The Fairy Tale Feminista
Answering life’s questions one fairy tale at a time.
Food & Fairy Tales
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I started to think about the relationship of food and fairy tales. Just a cursory look is a mixed bag. Food is a weapon, a threat, transportation, or an opportunity to change your life, just to name a few.
In Snow White, the evil queen’s last-ditch effort to rid herself of her stepdaughter is an apple. A poisoned apple. Hansel and Gretel is probably the scariest of the food references. After being abandoned by their father and mother, they come to a home made of candy and gingerbread only to be trapped by the witch inside who eats children!
Does it Matter Where you Start?
Have you ever noticed that fairy tales don’t start with:
“Once upon a time a forlorn prince looked out his window and wondered if he’d ever find his true love…”
OR
“There was once a princess whose father decreed one day that her potential husband would be determined by a stranger’s ability to outwit a troublesome giant…”
Do Names Matter?
When I start a story, I begin with the conflict. I ask a question and then I try and find characters and settings that help answer it. It’s a very research paper way to write fiction, I just realized, but it works for me. Some people start with a character or even a name. I, on the other hand, start with the story and then have a dedicated name day.
Pulling a Prince out of a Bear
As a reader, I love a good and well-considered plot twist. Depending on who you ask there are only six, seven, or thirty-six stories in the world. With that in mind, the only way to very them is with a good twist. Mind you I said a good twist. Too often I’ve been on the receiving end of a story that bends over backward to make a plot work with a twist so implausible it ruins it. There is such a thing as too twisty a plot and I say this as a person who reads fantasy and fairy tales. Even they get it wrong sometimes.
The List
Romantic comedies (and any romance genre for that matter) are our modern-day equivalent of fairy tales. At least the “girl-finds-a-prince or the boy-is-given-a-princess-type” fairy tale. It has a discernable formula—two people meet, they fall in love, an obstacle separates them (and according to Hallmark movies, that’s at the hour and thirty mark), and then all hurts are mended to a happily ever after conclusion—and often used devices. One of the most used is the List.
Questions for the Queen
I’ve been in analysis mode with Snow White for some reason.
I’ve decided not to question it.
Ever think the mirror was messing with the queen? It was a fairy mirror and fairies are notoriously fickle and endlessly mischievous. Maybe they were tired of getting the same question over and over again.
First Three Things
Random thoughts are a given for most people. For writers they’re source material—the answer to the oft-asked question, “What inspired this story?” Here’s one of those stray thoughts that crept in during a sleepless night.
What were Snow White’s first thoughts when she woke up? Aside from the obvious—who’s this guy?
Marking Time with Tale Friends
The other day I was trying to conjure up my quarantine fantasy (not that being under quarantine should be anyone’s idea of a fantasy other than the whole stuck on a desert island with your dream lover, but that’s for another post). It included things like spending an entire day in bed with meals delivered up to my bedroom and reading an entire book, cover to cover, without interruptions. Actually, that last one figures in a lot of fantasies of mine!It got me thinking about what people do when they’re stuck at home and because this is a blog primarily about how I feel about fairy tales, it seemed only natural to consider what a quarantine would be like with one of them.
Living a Fairy Tale Trope
It’s a familiar trope in fairy tales. Cinderella had her father’s estate. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both had a cottage in the woods. Rapunzel had her tower with no doors. Belle had the Beast’s castle. In fairy tales, princesses tend to find themselves in isolation.It’s not unusual. These stories were written in a time when most women could measure their worlds in the square feet of their homes. Men worked outside—women, inside.
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