Literature, Class 4: Period 3, Thursday, January 29

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

"It's good to see you all again," Miss Bennet smiled at her charges. "Especially in a slightly warmer temperature than previous. I'm afraid there's no hot cocoa this week, but, as always, we will make do as best we can." She picked up the chalk and began to write.

"Five hundred years before the birth of Our Lord," Eliza said, "a man named Aesop lived. He is the credited author of a number of fables, though I should note that it is not at all conclusive that he was their originator. he might have simply collected the stories he heard from other sources. Many of the tales had a long and rich oral tradition, which relates nicely to our discussion last week on story-telling." How very nice when one class moved to the next in that manner.

"Those of you not from this world may not recognize the stories themselves, but even so, the basic premises should be familiar to you. Fables are simplistic stories in which there is a very clear moral. For example, one of Aesop's tales features a young shepherd boy who cries "wolf!" to alert the villagers of a wolf attack, only to be chastised when it is discovered that no such attack occurred. Predictably, when the day arrives that a wolf does threaten the flock, no one believes the boy's shouts. Another story involves frogs who wished for a king to rule them. They plead to Zeus, the creator-deity, to send them a king. He sends them a log. The log, they find to be dull, and so they once more importune Zeus. He provides them with a stork, who promptly eats a number of the frogs, as storks are wont to do. The moral there is that one must be careful in what it is that one wishes."

"Fables are similar in some ways to stories known as fairy tales," she continued, "but there is a marked difference between the two. Fables are crafted to illustrate a particular moral; to that end, Aesop included a separate paragraph after each story, explaining the moral for those who may have missed it. Fairy tales, by contrast, seem to evolve. They come out of our collective thought processes. We take our hopes and fears and dress them up in fantastical clothes, where they become witches and elves and fairy queens. Most fairy tales do have a moral, though it isn't the point of the story. For fairy tales, the story itself is the point."

"Some of you may be familiar with the tale of the red-cloaked girl. She is traveling to her Grandmother's house, and she is warned repeatedly that she must stay on the path, lest she wander into the forest and fall prey to wolves. She fails to listen, and speaks her destination aloud before a well-hidden wolf. He arrives at her grandmother's cottage, devours her grandmother, and lies in wait for the red-cloaked girl herself. In some versions of the story -- as there are many, you'll find -- a hunter saves the girl; in others, she outwits the wolf, while still others leave the girl to be eaten, just as her grandmother was. The moral may not be expressly laid out, but it's apparent: in straying from the path, she has damned herself. The possibility of her redemption varies, according to who tells the tale." She smiled at her students. "I trust that I needn't point out the more allegorical aspects of the story. While wolves do lurk in forests, this is, at its base, the story of a young, naive girl falling under the sway of a dangerous creature. Her virtue must be guarded as closely as her life."

"In recent times," she added, stopping briefly to allow herself an amused glance at her students, "that is, in recent time periods to this one, and not my own -- fairy tales have been largely considered to be stories directed at young children. With that shift, the stories have undergone some fundamental changes. The tiniest sea-maiden, for example, did not win her human prince's hand in marriage; in the original tale, he loved another, and her only hope was to take his life, that she might take her place in the ocean with her sisters once more. Unable to kill the one she loved, she was transformed into sea-foam. Many other stories have similarly been prettied up in one way or another. Removing the more gruesome aspects of these stories may seem a good idea, to nervous parents, but if there are morals lurking under the surface, if these stories are truly about our own unspoken horrors and dreads, then replacing all unpleasant consequences with the same bland happy ending destroys the significance of each."

Eliza looked around the class again. "If these stories really are universal, then perhaps those of you from other worlds have your own versions to share. Many cultures in this world came up with similar stories, the same stories, so much so that there is now a classification system for folkloric tales. Number 310 is all of the stories involving a maiden trapped in a tower, while 518 is quarreling giants who lose their magical objects. There are plenty of archetypes to go round, if any of you have more to suggest?"

Comments

Sign In [LIT-3]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Your Aretha hat: fable, or fairy tale? ANSWER REQUIRED.

Re: Sign In [LIT-3]

[peace_n_war]

Warren Peace, who believes that the hat is neither. It is instead quite legendary.

During the Lecture [LIT-3]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Take notes, engage in light conversation, but do remember to tread carefully if you do not seek detention (http://pairoffineeyes.livejournal.com/1995.html).

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-3]

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Lee scribbled down some quick notes mostly so he could tell that fables and fairy tales were different since he'd thought them interchangeable.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-3]

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

Angela was scrawling down notes, with accompanying pictures. If anyone asked, they helped her memory. Yes.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-3]

[finding-x-dream.livejournal.com]

Agnes took notes and pondered the topic deeply. After all, where she was from, a healthy fraction of the folk tales were FACT, or at least partly true.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-3]

[iamnotallgirl]

Jack took notes, mostly so he could practice making his handwriting look less girly, since apparently if you just stuck a pen in his hand he wrote like Jill, ew.

