Fandom High School

For the last day of class, Cindy had gone to Wonka's and gotten a wide variety of assorted moddable candies to share with the students.

"First off, I want to say thank you all for being an amazing class and for the discussions we've had these past seven weeks," she said once the bell had rung. "And I hope to see you all in future classes I teach. Feel free to partake in the candy--no surprises this time or arbitrary punishments, I promise you."

It was the last day. Cindy was feeling generous--though, not so generous as to let them leave without a lecture.

( Brief summary of several more problematic tales. )

"With these stories particularly, we begin to see why the Victorians--and certain animation studios--change the stories around, to make them more 'appropriate' for younger audiences. The question remains, however, whether or not this series of revisions is beneficial--or even necessary. Are we protecting the innocence of young children, or denying them the lessons that previous generations thought were important to teach? Are the older versions too dark, too bloody, too dangerous for children, or are the modern versions too sanitized? Or is the answer somewhere in the middle? Grab some candy and let's discuss."

[Slight trigger warning for the class. Cindy mentions several stories that touch on the darker side of sex, though each mention is only a link and a brief summary of the story. Feel free to ignore the links or even the cut section of the class if you'd prefer; the class discussion does not require having read any of that.]

"So, one of the problems of fairy tales is that they are sometimes contradictory in the messages they try to teach," Cindy said, as students filed into the Danger Shop, set up to look like a vast forest with a single path winding through the middle. "Some of them try to tell you that so long as you follow the rules and work hard, everything will be okay. Others make a point of life's unfairness, where people even decent people get the short end of the stick and children die for getting dirty. While most of them stress how important it is to be kind to those you meet, no matter how lowly or common they appear to be, some show how easily kindness can be repaid by cruelty. Sure, most of those usually end with the bad guys getting their comeuppance, but most of those endings seem tacked on at the last minute. It's the suffering that gets most of the attention."

Of course, part of that could be blamed on sheer human nature and what people found most interesting to hear about, but that was a lecture for a different day.

"So, today, we're going to experiment with the arbitrary nature of fairy tales," Cindy continued, and please ignore that little grin she can't quite get rid of. "Your job is to deliver this basket--" and with the click of a button, there were a stack of picnic baskets by her feet "--through the woods to Grandmother's house. Stay on the path and don't forget--" She clicked another button and stopped biting back the grin. "--Your little red hood."

[Many thanks to furnaceface for helping me iron out the OCD!]

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.]

Cindy had left a note on the classroom door telling the students to head up to the Danger Shop. As the students arrived, they would see that it had been programmed to look like a beautiful garden. A closer examination would show that everything in the garden was edible--more than simply edible, even. Much of it was candy. Spun-sugar flowers decorated the path. The bark of the trees might be made of candied peppermint, or peanut brittle, or simple chocolate. Even the 'dirt' was made of crumbled cookie pieces, with gummy worms burrowing through. Colorful rocks were little pieces of hard candy and the weeping willow dangled branches of thin caramel over the path. The apple tree was growing candy apples, of every different variety, and the tiny lemon tree gushed lemonade when the bark was cut.

Today, class was held in a garden full of moddable candy and treats.

A really sharp observer might notice that there was no sign of Cindy.

[Please wait for OCD up]