I hope that you've enjoyed attending this class just half as much as I have enjoyed leading it. Thank you all for a delightful term."

PROJECT PRESENTATION: [Information on the projects can be found here. Please use the OCD thread below, and you are welcome to handwave or actually play out your presentation.]

[ooc: ~~Please wait for the~~ OCD is up, and our final class is now in session. And thank you all for a great semester!]

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Be all collapsey, one last time.

Miley Stewart

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You have all the handwavy Fandom-time you need to give your presentation, and you're welcome to make use of costumes, props, etc.

Let Aziraphale know in his thread if you need his assistance with anything. Handwave or play out as you like.

Phoebe does an in depth presentation about the tale of the Little Mermaid and the comparisons between that tale and other tales of scarifices for love.

Cedric does a presentation on The Princess and the Pea wherein he dons the gear of a princess and a few peas to illustrate what the fairy tale was about. Then, he talked about how this tale differed from the typical prince and princess stories that were typical.

Lana did a very detailed presentation based on the Iroqouis tale of Little Burnt Girl or Little Firefly, comparing it to some of the Cinderella stories from around the world and talking about its themes of trust and faith and recognizing the truth of someone even though it might be hidden or disguised.

Layla came to class in her Homecoming dress, and did her presentation on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, focusing primarily on the themes of people rising above their station in life, and family values, as well as on how the story could be updated to be more modern. (The Twelve Dancing Senator's Daughters perhaps?)

Conner's presentation was all about giants in fairy tales.

For some reason he kept referring to them as if they were robots, though . . .

River did a dance interpretation of how the Monkey King tricked the Eastern sea Dragon King of the pillar that held down the sea, thus getting a formidable weapon that could be expanded to reach heaven and shrunk to be kept behind the ear.

The dance performance was actually something she'd learnt as a child, but the commentary she made, and some comparisons to other Trickster characters was her own.

Miley realized over the weekend that most of her notes were ideas on lyrics and the rest were hotness-ratings for the guys in class. She was pretty sure that Aziraphale didn't want to know that Conner would score higher than a 4 if she could ever get a good look at his butt. So she had to improvise.

"Everyone's heard the fairy tale of the littlest gingerbread maker who tried to get up a hill." Miley said, hoping that her wide eyes and earnest tone made up for the complete lies she was telling. "But let me tell y'all, if that story was told now it would be completely different."

Miley held up a popsicle with a wee chef hat on. "Sweet niblets! I just can't get my gingerbread persons of indeterminate gender to rise! I wonder if it's the reconstituted-saltwater that I use. Or maybe the pollution free manure burning oven? Oh wait! My recipe is for high-altitude gingerbread persons of indeterminate gender. I'll have to climb up a hill conveniently located nearby. Of course, I'm a height-challenged gingerbread maker, so I'll have to employ some strong guy to help me take my oven up a hill."

"So, off he went." Miley said, walking the chef stick figure across the front of the room. "He ran around the town saying 'Help me, fellow suburbanites! I need a strong guy to carry my stove up a hill.' But nobody helped him. Finally he ran into a giant."

The stick figure gingerbread maker tilted back to look up at a gym-workout Midge doll. "Hey, tiny chef dude." Miley said with a deep valley girl accent. "You, like, have a serious problem. Why do you need a strong guy?"

"'Because they have to carry a stove up a hill and that should be a job for a big strong guy.' Let me tell you, when the littlest gingerbread maker said, Midge went redder than a hen laying an egg. She bent down and poked littlest gingerbread maker in the chest." Miley paused and looked up. "Which won't be demonstrated here because it's violent and because Midges' knees weren't meant to bend."

The Midge doll waved angrily as Miley spoke. "That's like, totally unfair dude! Your prejudices are like, keeping you from being able to use half the people on the planet. Girls totally kick ass, it like, says so on the t-shirt."

"Then the littlest gingerbread maker realized the error of his ways and asked the buff Midge to carry his stove up the hill. The gingerbread persons of indeterminate gender were cooked beautifully and the littlest gingerbread maker and Midge decided to live together in a socially conscious relationship, helping the residents of suburbia be politically correct and cook all their food at the appropriate altitudes."

Miley grinned at Aziraphale happily, while secretly composing her explanation for her father on why she got a failing grade in fairy tale class.

Billy gave his presentation on the tale of the Soldier and the Bag, about how the tale as he'd first heard it was about a confederate soldier returning from the war, but that he'd found that it dated much farther back than that. He then adapted it for modern times and the Vietnam War.

~~The story is about a soldier returning from the war with very little to his person, but helps out a beggar who gives him a bag, that if he orders something or someone into the bag, in they go.~~

Jack did a handwavey presentation on - big surprise - the role of Jacks in fairytales, with a particular emphasis on how they were rarely 'good guys' in the traditional sense, more 'do what needs to be done' guys.

It went on for just the right amount of time.

Marie covered Little Red Riding Hood... even though her own cloak was green.

Angela gave a presentation comparing the personalities of Snow White and Rose Red. It was pretty good.

Evie bounced up to the podium and smiled brightly at everyone there. "My presentation is on Rapunzel!"

She then went on to explain how Rapunzel was both about abusive parents (and the need to escape from childhood) and learning to trust people outside one's family for help (even if that help was too long in coming).

"Rapunzel had to leave part of herself behind in order to move on to being an adult woman, and she also had to learn a rather drastic self-sufficiency wandering around the desert by herself with twins for two years. The prince had to learn how to navigate blind in the world without his rank or status, without being able to count on anyone but himself. They found each other again when they were both grown up, and able to live in the real world." Evie smiled at the audience.

"Now, if this story were written in this time, aside from the accountrements being different, there probably would have been no blinding, and no pregnancy, and no desert, because the prince and Rapunzel would have known to work together much sooner. Possibly because they were told many fairy tales as children," Evie admitted. "But also because men and women are better able to appreciate and make use of their own gifts in modern times, without expectation of anyone else saving them or needing to be saved."

Liz gave a well thought out presentation on Cinderella.

Stammering and as nervous as he always was for class presentations, Jude talked about the Colony of the Cats (http://www.readprint.com/chapter-6589/Andrew-Lang). He even acted out his modern updates, complete with 'meow-dudes' and Lizina being forced to do math homework.

When he was done, he collapsed gratefully into his seat.