First, here are two stills from this russian animation thingy I think is really cool. Thoughts about the oven and the house. These are from a 20 minute animated piece based on a russian story about a wolf. It starts with a lullaby (translated): "Lullaby, Lullaby. Hush little baby don't you cry. Or the little grey wolf will hear. The wolf is always near. Sleep tight baby and be good or he'll take you to the dark and scary woods."
Anyway, on another note, I'm reading Saints and Strangers by Angela Carter (who also wrote the Bloody Chamber). I'm getting a lot from it because it's a bunch of short adaptations/retellings which are totally adult and totally not about sexual abuse (horray!)
I was talking to my bro-in law about it and he was like "Well, aren't they already kind of adult?" Which got me thinking. Those stories are totes for kids. The word isn't "adult," but "scarryasfuck" which we take to mean adult because, culturally, we don't think kids should be scared. So what's with all the abuse stuff? What I've been throwing around is that fairy tales are already simple. They are simple so that you can see yourself and your trials in the story.
The abuse also simplifies it, but in a super post-Freudian way, explaining it for you neatly so you can't/don't have to interpret it. It's as though Little Red Riding hood went to a psychoanalyst and told him her dream about a wolf, blahblahblah, and he said she was dealing with her Daddy issues.
Anyway, it's a good book and I really recommend it.
I read an article for class last semester about scaring kids in stories, I'll try to find it and post.
ReplyDeletev interesting stuff
I also really like the wolf stuff I've been seeing.
ReplyDeleteTheres one story where the heroine attempts to escape on the back of a wolf and then a bear.
Little kids on the back of wild animal just makes me tingly. and makes me really want to make a wolf costume.