Please Watch The Video Bar. Funny Adaptations of Fairy Tales.

What is a Child?

Children are just mini adults, with more innocence. This question is some what hard to answer as My Book and Heart argues. There is no solid deffinition of what a child is be cause they are so fluid in thier character, and the transformation from child to adult is too hard to define. Also children often display adult values and characteristics and like wise adults display characteristics of children.
A child is a sponge. They have substance of their own, but they soak up everything around them, emotions, words, tones, values, expressions.
A child is a parrot. They take in words and spit them back out exactly as they hear them. They are beautiful.
A child is a ball. They bounce back.
A child is a piece of candy. Sweet.
A child is a monster. Grouchy attitude and likes to hide under the bed.
A child is energy.
This child is my love.

What is a Book?

A book is something you read, or something you write. It is paper and ink. A book is a place of instruction and expression. Books are storers of information. A book is something that holds the secrets of the human existance. But what confuses the situation is that often people are like books. You can read them or they have a story to tell.

What is Nature?

Nature is everything. Human nature. Trees, plants, insects, humans.

What is with the ending of The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich

What is with the ending of The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich? I always thought that the frog prince was some variation of Beauty and the Beast. You know, she falls in love with the guy inside. She throws a tantrum and chucks the Frog at the wall. What kind of a moral is that. The middle works toward an essential value. The value being don't go back on your word or never forget a gift, or something along those lines. And then the twist comes in the end when we find out the Kings servant shows himself. He is this really great guy who is loyal and has great love for his master, but what kind of moral is that? Be good and loyal to your master. There is no real reward for the loyal servant, he's still a servant. I wonder if this is some subconscious meaning. You know, if the moral of the story is you should be a loyal servant just because. I'm not really sure where I was going with that; I was just curious what kids, or even adults are suppose to make of this story. I mean the main character is a spoiled little girl and in the end she gets her way. She has to endure a frog eating out of her plate, but other then that I would say she gets off pretty easy for being the worst character in the tale. While mentioning characters with low moral standards I have to mention the Frog King. I get that every one wants to marry a beautiful person, but haven't we been taught that beauty is on the inside. Not for pretty girls I guess. Actually I don't believe that because I know very beautiful girls who are also beautiful inside, but lately I wonder how much our society really places on looks. We say beauty is on the inside, but what this story, and what media shows us is quite a different tale. I'm sorry I'm rambling. It's just that my search for moral guidance within these tales seems to be falling short and I am again asking; are these stories merely for Stimulation of the imagination. (not that this would be entirely a bad thing)

Molly Whuppie vs Jack and The Bean Stalk

Since I have missed so many classes I am going to talk more about the stories. The two stories I'd like to talk about are Molly Whuppie and Jack and the Bean Stalk. I feel these two stories lacking in moral. I am sure this is because our politically correct society has ingrained in me the need to feel for even the ugly ogre giant. The story no longer screams, evil ugly man eating giant, but Jack or Molly are little thieves. However you have to admire their cleverness, and if you steal from a bad guy it sorta cancels itself out. Right?

Dissapointing Reality

When I was younger my sister told me the real story of The Little Mermaid. (Well at least parts of it.) At the time I was very disappointed, because I wanted the happy ending. The happy ending being he falls for her and they get married. When I went to read the story I was hoping she had lied. But, now as I think about it I am less disappointed in the fact that they did not live happily (married) ever, and more saddened by the fact that she went through all that turmoil without an easy payoff. She still had to work to get what she wanted. I think this bothers me because I know that in life this is the true ending. The moral of the story changes from a, find a man, get married, be happy, story to a work hared, work harder, hopefully go to heaven story. I had no Idea the about the religious back drop of this story. In the introduction it says, "for Anderson suffering is the badge of spiritual superiority." The story defiantly conveys a sense that there is more to life than simply falling in love. (I just liked this picture here's were it came from sugarfrostedgoodness.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_...)

Santa is Dead, this is an interesting comment to be written in my notes for Childrens Litureature. But I remembered a funny picture from these notes, so here it is. I guess I should tie this into childerens literature. This idea ties into how stories shape our personalities and values. (and how we cope with the fact that our parents lie to us.) The story of Santa Clause has an obvious moral; be "good" and you get what you want. However when we grow older and we learn that Santa is not real, at least not real in the red suit and flying raindeer way, we also learn that being good is not always enough. The question becomes are these stories even ment to work on our values after all. I mean does the santa story really make kids act more like the little angels we think we want, or are they more simply steps for childrens imaginations. Perhaps it is a little of both.

