Fairytale Fridays: How Does a Fairytale Become a Fairytale?

Guys, it's finally the last Friday of the month! I thought quite a bit about what to write about for the inaugural Fairytale Fridays post and after toying with many of the ideas on my list of prompts I finally (prompted by a lot of watching of Once Upon a Time) decided to write about how a fairytale becomes accepted into the body of stories that we know as fairytales. 

As children we grow up with the 'classic' fairytales, and in my experience the study of fairytales will lead you towards stories such as Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood, but there are a series of newer tales which have made their way into the fairytale canon and which as a child I loved at least as much if not more than the traditional tales. I'm talking about three specific stories, but I'm sure there are more that I haven't mentioned. The three which influenced me the most as a child are J.M Barrie's Peter Pan, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. 

Again I'll bring this back to my recent watching of Once Upon a Time, which is really what got me started thinking about it. Obviously characters from Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz feature in the series and it's interesting to see people's reactions. Captain Hook starring alongside Snow White, Red Riding Hood and Rumplestiltskin has never felt weird to me, and as a child I spent hours waiting for Peter Pan to come and whisk me away to Neverland. I believed much more in Alice's rabbit hole to Wonderland than in the Beast's castle. I think part of me always recognised classic fairytales as moral teachings and pretty stories and although I believed in the magic presented in them I didn't necessarily believe in the places or the people, whereas with Peter Pan, Alice, Oz and Narnia I most definitely did. 

Maybe if the point of fairytales is to present us with a universal truth or to transmit cultural values to the young, then the addition of tales to the canon is inevitable and necessary. Maybe Pan and Alice resonate with the modern world's struggle to hold on to childhood and innocence as concepts in the same way that Hansel and Gretel did with people trying to teach their kids that the forest was a dangerous place to be in alone?

The collection of stories we refer to as fairytales has been growing pretty much as far back as we can tell, and especially since they began to be written down. It feels weird to me to accept that that wouldn't and probably shouldn't be a finite thing - that we should always be adding new tales and creating new magic and ways to explain the sometimes scary world to our children. To me fairytales feel a little like something special, even something a bit holy which anyone shouldn't be able to just make their work part of, so I wonder what the standard is that I'm setting before I'll allow myself to accept something as a fairytale? It can't be as simple as the inclusion of magic, because there are plenty of books I read as a child which contain that element and which I don't think of as fairytales. Honestly, I think it has to be more than it meeting a bunch of criteria. For me, the fairytales which stick are the ones that somehow speak to my soul. The ones that make me believe in the possibility of magic and happy ever afters and wonderful adventures. Maybe the ones which still show me something about myself? I'm not sure. 

What do you think? 

Fairytale Fridays is a monthly meme for all things fairytale and folklore related! Please link up your fairytale posts here and make sure to visit some other participating blogs. I'm back on the last Friday of each month, so the next link up will be May 29th! Spread the word on social media using #fairytalefridays.

The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham

For those who have no idea what Fables is (and if this is you, why??) the basic idea is that all of the fairytale characters you've ever heard of (and the ones you haven't) have fled their homelands during a war with an enemy known as the Adversary, and are now living in a new Fabletown, in New York. That was the premise in the beginning, anyway. A lot has happened since then. 

I was a little bit confused at the beginning of this volume, because I haven't yet started the Jack of Fables series, and so I felt a bit like I was missing some information. I do plan to get to the series at some point, but as Jack pops in and out of the main Fables storylines, I wasn't completely adrift, and I still have seven volumes of Fables to go (and I'm pretty sure there'll be at least one more before it ends next year), and two of Bill Willingham's new series, Fairest, so it might be a while!

This latest volume takes place after all the drama with the Adversary is over, after the battle of Fabletown, and it has a new (ish) villain and a cast of characters in the form of the Literals, who are embodiments of ideas and thoughts rather than fairytale characters of imagination, like most of the fables. The plot is pretty similar to a lot of the preceeding volumes; various fable characters (this time Bigby and Snow White along with a few others) set off on a mission to defeat an enemy who threatens their very existence. Things happen along the way... But somehow, despite its slightly formulaic approach, The Great Fables Crossover manages to have characters you want to read about and be unpredictable enough to keep you hooked right until the end. 