He wondered if the teacher would notice the new dude in her class, or if she'd even care.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-3]

[chic-harper.livejournal.com]

Harper took detailed notes and wondered how many of the fairy tales she'd dismissed as fiction had some sort of basis in fact.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-3]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo . . . was mostly falling asleep at her desk, really.

Discussion Topic #1: Fables or Fairy Tales? [LIT-3]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Which do you prefer? Why? What are some important distinctions between the two? Are fairy tales just fleshed-out fables, or do stories change and grow in unexpected ways? How might one transform a fable into a fairy tale, or vice versa?

Re: Discussion Topic #1: Fables or Fairy Tales? [LIT-3]

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"I think I like fairy tales," Lee said after thinking about it. "I get enough moral explaining in everyday life so I like reading about things that might not always happen but aren't so far fetched as to never happen. It's a good form of escapism. But, I think there are some fairy tales that have the elements of a fable in them even if they might be hard to spot because you're dreaming of beanstalks and princesses and giants."

Re: Discussion Topic #1: Fables or Fairy Tales? [LIT-3]

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

"Fairytales," Angela decided. "They lean more to complete flights of fantasy than fables, I guess. I like that."

Re: Discussion Topic #1: Fables or Fairy Tales? [LIT-3]

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

"Fables," she opined, folding her hands on her lap. "Because while t-they can have their wimsy, it's e-equally important in my opinion to have a more s-solid backing to them."

Re: Discussion Topic #1: Fables or Fairy Tales? [LIT-3]

[finding-x-dream.livejournal.com]

"Well, I would have said fairy tales," Agnes considered, "but I've too much experience with the horrible consequences of prettying up folklore. If a story's meant as a warning, giving it a happy ending is a really bad idea."

Re: Discussion Topic #1: Fables or Fairy Tales? [LIT-3]

[likethegun]

"Well, if you separate them like that, I guess I prefer fables," Sam said. "Stories with a moral or a lesson are a lot more interesting to me than stories told for the sake of just entertaining. Which doesn't mean fables can't be entertaining," he added. "I guess the difference is how they end."

Re: Discussion Topic #1: Fables or Fairy Tales? [LIT-3]

[shiniernyours.livejournal.com]

"Fables," said Bender emphatically. "It's a laugh to see people-" people not Bender "-get what's coming to them."

Re: Discussion Topic #1: Fables or Fairy Tales? [LIT-3]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Fables," Katchoo said after a jaw-cracking yawn which her player replicated just after typing that OMGWTF. "Fairy tales have all that happy ending crap, and people get screwed over pretty good in fables sometimes."

Someone had never read -- obviously -- some of the original fairy tales.

Discussion Topic #2: Morals? [LIT-3]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Don't set off false alarms. Don't stray from the path. Be careful what you wish for. Are these helpful rules? What moral would you place in a fable, and how would you relate it? Are there other morals you can see hiding in the stories mentioned above? Do you suppose it is more effective to tell a child a fable, than to relate to him the morals in the abstract?

Re: Discussion Topic #2: Morals? [LIT-3]

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"Don't judge a book by its cover?" Lee suggested. "Just because something looks one way doesn't mean the person or thing is really that way and by judging them, you almost create a self fulfilling prophecy for them. I think if you frame a moral in the form of a fable they might not remember the actual moral but they'll remember that such and such character did this and got in trouble."

Re: Discussion Topic #2: Morals? [LIT-3]

[finding-x-dream.livejournal.com]

"How many ADULTS can properly think about anything in the abstract, much less kids?" Agnes asked. "Showing is always better than telling."

Re: Discussion Topic #2: Morals? [LIT-3]

[likethegun]

"Be very, very careful what you wish for, because it might turn out in the worst way possible," Sam said, not thinking of specific examples at all, really.

Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Maiden in a tower. Quarreling giants and magical objects. Why is it that stories fall so neatly into categories like these, across such vast cultural barriers? Can you think of any likely classifications? What makes these elements iconic?

Re: Discussion Topic #3: Folklore Categorization [LIT-3]

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

"They're metaphorical," she said diffidently. "And the situations that p-people relate to them through c-can be completely different without losing the s-same basic story."

Speak With Eliza [LIT-3]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

For she is here, after class.

Speak With the TA [LIT-3]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Once she has pinged herself in.

Re: Speak With the TA [LIT-3]

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

She has indeed pinged herself in, and was presently looking thoughtful about the matter at hand.

OOC [LIT-3]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Once again: this thread is for completely silly categorizations.

#916: Days where you think it's Thursday, all day, but it's really Wednesday. Moral of the story: it's not Thursday. Except today. Today is Thursday.

Re: OOC [LIT-3]

[not_in_the_book]

What about #69: Wherein the protagonist is too busy being a slut to accomplish any actual world-saving.