fandomhigh | Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

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Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

The bell had barely finished ringing before Cindy began her lecture. She'd been looking forward to it all week, even dressing in red to match. "So, last week, we covered what fairy tales were, or, at least, were not, distinguishing them from myths, legends, and fables. Today, we're going to dive into what this class is about: examining the stories themselves. Now, most of what we consider fairy tales in this day and age have been Bowdlerized and Disneyfied: anything rude or shocking has been removed, good guys win, bad guys die, sex and violence are tidied up or happen off-screen. But in the early days of these stories, there was a lot less scrutiny on what was considered 'acceptable' for children. In fact, the idea that childhood was meant to be a time of carefree innocence didn't evolve until middle class Victorians decided that it should be true and began a campaign to that effect. Until then, children were often considered miniature adults. Making stories less frightening or less violent was hardly on anyone's agenda up until the mid-1800's."

The vast societal changes the Victorians ushered in still staggered Cindy and she'd lived through that era. "To get an idea of some of the changes that resulted by the Victorian compulsion to tidy everything up, today we're going to read three stories. The first is the version of Little Red Riding Hood that most of you are familiar with--at least, those of you who are at all familiar with Earth fairy tales. Then there is the second adaptation, widely considered the 'original' as it is the earliest known printed version. Finally, we have a much older tale called The Grandmother. All three stories share many of the same elements, but what changes there are, are drastic. So, today we're going to look at all three stories and discuss what changes were made, why, and what lessons each story is trying to impart."

[OCD up. Be warned "The Grandmother" carries a light NSFW warning for a rude word and unsavory situations.]

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"The French," Warren corrected, "and the Germans."

Perrault and Grimm. French and German, respectively. Neither of which were Victorian English.

"And I think most fairy tales that we see nowadays are hugely toned down from what they used to be. Disney didn't exactly make Snow White's wicked queen dance around in red-hot iron shoes until she dropped dead, either."

"Mmmm. They have more in common with, oh, horror stories, and boogeyman myths." Scully cocked her head, thinking. "It's interesting that the myths of gods and goddesses stayed the same, for the most part. They weren't assumed to be for children, I suppose, so they weren't 'cleaned up.' I wonder what the difference was? Literacy, like you supposed, maybe?"

"Probably partly that, and the reason they were told in the first place. I mean, fables were told to teach a lesson, right? But legends about gods were told to explain why the world is the way it is, or to pay homage to the gods in question. And I imagine even then, those probably changed a bit over the course of time, especially the ones that were passed along by word of mouth." Warren shrugged his shoulders slightly. "If you're telling a story, sometimes, you just want to add embellishments to make sure people are paying attention. Especially if it isn't written down in black and white."

"And local color." Scully's mouth crimped in a smile. "So Zeus had affairs with all the local goddesses, but Little Red Riding Hood... well, she's generic enough, and not supposed to be heroic, that not much embellishment was needed. Could be anywhere, anywhen with a forest and a grandmother." She considered. "Interesting that Red gets away in the first and last, but not the second."

Warren shrugged faintly.

"It could be that whoever adapted that version didn't think that the story was poignant enough if she made it away. It definitely hits the lesson home if everyone ends up dead at the end just because Red had a big mouth."

Scully smirked slightly, and looked thoughtful. "How would you re-write it now?"

"Me, personally?" Warren thought about that for a few seconds. There was a good question, really. "I'm not sure. I kind of grew up on the new version with the happier ending, and I'm really not much of a storyteller. I think there should be some consequence for Red just blatantly warming up to a wolf, but I don't think killing her off again would really catch on, nowadays."

"No, but something. If she's going to get out of dying, she'll have to show as much smarts or bravery as her earlier silliness." Scully considered. "I like that she tricked the wolf in the first version. Something like that, where the wolf goes into the fire instead of the little girl. I like trickster stories, or Scheherazade's, better than just 'and then someone arrived to save the day.'"

"Well, yeah. Especially since you can't always depend on somebody showing up in the nick of time. You can't expect rescue, especially when the trouble you're in is your own fault. You kind of have to be willing to accept that your way out is whatever way out you're willing to make for yourself."

Warren knew that one all too well.

Edited 2011-05-26 03:36 (UTC)

"So true." This would be why Scully was in the "Managing Your Hero" class, because otherwise Mulder would be dead in a ditch without a cellphone or his gun.

"She could've always had a knife in that basket, or flintlock or hatchet, along with everything else," she mused. "A slightly more even contest, if Red shoots the Wolf."

"Slightly," Warren agreed, "but if Red is as young as the newer retellings of the story suggest, I'd be kind of worried about a little girl running around with a flintlock."

[Bedtime! Night!]

"True. But anything can be a weapon, if you're thinking clearly... coals from the fire, or one of the chairs, or even the bed pillows." Scully looked thoughtful. "Fire would be best, probably."

[night!]

"Fire might be okay," Warren agreed, pursing his lips, "but then, I'm not certain she necessarily even needs a weapon. She's a little kid, but there's nothing saying that she can't just outsmart him, somehow. As an added bonus, it doesn't encourage little girls to run around killing things."

Not that Warren wasn't guilty of putting up a fight when he was pushed, but if you were re-writing something that had become known as a children's story, why not keep it a little more kid-friendly?

Scully considered that, acknowledging to herself that her take on this might be colored by experience. "True. Maybe like she does in the first version, tying the leash to a tree branch. Something a child could do." Her smile quirked. "I'm not very good at guessing how children think."

"I like that," Warren offered. "The tree branch, I mean. She would need an excuse to go outside that was a little less, uh..."

He was smirking again. Don't mind that.

"You know. It would be nice if there was some way to save her grandmother, too, but I think that might be asking a little too much, if we don't want Red relying on some random save from a hunter."

"Earthy?" Scully offered, amused. "And I wish we could too, but if she's still alive, you'd think she'd try to save her granddaughter. And I can't think of how she could be, if the Wolf is wearing her nightgown. I suppose she could panic and run away into the woods to get lost... and come back with a nice woodsman. But almost seems even more far-fetched."

"Yeah, as much as I hate to say it, Grandmother's got to get eaten."

Unless Grandmother knew karate and kicked the wolf's ass, and then gave Red a dressing-down when she got there later, but that kind of destroyed more of the story, still.

"Poor Grandma." Scully still looked liked she wanted to laugh. "Now, if we were going to modernize it instead of just change it, Grandmother would live on Park West with a doorman and wouldn't get eaten, but the doorman would be a goner."

"And the building manager would pitch a fit," Warren laughed. "I think that might be pushing it just a little, though."

If they were from Warren's world, little Red would have superpowers and would just teleport the wolf to another cottage, or maybe stop time, or something...

Scully held up her fingers verrrry close together. "Juuuust a smidge." And in her life, the doorman would turn out to be an alien conspirator, and Grandmother would be in on it.

But who would ever believe that?

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Sex And Candy, Wednesday, Second Period

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