Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

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Once upon an over and over and over again...

Let's talk about fairy tales.

Yesterday, Mattel—the company that makes my beloved Monster High Dolls, literally dozens of which occupy multiple rooms in my house—announced the launch of a new toy line: Ever After High, where the children of famous fairy tale figures go to school as they prepare to take the Legacy Pledge and relive the stories of their parents. Hundreds of generations of Wicked Queens and whiteout girls passing poison apples back and forth between them like Valentines.

One of my favorite TV miniseries of all time, The 10th Kingdom, is about a world where fairy tales are true, and where the descendants of the stories we know here, today, in our world still live, trying to eke out a chance at happily ever after. The main character, Virginia, is both Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood, just one more girl in danger (and falling in love with) a wolf. The novelization of the miniseries is one of my first choices for comfort reading.

Once Upon A Time, currently airing on ABC, is basically someone filming the playtime of a group of very inventive children (I'd say about age twelve) who have between them a complete set of the Disney Princess Collection dolls, a Peter Pan playset, and whatever other toys they've been able to scrounge from the rooms of their siblings. I keep expecting a T-Rex to show up, just before all the other kids start shouting at Crystal about how they let her make Red a werewolf, why does she keep ruining everything.

Fables and its spin-offs—especially Cinderella, which is deconstruction of both her story and of the modern myth of the super-spy assassin who never dies—are some of the best things happening in comics today. The worst issue of Fables is better than the best issue of a great many other things (none of which I will name here, because that's rude). It's a glorious fairy tale stew, and it tastes so very sweet when we put it in our mouths.

I could go on for quite some time (and eventually I may, because these are all things that are very much worth experiencing, for their similarities, for their differences). There have been Marvel Fairy Tales, recasting X-Men and Avengers into classic roles. There have been movies like Sydney White, recasting Snow White into a college-age modern woman and the seven dwarves into her socially outcast friends. Fairy tales are everywhere. Fairy tales are older than you think. They were the first form of urban fantasy, and I fully expect them to be the last. They are urban legend mellowed and fermented from vinegar into fine wine (and yes, sometimes, turned sour by the passage of time and changing cultural standards).

And here's the exciting thing. Each and every work I've cited above is, at its core, transformative fan fiction. Snow White is a really common figure in modern retellings: something about that whiteout girl with the bloody lips and the murderous mother figure appeals to us. Don't know why, although I know why she appeals to me. Don't much care. I'm having too much fun writing and reading and watching and loving fanfic about her, and I'll leave the deep contemplation to other people. We're all bringing our own touches to the reimagining, and that's the most fun part of all: is Snow White a politician? A gunslinger? A witch? A government agent? Does she have a wicked stepmother, or just a rival? Is she going to eat the apple? Can she escape her story? Does she want to?

It's the little things that make all these stories individual, distinct, and worth enjoying. (And before someone says "but if it's fanfic how can any of these things be under copyright, that makes no sense," remember that original characters and plot elements can be copyrighted even when the public domain source material is not. So my ATI Management Bureau, and Bill's Fabletown, are both protected by their recent creation, even as we stuff them full of characters that belong to everyone, forever. Again, this is how we don't all wind up getting sued by Disney.) We're in a period of remaking the fairy tales we grew up with, trying to turn them into something that we feel is still relevant, and will be relevant for generations to come.

Fairy tales are powerful things.

There's always room for one more happy ever after.
Tags: contemplation, fairy tale remix, indexing
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  • 56 comments
Fairy Tales, like Bow Ties, are cool.
Agreed.
One day we will find time to sit down together and squee over The Tenth Kingdom. I love that show dearly.
Kari
Me, too.

I wish the sequel had been made.
YAY 10th KINGDOM!
YES.

dormouse_in_tea

4 years ago

Woo! I love turning fairy tales into modern day stories. Hell, people call me "Snow White combined with Red Riding Hood and a feline dragon." In fact, a current story has elements of that - so much fun to write.

Have you heard of Healthy Multiplicity? It's completely different from DID (formerly MPD). It's more like coping mechanisms in the form of people; I call mine "spirit guides" - they were all born from fairy tales and folk tales. Contrary to multiple personalities or alters, mine were created by me and my creativity and later found a use as coping mechanisms for my depression, anxiety, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, etc etc. They live in my head - they are fictional characters technically real to me but to nobody else. And I created them because I used to read all kinds of fairy tales as a child.
I had not heard of that, no.
which is why I loved Michael Buckleys' The Grimm Sisters books...
Were those the childrens' books with Puck as Pan figure?

martianmooncrab

4 years ago

and Grimm. Something about that show calls to me.
"There's something disturbing about a German guy with a book of races that have to die." - my friend Eve

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

THIS. I love Fables (Cubs in Toyland was disturbing in all the right ways), and Indexing is glorious so far. We are taking our fairy tales and doing what storytellers have always done - making them so that we can see them in another light, and uncover more lessons.
"Cubs in Toyland" broke my heart.

geekhyena

4 years ago

I keep having to remind myself of the prevalence and (more importantly) variety of fairy tale remixes so that I don't go Wicked Queen on everyone doing them as though I'm the only one who can have all the effing apples in the basket. :)

That's always my first reaction to a new FT remix I hear about, but it's a bad reaction and should be shunned. Fairy tales are awesome, and that's that. That's why they continue to infuse our imaginations from childhood onward, because they constantly change in significance as we change, but they still hold their original magic as well.