As a whole, I love this series, but I do go up and down with how much I enjoy individual volumes. Some just aren't as gripping as others, but I would say that on the whole this was one of my more favoured ones. The plot is strong and I really enjoy the way that Willingham and his collaborators weave narratives together - one of my favourite things about the Fables series is that unexpected people keep turning up and the story is continually taking unexpected turns. While I don't love it as much as I loved the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, it's definitely a very close second and a brilliant addition to my fairytale reading. Plus it goes really well with Season One of Once Upon a Time, which we're catching up with on Lovefilm at the moment!

I have a hard time writing about Fables as a series, purely because I like it so much and I want everybody to go out and read it so we can talk about it now, please? And I don't want to ruin it at all for you, so I try to talk about it without talking about specifics, which makes it difficult to talk about at all, really. All I can say is, I'd like Rose Red back now, please. Enough moping already! 

Many Mini Reviews:- Fables Volumes 2, 3 & 4 by Bill Willingham

I think that graphic novels have been under-represented on the blog this year, and it really isn't because I'm not reading any - I just haven't managed to discipline myself to write about them yet! This is a vaguely lazy way of catching up with what I've been reading. 


I discovered the world of graphic novels through Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, centering around the Lord of Dreams and his siblings (Death, Destiny, Delirium, Desire etc), with a heavy leaning towards the mythological. After I finished the series I was looking for something to follow it with when I started hearing things about Bill Willingham's Fables series. Taking characters from fairytale and folklore and placing them into a modern setting, how could I resist?! 


I wrote about the prequel, 1001 Nights of Snowfall, and the first volume, Legends in Exile, but after that I got caught up with other things. So here goes. (I just wanted to say this is also a brilliant exercise because some of these I read so long ago that I'm pretty much having to re-read them to remember details, which is brilliant)

Volume 2: Animal Farm
Following on from where Legends in Exile left off, the second volume follows the story of the non-human fables, forced to live in the Farm community. Snow White and Rose Red (going to take up her new position as head of the farm, as punishment for her schemes of the first installment), walk into a suspicious meeting, and quickly learn that everything is far from what it should be... 


I have to say that so far, this is one of my favourite installments. I love the way that Willingham is continually introducing new characters in unexpected ways, and how they tangle with characters they should have nothing to do with. Unlikely pairings in this installment include Bluebeard (the wife killer), and Goldilocks (of three bears fame), Shere Khan and Bagheera, and Rose Red bargaining for the life of her sister... It's full of revolution, anger, and unexpected twists. Also, Bigby Wolf who has to be my favourite character. So brooding, so mysterious. So much love. 


Volume 3: Storybook Love


This is the book in which backstories of different characters start appearing; first Jack (beanstalk, Giant killer), then Briar Rose (otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty), who just happens to be the second wife of the enigmatic Prince Charming, ex-husband of Snow White, who, at the beginning of the book is recouperating from the events of Animal Farm. There's a lot going on here, and a lot more characters involved than in the first two!


First off, Bigby Wolf and the other Fables are threatened with exposure, so there's that to take care of, and then there's interesting developments in the relationship between Bigby and Snow White... Oh and Goldilocks, mustn't forget about her! 


This book is the one where it really all kicks off. From now on there are at least three parallel storylines running at the same time, and twists and turns all over the place. It's really gripping, and I loved that the characters are becoming more three dimensional and complex. Also, I haven't yet mentioned how gorgeous the artwork is, and it really is. 


Volume 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers
This is my other favourite so far. Fabletown receives its' first new inhabitant in a long, long time, fresh from the old lands, now controlled by the Adversary. Red Riding Hood has an interesting back story, but is she all she seems? Following on from the idea that the gateways between the old world and the new might not be quite so closed as everybody thought, Jack is pursued by some creepily resilient black suited men, and Fabletown prepares itself for the possibility of war... Meanwhile, Snow White is miraculously pregnant!


I think I'm showing a bit of a predilection for the volumes containing lots of angst and gore, but I think they give the characters more opportunities for awesomeness, especially Boy Blue, who has lurked in the background up until this point, and whose back story you learn a lot more about. Another unlikely hero of this volume is Pinocchio, whose story is somewhat more complicated than expected... I thought the plot of this volume was particularly strong and well put-together. At points, there was so much going on that I did wonder how Willingham keeps it all together! 


