Hey, Jenn (though anybody can answer, really)

[conuly]

When it comes to fairy tales...

Do you want the GOOD kind, where the parents abandon their kids, and the witch eats children and locks Hansel in a cage and is eventually hoisted on her own petard? Or the wussy kind where the kids innocently get lost and the witch turns the kids into gingerbread decorations?

The GOOD kind, where Granma gets eaten and the wolf gets chopped into bits? Or the dull kind, where Granma hides in the cloest and the wolf runs away?

The GOOD kind, where the Queen wants to eat Snow White, and ends up dancing in iron slippers? Or the strange kind, where the girl leaves for some unknown reason?

*waits*

Comments

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

I will give this due consideration.

[conuly]

C'mon, go for the gore. Counteract the white bread, sugarcoated drivel they try to promote nowadays.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Well, I loved the GOOD kind even when I was really little. My theory is that kids are naturally morbid little creatures. At least, all of the children I've ever babysat are. It isn't as if reading them the GOOD fairy tales would teach them to be twisted or anything -- they're like that anyway.

Though I wouldn't read the original Sleeping Beauty to anyone under the age of nine unless prepared to have a serious conversation with the kid about rape.

[conuly]

1. Totally agree. My favorite "story" growing up was the poem of Jim, who ran away from nurse and got eaten by a lion.

2. Again, agree. I think I'd definitely go with the extended, but slightly toned down version - she only gets kissed, but then we move right into the Ogress.

[rachelkachel]

I don't think I know that version of Sleeping Beauty. O_O

[divabat.livejournal.com]

I've only been familiar with the "good" version of those stories, not the dull ones o_O

[conuly]

Lucky. They're taking over.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I've always had difficulty with fairy-tales in general, because they were more plot-oriented than character-driven, if that makes any sense. So I'll be the lone weirdo to say "I didn't want either kind, I liked traditional fantasy-fiction early on." ;-)

The versions I had of fairy tales as a child were a middleground between what you listed above, incidentally. (They all pre-date Disney, in any event.) The children were dumped in the woods by their parents, then killed the witch by sticking her in the oven and baking her to death... The grandmother escapes safely while the wolf is killed... I don't think Snow White was in the collections I had, but it could have been one of the tales I avoided. :)

[conuly]

1. That makes sense.

2. Yeah, the sweetening of fairy tales has been slowly going on for years.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

It's not just you. I'm sitting and reading this thread while discussing it with my BF, and he just said essentially the same thing. He adores traditional fantasy fiction, and, ironically, our child-free house is filled with children's books and toys--but the only fairy tales are in the pop-up books that he collects.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I support the teaching of the "dull" versions when the kids are little. Because that's what I learned, when I was young. And it makes the "good" version so, so, so much cooler to learn about it after you've memorized the sweet, safe version. "You mean she what??"

So I'm happy to have learned the dull ones, because the good ones are even better.

[adiva_calandia]

Hmm, intersting point. In fact, an excellent point.

[anotheralice.livejournal.com]

I prefer the good, morbid kind. I was raised on those, and I turned out just fine! (at least, maybe...)

[beetlebomb.livejournal.com]

I remeber our storytelling teacher told us that in the original version of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf made her take off her clothes and throw them in the fire, drink a jar of her grandmother's blood and get in bed with him!!!! One of the ladies in the class was so traumatized by this version she never returned to class!

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Good. Definately Good. and then finish em up with roald darl's revolting rhymes and ditry beasts.

20 years later i can still do his version of little red ridinghood off the top of my head


The young girl paused, one eyelid flickers
she whips her pistol from her knicckers
aimed it at the wolfie's head
and bang bang bang she shot him dead.

or something like that.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

I will give this due consideration.

[conuly]

C'mon, go for the gore. Counteract the white bread, sugarcoated drivel they try to promote nowadays.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Well, I loved the GOOD kind even when I was really little. My theory is that kids are naturally morbid little creatures. At least, all of the children I've ever babysat are. It isn't as if reading them the GOOD fairy tales would teach them to be twisted or anything -- they're like that anyway.

Though I wouldn't read the original Sleeping Beauty to anyone under the age of nine unless prepared to have a serious conversation with the kid about rape.

[conuly]

1. Totally agree. My favorite "story" growing up was the poem of Jim, who ran away from nurse and got eaten by a lion.

2. Again, agree. I think I'd definitely go with the extended, but slightly toned down version - she only gets kissed, but then we move right into the Ogress.

[divabat.livejournal.com]

I've only been familiar with the "good" version of those stories, not the dull ones o_O

[conuly]

Lucky. They're taking over.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I've always had difficulty with fairy-tales in general, because they were more plot-oriented than character-driven, if that makes any sense. So I'll be the lone weirdo to say "I didn't want either kind, I liked traditional fantasy-fiction early on." ;-)

The versions I had of fairy tales as a child were a middleground between what you listed above, incidentally. (They all pre-date Disney, in any event.) The children were dumped in the woods by their parents, then killed the witch by sticking her in the oven and baking her to death... The grandmother escapes safely while the wolf is killed... I don't think Snow White was in the collections I had, but it could have been one of the tales I avoided. :)

[conuly]

1. That makes sense.

2. Yeah, the sweetening of fairy tales has been slowly going on for years.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I support the teaching of the "dull" versions when the kids are little. Because that's what I learned, when I was young. And it makes the "good" version so, so, so much cooler to learn about it after you've memorized the sweet, safe version. "You mean she what??"

So I'm happy to have learned the dull ones, because the good ones are even better.

[adiva_calandia]

Hmm, intersting point. In fact, an excellent point.

[anotheralice.livejournal.com]

I prefer the good, morbid kind. I was raised on those, and I turned out just fine! (at least, maybe...)

[beetlebomb.livejournal.com]

I remeber our storytelling teacher told us that in the original version of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf made her take off her clothes and throw them in the fire, drink a jar of her grandmother's blood and get in bed with him!!!! One of the ladies in the class was so traumatized by this version she never returned to class!

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Good. Definately Good. and then finish em up with roald darl's revolting rhymes and ditry beasts.

20 years later i can still do his version of little red ridinghood off the top of my head


The young girl paused, one eyelid flickers
she whips her pistol from her knicckers
aimed it at the wolfie's head
and bang bang bang she shot him dead.

or something like that.