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Mystery / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Romance / Humor / Contemporary / Historical Fiction / Retold Fairy Tales & Legends / Biography & Autobiography / Nonfiction / Write a Book Review / How to Find a Good Book / |
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Mystery / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Romance / Humor / Contemporary / Historical Fiction / Retold Fairy Tales & Legends / Biography & Autobiography / Nonfiction / Write a Book Review / How to Find a Good Book / |
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In retold fairy tales and legends, traditional fairy tales and legends are revisited by modern authors, in imaginative retellings, with quirky and/or enchanting twists that make these updated versions as memorable as the original traditional tales while addressing the unique needs and concerns of today's audience. The genre is alive and healthy. One of these modern retellings, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's novel Godmother, mixes up elements from a number of fairy tales and archetypes to create a new story set in modern Seattle, Washington. Scarborough's Fairy Godmother provides an excellent description of the genre: Bits and pieces change around depending on the time and the other people involved and their stories. If you read enough of the so-called folk and fairy tales, you'll see that it happened in them too-partially because the original reports of these events became confused with time and telling and possibly because similar things keep happening-differently, depending on circumstances. I think a lot of the trouble you may have recognizing the archetypes comes from having stories set down on paper, instead of being transmitted orally, as they were originally. When things are told from person to person, they're much more fluid. Set down on paper, it appears that if one version is right, that no others can be. Life isn't like that. Jung didn't invent the archetypes [of fairy tales]-he simply made use of them. He didn't invent the archetypes; they've been there all along. Ask any observant person who has lived beyond eighty years without getting senile. They will tell you human beings tend to do certain types of things and act out certain events in certain ways over and over and over again. (Scarborough, Godmother, p. 160) Terri Windling, in her introduction to Tam-Lin states, "Once upon a time, fairy tales were written for young and old alike. It is only in the last century that they have been deemed fit only for children and stripped of much of their original complexity, sensuality, and power to frighten and delight." Tor's The Fairy Tale Series novels, edited by Windling, are based on a specific tale with each author free to retell that story in their own way showing the diverse uses a modern storyteller can make of traditional material. Children are more likely to respond to fantasy children on an emotional level where as adults are more analytical. Young adults, who combine traits of both children and adults in their response to literature, do both. Retold fairy tales are a natural match with young adults.
"The fairy tales had been right all along. The world was full of hostile, stupid giants and perilous castles and people who abandoned their children in the nearest forest. To succeed in this world you needed some special skill or patronage, plus remarkable luck; and it didn't hurt to be very good-looking. The other qualities that counted were wit, boldness, stubborn persistence, and an eye for the main chance. Kindness to those in trouble was also advisable-you never knew who might be useful to you later on." ---Alison Lurie, Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: Subversive Children's Literature, p. 18.
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