There will be another one of these mini posts at some point soon, for volumes 5 and 6. I was going to do them all together, but I thought that it might be a little much... But anyway, in summary I would really recommend these if you're at all into fairytale type stuff. I know a couple of people besides me have been reading them for the Telling Tales Challenge!

The Telling Tales Challenge 2012!!

Picture credit: the Cheeseninja

Welcome to An Armchair by the Sea’s first reading challenge! Some of you may know about my love of/obsession with/totally crazed mania for all things fairytale and mythology based. While chatting with my sister Esther about our shared love of reading challenges and desire to set up a challenge of our own, we came up with an idea (inspired by the Once Upon a Time Challenge) for a challenge based around reading things to do with mythology, fairytales, legends and folklore, and so here it is!

The Telling Tales Reading Challenge 2012

Rules:

·         Challenge runs from January 1^st 2012 to December 31^st 2012. You may sign up to participate at any point between these dates.

·         Any genre counts as long as it is related to fairytale, folklore, or mythology in some way. If you’re not sure if it counts – as long as you can make a case for why it should, then it does!

·         You can re-read books for this challenge as long as the reviews you link are written during 2012, and the challenge can also overlap other challenges.

·         Whatever you read must either be a version of a fairytale or myth, or contain fairytale or mythological characters, settings, or sequence of events.

·         Every month there will be update posts either here or on my sister’s blog. Please link up your reviews for that month on this post.

That’s it!

Now, the important bit.

The Categories

These are the levels:

Level 1: Read 5 books

Level 2: Read 10 books

Level 3: Read 15 books

Level 4: Read 20 books

Level 5: Read 25 books

You can sign up for any level, and choose to read either purely the categories listed below, or to participate in the Mix n Match category, or the Adaptation Amalgamation category, or all of them if you're that brave!

Categories:

Twisted Fairytales – retellings or modern interpretations of fairytales or myths. For inspiration, look here.

Classics – Myth and fairytale from the classics genre (e.g. Homer, Grimm, Virgil, Hans Christian Andersen)

Graphics – Graphic novels and comics based around or containing elements of mythology and fairytale. Examples include Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and Bill Willingham’s Fables series among others. For a list that barely scrapes the surface, go here.

Poetry & Drama – We’ve put this in because we’re sure there must be some. I've managed to find some, but if you know of any others please let us know!

Non- Fiction – Anything about myth, fairytale, folklore or fantasy in general that doesn’t belong to the fictional genre.

Extra Categories

Adaptation Amalgamation – Watch a film and read the book it is based on. This category can incorporate as many other categories as you like (i.e all your films do not have to be based on graphic novels, but some can be, and some twisted fairytale, some non-fiction etc)

Mix n Match – Exactly what it says. Sign up for a level and pick that number of books from any or all of the other categories.

As you can probably tell, Esther and I like to make lists. If this seems incredibly convoluted and off-putting, we apologise and take solace in the fact that we have each other, so neither of us will be doing the challenge alone! We do hope that other people will join us though, as it’s always fun to find out about new books, and the more people that do it, the more likely we are to finish it!

If you’d like to join, please leave a comment with a link to your sign up post. 

Participants:
1.Bex  (An Armchair by the Sea)
2.Esther (Always Look on the Bright Side of Life)
3.Jennifer (An Abundance of Books)
4. Hannah (Once Upon a Time)
5. Kailana (The Written World)
6.Tom (Life, Love and the Universe)
7. Lindy
8. Alberta (Alberta Reads)
9. Nicola (Back to Books)
10. Kim (Page After Page)
11. K (Very Simple Secret)  
12. West Virginia Red (West Virginia Red Reads)
13. Tobe (Wading Through the Ocean of Life)
14. Michelle (The True Book Addict) 
15. Jenny (Stone Soup Books)
16. Jackie (Books n Tea)  
17. Mirjam
18. Ricki (Reading Challenged)  
19. Eden Mabee (A Garden of Delights)
20. Michele A (NinjaInk)
21. Lisa (Lit and Life)
22. Hanna (Booking in Heels)
23. Kristen (A Writer's Wife)
24. Sary (Some People Use Their Imagination)

  
Master list of reviews here.

