Jack Zipes' "The Irresistible Fairy Tale"

The best part of running Diamonds and Toads has to be when I receive requests for me to review books. What's even more exciting is to be asked to review a book written by Jack Zipes, one of the most famous names in modern fairy tale scholarship.

D&T's previous owner, Kate, had the privilege of interviewing Zipes in 2009, for those interested in hearing firsthand some of his thoughts on fairy tales.

Before I give my thoughts on this book, I should mention that I am (alas) not an expert in fairy tales and The Irresistible Fairy Tale is the first scholarly book I've read on the topic. Since I began writing for this blog, I've been trying to turn my hobby-level interest in fairy tales into something more professional and I'm glad I've been given the opportunity to read some of Zipes' work since he is such an important figure in the field.

The Irresistible Fairy Tale's target audience is a little tricky for me to place. In many ways it feels like an addendum to his other books, choosing specific areas to cover (possibly in an effort to plug various gaps left in previous publications?). For example, he devotes a full chapter to the lesser known folklorist Giuseppe Pitre.  In other ways, it feels like an overview of fairy tales, examining the evolution of the genre.

Occasionally, the pages contain the entire text of tales as examples, but the author usually assumes his readers are already familiar with the titles he references. These range from the common, such as Cinderella, to the lesser known, like Baba Yaga. While the writing style is accesible to anyone, I would judge this book to be most interesting to readers with at least an intermediate knowledge of fairy tales.

Baba Yaga by Rima Staines

Highlights of The Irresistible Fairy Tale:

1. Zipes' examination of how females are treated in fairy tales. He concludes that most females in the popular fairy tales are either witches or persecuted heroines because our culture has marginalized tales written by females. He gives several examples of female folktale gatherers as well as tales by female authors.

2. Zipes' biographical chapters about specific folk tale collectors and storytellers, giving the reader a much broader scope of names in the genre beyond Grimm and Perrault.



3. The best explanation of why someone dislikes Tangled. Zipes says the movie subverts the original tale's representation of the witch. In the original tale, the witch represents an Artemis-like figure who wants to protect Rapunzel from the wickedness of men. In Tangled, the witch is only concerned with selfishly pursuing youthfulness. Not saying this changes my love of the adorable Disney movie, but it's a better explanation than simply complaining that it sugar-coated the original story.

Movie review: Snow White and the Huntsman

Welcome back, Fairy Folk! Miss me?

I originally intended to write a post comparing the two Snow White movies this year, but I simply couldn't make myself pay money to see Mirror Mirror. The trailer looked too painfully cheesy. And I barely dragged myself to Snow White and the Huntsman on its third weekend at the box office. So here are my thoughts.

I was never excited about Huntsman because the trailers made it look heavy on fighting scenes and special effects and light on acting and exploring the fairy tale. And my instincts were pretty accurate.

This movie has gotten slammed pretty hard by others already, so instead of adding to the complaints about acting and plot lag, I'll just give you links to some reviews:

1. http://www.knoxweekly.com.au/blogs/trailer-park/review-snow-white-and-the-huntsman/2601792.aspx

2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/may/31/snow-white-and-huntsman-review

3.http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2012/05/now_white_and_the_huntsmen_starring_kristen_stewart_and_charlize_theron_reviewed_.html

So yes, the movie was mediocre, but-but-but it had brief glimpses of genius that teased me with its potential for greatness. There are so many rich concepts and luscious visual details that never get fully developed.


Here are the top three things that grabbed my interest:


1. Lack of names: Many of the characters are called by their titles instead of their names. I'm 99% sure that the Huntsman doesn't even have a name and you hear the Evil Queen's first name more often than Snow White's (who is almost always referred to as "Princess"). Was this done to mirror the stock characters used in fairy tales?

2. True love's kiss (spoilers): How can Snow be saved by the whole true love's kiss when she and the Huntsman have no chemistry and no indication of romance between them (I mean, they don't even appear to get together in the end). 

It got me wondering if maybe the true love in the story was never supposed to be between Snow and the Huntsman. After all, he monologues about how Snow reminds him of his dead wife before kissing her awake--could it be his true love for the memory of his wife that fuels the life-giving magic? That would certainly be more original and thought provoking, wouldn't it?


3. Only the apple: Also, in the original Snow White tale, there are three attempts on the princess' life--first with a poisoned comb, then with a corset, and finally with an apple. Anyone have theories on why only the apple has survived in modern retellings?

What makes THIS the iconic image of Snow White?

Even though the movie fell flat, while I watched it, I felt a very strong presence of vision behind it. I am convinced that someone cared a LOT about this movie--so many of the concepts are lovingly rendered in morbid detail. And not just for the eye candy factor either. I could have sworn that many details were meant to have a deeper symbolic meaning and a conversation with the director could have opened up a wealth of interesting details. I don't want to buy this movie on dvd, but at the same time, I'll bet the commentary would be better than the actual movie. If it had just stopped trying to be an action movie, Snow White and the Huntsman could have been the next Ever After.

The Great Facebook Migration!

Greetings, Fairy Folk!

Just popping by to remind you that the Enchanted Conversation facebook page will be going "poof" at the end of the month.

Never fear, though! Here's a link to the new combination Diamonds and Toads / Timeless Tales page!

Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Timeless-Tales/200695596666046

Timeless Tales Update

Happy New Year, Fairy Folk!


I was hoping to have Timeless Tales ready by 2012, but then I landed a rather time-consuming job and I simply haven't had the mental or temporal ability to work on it as much as I'd like. It's around 70% ready, I'd say, but the last 30% is a pretty steep slope to climb. I wish I had a launch date for you, but my life is incredibly unpredictable right now and I don't want to set myself a deadline I can't meet. So for now, I am working hard to at least provide a weekly Diamonds and Toads post (I still haven't caught the blog up with OUAT yet, sorry about that) and I'll let you know when I have TT news for you.


In the meantime, I'm sure you've heard by now that Enchanted Conversation is not going to shut down as previously announced. Kate will be running monthly story and poetry contests (her first opened today). There isn't a specific theme, but she's looking for work that evokes the feel of classic pre-1900 fairy tales.