A comment on Bluebeard

On "Ryan's Mythically displaced blog," Ryan said something that made me wonder. In describing the moral of the story of Bluebeard he says, "perhaps that was simply a test of trust which each of the wives failed?" I don't know if this is really a fair assessment, because it makes it seem like the woman are the problem, that they just didn't trust their husband enough. I have to say, that this is entirely unfair. They seem to have had a good reason to mistrust Bluebeard. I have to believe that because the Heroin made it through the story that simple lack of trust is not the moral of this story. Perhaps the moral is more that when a man says you should leave something alone it is because he has something to hide. This brings to mind Professor Sexson said in class. He was talking about how within every story the character is told not to do something, but that they always do that something which they were told not to. Because, every story has a happy ending and action only occurs because of this disobedience, the moral becomes do what your told not to. I find this a very interesting and almost backwards reading of our literature. In short I'm not trying to rag on Ryan's analysis of Bluebeard more so I'm simply suggesting another way of reading into this tale.

This is not Some Silly Fairy Tale

Wow so I have fallen quiet far behind in my blogging. I shall try to catch up some before I get too far. I'll start with My displaced fairy tale. I admit that the fairy tale being displaced is not too hard to find in my story, but I hope you guys enjoyed it anyway.



Rebecka briskly maneuvered her way through the traffic of people crowding the dirty sidewalk. She walked into the towering 54 story building, where she worked as an a assistant to a very important CEO. Although, this tower was a magnificently beautiful specimen of architecture, Rebecka felt it might as well have been a dun


You see reader, our heroin worked for a tight faced woman that the staff fondly nicknamed Medusa. Medusa kept Rebecka working for long hours, with little rest. This of course created in Rebecka the same bitchy disposition.

Never looking up from her day planner Rebecka stepped into the elevator. She looked up, long enough to push the button to take her up to the 34th floor, then continued to read. Stepping out of the elevator she walked directly into Eric from finances. In the chaos of their collision Rebecca's usually tightly pulled back hair became quite mussed and she was forced to untie it.
It has to be said that when she let her hair down she was actually quite beautiful. But since this is not a silly fairy tale, Eric was not instantly smitten with her. In fact as she recollected her hair into the old woman hairdo he thought she was rather stuck up looking, with her sharp clothes and serious face. But, as he helped her to gather her things she gave a sweet smile that softened her features considerably, and the two parted on friendly terms.
After this initial bump they seemed to run into each other often through out the office. At each of these meetings they always brightened each other day with silly office jokes and slightly inappropriate innuendos. As I said this is not a fairy tale, but as men often fall for women who are witty Eric became completely enamored with Rebecka.
Stirring the cheap powdered creamer provided in the cramped office break room into his stale lukewarm coffee and gazing up at the faded and pealing document that specified his rights as an employee Eric daydreamed about the blond assistant to Medusa. He dreamily wandered around the corner towards his cubicle and crashed right into Medusa. Spilling his coffee all over her expensive pinstriped suit.
Of course this incident ended badly for Eric, who was promptly fired. He was depressed about this because, well because he lost his job, but also because he knew that Medusa kept Rebecka working so hard that he would never be able to see her outside of the office. But fate is often an obvious sort of character.

Strolling aimlessly down the path through central park Rebecka took in the fresh air, watched as the leaves fell, and dreamed of Eric. She had often let her mind wander on the hansom man from finances, and wondered why she had not gotten his phone number. Feeling saddened by this thought she began to walk back to work, but as she continued around a bend, almost as if in a fairy tale there he was. Strolling aimlessly down the exact same path. What are the chances, like one in three or something. (Hey people, paths cross all the time.) He immediate asked her out to coffee. But, like I have mentioned, this is not some silly fairy tale. Therefore they did not get married right after, but went on several more dates in which they established a strong healthy relationship, and then with mutual respect and love, they did get married and lived together into old age.
The moral of this not fairy tale is not to watch were your going but perhaps to sometimes let your hair down.

I know it's been a few days, but here is the website for Anguish Languish. http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/anguish.html

Red Shoes

I have in my notes, "Google Red Shoes." Wikipedia says that this is the title of a film which is based off a story by Hans Christian Anderson, "The Red Shoes" I found this story when I googled "Red Shoes Hans Christian Anderson" It is amazing how stories connect. All stories are a retelling, so it might be worth it to make a table with common elements within fairy tales, such as red shoes, or evil sisters, or stepmothers, etc. Here is a site that has the full story of "The Red Shoes" http://hca.gilead.org.il/red_shoe.html

Sweet and Sour

I love this picture. It reminds me of watching Winne the Pooh, when I was younger. This is a sweet house where happy people live. I find it strange that I can associate this picture of calm sweetness with a childhood that also encompassed stories like Red Ridinghood. I remember the gory end of Red Ridinghood, where the huntsman cuts Red and Granny out of the wolf's stomach, with the same amount of love and nastalsia as I do with sweet stories like Whinne the Pooh. I have thought about writing childrens stories, but have struggled with many of the technicalities. For instance, how do I include morals? Now, I wonder if that is even a nessesity. I guess we'll see if this class helps my understanding of childrens literature, or simply adds even more complexity to my already confused brain.