Reviews: - Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall & Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham

The Fables series of graphic novels by Bill Willingham is one of my newest and most awesome discoveries in the graphic genre. I originally found out about it at Sophisticated Dorkiness, and after doing a bit of research I thought it sounded exactly like my kind of thing. This is really a double review of two Fables books: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which is a kind of prequel, based around the Scheherezade/ Arabian Nights concept, and the first official book in the series, Legends in Exile.

The Fables (Snow White, the big bad wolf, Beauty and the Beast and the rest) have been forced to leave their magical homelands by an enemy known only as The Adversary, and have taken refuge in a suburb of New York which they have named Fabletown. Here they’ve lived among humans for centuries, and here is where Legends in Exile begins. Although it is the first book, I am glad that I read 1001 Nights of Snowfall first, as it explains a lot of the set-up of Legends in Exile, such as how Snow White and Rose Red came to be estranged, how Old King Cole became the mayor of Fabletown, and the beginnings of  Bigby the wolf. Fables runs the risk of being ridiculous – anything based around fairytales always has the potential for childishness – but it completely isn’t. Legends in Exile, more than 1001 Nights of Snowfall, is a very adult, raw and complex and I loved it. The fairytale characters are presented with all the uncomfortable edges of humanity – all their flaws are jarringly present and obvious.

Legends in Exile is pretty much a murder mystery. Rose Red’s apartment is found trashed and covered in blood and Bigby, the head of the Fabletown police force, is called in to investigate. Red’s sister, Snow White is the assistant to the mayor of Fabletown, and she becomes involved in the hunt for her estranged sister’s killer. The plot follows the development of the investigation, and the revelation of Rose Red’s entangled love life, starting with her boyfriend Jack (as in Jack the giant killer, of ‘and the beanstalk’ fame), and quickly warping to involve a complex relationship with Bluebeard, the guy who kills all his wives...

I thought that the way the story developed was very enjoyable. Although it wasn’t the most shocking ending ever, the story was still pacy enough to keep me engrossed and wanting to read the next one (which I now have). I always love new takes on fairytales – many of you will know that this is the subject I’m apt to geek out the most about – and I love that Willingham has stripped fairytales back to what they would be like if they were actually about real people in the real world. What I’ve read of the Fables series so far has a ring of authenticity that fairytales generally lack, and I think that’s probably what I found the most powerful about them. I also really liked the artwork, especially on 1001 Nights of Snowfall. It is often quite stark and fairly brazen (as are the stories), while retaining some of the traditional fairytale, ethereal feel.

The rest of the series has gone on my wishlist...

Friday is For Fairytales - The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

Friday is for Fairytales is a meme hosted by Irena at This Miss loves to Read. Every Friday, you can choose a fairytale you love, or simply find interesting or haunting, and review it or simply say why you like it so much, or why it has captured your attention. Instead of a fairytale, you can choose a favourite fairytale character and describe him/her and tell us why you like them, or you can simply share an experience connected to a fairytale. Fairytales can be old and modern, written by a known author or anonymous, written down or passed on orally, short or in novel form (like re-writings of fairytales), international or typical for your country alone.

My choice this week is a collection of retellings: The Ladies of Grace Adieu, by Susanna Clarke, whose debut novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, has been sitting on my bookshelf for absolutely years without me reading it!

This book is beautiful, and I'm talking about the cover, the writing, and the illustration. For me, fairytales in any form are always made all the more magical by good illustration. This collection is based around English folklore, and, having read  a lot of Neil Gaiman, there were many references in it which I understood, as there is a theme of English legends and folklore running through a lot of his work. This made me feel extremely smug!

My favourite story of the collection is a tie, between 'On Lickerish Hill', a retelling of the well-known Rumplestiltskin story, and Mrs Mabb, about a man who leaves his fiancee for Mrs Mabb, otherwise known as Queen Mabb, the 'miniature creature who drives her chariot into the noses and brains of sleeping people to compel them to experience dreams of wish fulfillment' (ahhh Wikipedia).

This collection was an absolute joy to read, and I especially loved Clarke's strong and intelligent female protagonists!

Rating : *****