Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Fairy Tales

Despite Silver Threading’s insistence that she would be gone this week and, as such, we would not have an official Writer’s Quote Wednesday for November 4th, here we are! Ronovan, the sneaky snook, has managed to take over the asylum for now. So check out the official Writer’s Quote Wednesday kick off post and Ronovan’s great quote here.

Welcome, welcome all my friends to the weekly quotes that never end…Although they are paused for several days at a time, sorry, the more I write the more I rhyme.

So this week I want to talk to about fairy tales. Not the typical Happily Ever After thing that most people talk about now. That’s the end, the ‘ride off into the sunset’ moment that only comes after all the other ups and downs. I want to look at the rest of it. Fairy Tales are told for the happy ending, after all.

There is good, and there is evil, everywhere you turn. They are in the world around you, in the people around you, and in the person within you. We are always halfway in the world of fairy tales, the happy endings, the singing mice…but the flip side of these ‘updated’ happy sappy fairy tales, is the origin tale. The dark, often malevolent abyss of life lessons and villains who get a lot more torture in. Keep moving on anyway.

Life mirrors the art we make and fairy tales are no different. Though they move more quickly, and have more obvious foes in them, the lessons are the same. Keep dreaming, keep working, and never give up your hope. One day you’ll be a knight or you’ll be a queen…and the dragons won’t matter anymore.

Oh how I love this quote! This makes even more sense if you read the original stories. The Cinderella with her sisters cutting pieces of their feet off to fit the slipper (they die of Exsanguination!) and the Snow White that allows her step-mother to be tortured for her crimes. There are no perfect fairy tales where someone doesn’t get hurt in the end. The pain and tribulation pushes the story to it’s happy conclusion…if it was all rainbows and magic wands we’d never get out of chapter one.

Beast and Beauty, Bully and sweetness…opposite forces propel every story to it’s ending. If everyone were the same life, and fairy tales, would be boring and difficult.

“Every villain is the hero of his own story.”
Did you ever wonder about villains? Why do they want to do these things…maybe they think they’re in the right. Maybe, just maybe, Peter did something to Hook that we don’t know about. Maybe, just maybe, the true story of the evil queen is more complicated…(Once Upon a Time on ABC does a great job exploring this idea!)

Throughout the entire fairy tale, whichever one it is, we find hidden meanings laced into the world of the story. Beauty is just skin deep, unless it’s not. Sometimes a prince has no manners and a beast is more princely. Sometimes, in order to feel lovable you must first find love. The list goes on and on, like the gingerbread and peppermint lane you must not eat. Finally, the end. The finale, the happily ever after…

This is where we are, my friends…knowledge is power, the most powerful thing. Beauty loves Beast and that knowledge turns him back into a man. Charming finds Cinderella and it is his knowing, and loving her, despite her servant status that turns her into the princess again.

So remember, as you go about your week, that knowing is half the battle. Believing is the other half. When you put knowledge and belief together, you get one heck of a plot line.

Rump Review

Rump:

The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

Written by: Liesl Shurtliff

Printed by Scholastic Inc. 2014

Age Range: Middle Grades (8-13 years old)

 

Book Review by:

 Elizabeth S. Tyree

(www.alaynabellesmom.wordpress.com

www.facebook.com/TyreeTomes

www.amazon.com/author/elizabethtyree )

 

In Liesl Shurtliff’s Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin the audience is introduced to Rump, a 12 year old boy living in a world where your name is your destiny…and he’s named after the rear end of a cow.

Rump is trying to find his destiny and, along the way, discovers family secrets, friendship, and the real power of names.

At the beginning of the story Rump is a small-for-his-age twelve year old that is the *ahem* butt of the town’s joke. Liesl Shurtliff has created a world in which nothing has a unique name, except for the people inhabiting it. Rump lives in The Village on The Mountain, wherein no animals have names and no town in THE KINGDOM has a real name, known only as Yonder, The King’s City, etc.

On the Mountain, villagers dig for gold to trade with the Kingdom for their rations. Pixies, who love gold, become excited around veins of gold, but haven’t been active lately…that is, until Rump turns 12 and they become agitated every time they’re anywhere around him.

Cue zany antics and the search for his true name! With the help of his only friend, Red, her grandmother, and his family, Rump searches for his real name, learns his special gift, and begins the journey that will lead him to becoming a well-known and sometimes villainized fairy tale character.

I give this book 5 out of 5 dragons for the awesome cover art. The whimsical depiction of a dark wood, a castle, pixies, and two young people on the cover caught my eye before the title did!

As for the story, I give it 4 out of 5 dragons. I enjoy a good twist on the classics probably more than a lot of people I know, but this had little to do with the old story I always enjoyed. In fact, I rather like the character of Rumpelstiltskin and this supremely likable character, whom the audience will identify and empathize with, threw me for a loop!

Over all, though, I enjoyed this book immensely and look forward to reading other works by Liesl Shurtliff. (I’m getting ready to go get Jack now!)