All that to say yours looks intriguing, and I'm looking forward to the final print version.
Thankfully, no one can have all these apples. :)
Fairy tales and myths aren't equivalent, but I think this quote from Joseph Campbell in 1949 talks about similar ideas:

In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has [our] own private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream. The latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stands this afternoon on the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to change.

Do you know what's at the corner of 42nd and 5th in NYC? The public library :-)
Ha!
I have to admit to a deep and abiding love for Lana Parilla's portrayal of the wicked queen (even if I have issues with exactly why she's wicked) in "Once Upon a Time". Have you heard they're making OUAT in Wonderland?

I also generally like the Syfy fairy tale miniseries, though they veer from the earlier written and oral material.
I did hear that, and am reserving judgment.
Oh yes, Snow White... Imortalized in Cecilia Eng's Red as Blood filk, which I understand is based on a Tanith Lee story. Snow White as a vampire and the evil queen being the good guy.

Then a local filker whose name escapes me at the moment took that tune and set words to it about Red Riding Hood and werewolves. (and not the obvious way, either)



Deleted comment

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

That reminds me, my 10th Kingdom filk is another one I really should try to finish.

#Then she touched my face. Now I'm a retriever!#
Heh.
That is a brilliant summation of Once Upon A Time. I've been saying that it's everyone in costume at Disney World, but that's not quite it.

They've already invoked Wonderland (another Disney landgrab). Now I'm waiting for Buzz Lightyear. Quite possibly riding the T-Rex.
I wouldn't be surprised.
I adore fairy tales, especially how modern writers like you can transform centuries-old stories into something new and fresh. So definitely keep at it!

Out of pure curiosity, have you ever seen any of the Cannon Movietales? My favorite is Beauty and the Beast with Rebecca De Mornay.
I have not!
I love this post so so much. I am a sucker for retold fairytales and when done well, I marvel at the way familiar elements are combined with the new.

Aw, yay.
Wicked Queens deserve happy endings too.
Agreed.
Each and every work I've cited above is, at its core, transformative fan fiction.

<3
<3 you too.
I'm a lurker and I think this is my first comment so - HI! I've read your Newsflesh series and as soon as I finish law school/bar exam stuff I'm hoping to read your other works because (segue into relevant comment) I freaking LOVE fairy tales retold (especially in comic book form, Fables, Sandman, Bone (which isn't really a retelling but is mythic in scope anyway - plus dragons!), etc., I also spent my teenage years reading probably far too much Francesca Lia Block).

Anyway, now I'm also thinking of Into the Woods, which has one of my (many) favorite Sondheim songs, so I'ma just leave it here:
Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true, not free
Careful the spell you cast
Not just on children
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you
Careful the tale you tell
That is the spell
Children will listen

Also, my favorite fairy tale is probably Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, which just has so much symbolism (and also, a very proactive girl protagonist). When I was in high school AP creative writing, I wrote one of my favorite short stories based off of it - they just are such rich material.

I just can't get enough, obviously. So I loved this entry. Thanks for it. And hello again!
I think that may be my favorite song from "Into the Woods" (though"Agony" and "Moment in the Woods" are wonderful also).

There's also "Once Upon a Mattress" with Tracey Ullman, a play on the princess and the pea story.

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

gabyrippling

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Oh my, this is all so happy making.
Yay!
Didja see the SDCCI Monster High spidery doll?
I did.
I love, love, love The 10th Kingdom! :D I have the novelization, and haven't actually read it. I will have to do that!
It's so good!
I'm not sure what exactly I was looking at, or what flight of the bumblebee thought pattern led me to the realization - but I realized the other day that my mother wrote fanfic. I don't remember ever thinking of it that way as a kid or associating the term fanfic with my mom, but that's what it was. In fact, I still have several of the 'Zines she was published in, and a few that just had my favorite stories. The original Star Trek and Phantom of the Opera 'verses got lots of love, but the other 'verse she wrote for extensively, that this post brought to mind, was the late '80's TV series Beauty and the Beast. A reimagined version of the classic tale further reimagined by dozens of fans, including a woman who passed her love of reading and writing on to her daughter. Happily ever after indeed. ;->
Oh, man, that rules.
I have been having a bad day (new neighbor who thinks it is okay to chain smoke in common areas + the usual allergies + sinus headache = me completely wiped out and loopy on meds). I was looking for something to watch that I haven't seen a million times before.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for mentioning Once Upon A Time! I've spent most of the day flopped on the sofa, drinking tea, popping ibuprofen like it's candy corn and acquainting myself with my newest television addiction. May all the gods bless Time Warner Cable On Demand!

You are so welcome!
Finally getting around to saying something. Still not feeling very verbal though, so bullet points :)

1. Fairy tales = yay
2. I got to do my dissertation on (Russian) fairy/folk tales and spent hours reading Aarne Thompson's classification index. For me it adds something knowing that
A) these tales varied in almost every telling - trying to find an authoritive version was one of the first concepts I had to abandon as not really existing
B) the relationships between cultures over motifs, character types, plot elements etc. For example Cinderella vs. Василиса Прекрасная (Vasilissa Prekrasnaia)

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarne%E2%80%93Thompson_classification_system - just the Wiki bit about their Classification System in case anyone else is interested too... :)
Hee.

I love folklore bunnies.