This week at the Confabulator Cafe, we all wrote our own versions of fairytales: whether well-know, obscure, or invented from our own minds. Did you recognize any of them? We thought it only fitting, after writing fairytales this week, that we share what our favorites are.
My favorite fairy tale is a modern classic called The King With Six Friends by Jay Williams. It’s the story of a king on his quest for fortune who befriends six strangers. In turn, his new friends help the king with their special abilities. As fairy tales go, it’s got everything: a quest, people with magical powers, and a young king who learns a valuable lesson.
We were kids raised on Disney VHS tapes, so for me, fairy tales and Disney are so twined together that its hard to tell them apart. It’s definitely The Little Mermaid, but I like Beauty & the Beast almost as much. But The Little Mermaid. Ariel was my homegirl. We had watched my grandma’s copy of the tape so much that the beginning skips. Now I own that tape. Every time I watch it, I’m convinced the tape is going to snap during those first four minutes.
In my mind, there’s a huge divide between Proper fairy tales, the originals that often end in death and/or violence, and Disney fairy tales. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite stories of all time. There are few adaptations of it that I haven’t loved. But if you want to know what Proper fairy tale I love, it’s probably The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Whenever the mermaid walks on land, it feels as if knives are being driven through her feet. I love that there’s a horrible consequence for wanting to change who she fundamentally is.
I’ve always been particularly haunted by the folk tale Bluebeard. It re-iterates the whole adage “curiosity killed the cat” and demonstrates that human nature will always desire that which has been forbidden. I tell myself that I never would have been so stupid as to go into the room I was explicitly told not to go into, but I know my curiosity would have eventually gotten the better of me anyway. Even though the protagonist goes against the wishes of the husband forced on her, she is still manages to survive, so I think in that time she was considered a strong female lead. I’ve just always been morbidly fascinated by serial killers and horror, so this one definitely stuck with me. I love also Beauty and the Beast for its similar themes (not to mention, out of all Disney princesses, I related to Belle the most).
I have a soft spot for Rumpelstiltskin. I always felt bad for the guy. He spent all that time and energy spinning straw into gold, and the chick didn’t live up to her part of the bargain. It wasn’t like he asked for her first born…oh, right. t’s going to serve her right with the king beheads her for deceiving him into thinking she did all that work. A lot of fairy tales have an obvious meaning and beat you over the head repeatedly with it. Rumpelstiltskin can be read a few different ways, which I think is part of its charm.
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