Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales Paperback(2)

The witch? Maybe she was a wise woman or herbalist who had

knowledge that could save both mother and child. Demanding

custody of the child in return seems an extremely unequal deal, but it may have been in the infant’s best interests if the mother was weak or ill.

Or perhaps the father was thinking only of saving his own skin

or his wife’s life. He might have doubted the chances the child would even be born.

As for shutting a child reaching puberty away from the world—

many parents wish they could do that very thing. Some even attempt to do so—sometimes with similar outcomes as far as pregnancy.

I have many more—often conflicting—ideas about the meaning

of the story now. And I'm not a scholar or expert in folklore and fairy tales—I'm sure they have even more to say.

But, at the very least, the story said something about how we all have to grow up and break out of whatever towers we are imprisoned in. We all wander lost and blind at times; we all hope for a happy ending or, at least, that our suffering will be worth its cost.

That is part of the wonder of fairy tales: they are simple, intimate stories that are, at the same time, complex and broadly applicable. We experience them and understand them one way as children, other interpretations arise as we become adults, still more thoughts as we mature further. As children we feel the darkness in the woods and fear what lurks in its shadows. As adults we begin to understand that ? 11 ?

? Introduction: Ever After ?

there is no light without the dark; that without the dangers of life, the risks, the difficulties, the hardships, and the monsters, we cannot grow. If we never go into the woods, we’ll never really understand the “ever after” of our lives.

The old stories were intended for adults or an “all ages” audience that included children. They began as folk tales told aloud; later they were literary works authored by individuals (although often inspired by or based on the older oral traditions). Eventually shaped into what was considered a more suitable form for children, adults then disdained them as nursery stories.

Then in the late twentieth century, while still existing in versions intended for the youngsters, fairy tales re-emerged in literary retellings as stories for adults, .

“Rapunzel,” my randomly chosen example, has directly inspired

contemporary authors such as Anne Bishop, Emma Donoghue,

Esther Friesner, Gregory Frost, Louise Hawes, Tanith Lee (twice), Elizabeth Lynn, Robin McKinley, Lois Metzger, Richard Parks, Lisa Russ Spaar, and others. There are several beautiful picture book versions in print, and it has been expanded into novels for children with books like Golden by Cameron Dokey (2006), The Stone Cage by Nicholas Stuart Gray (1963), and Letters from Rapunzel by Sara Holmes (2007). Zel by Donna Jo Napoli (1996) and The Tower Room by Adèle Geras (1992) are novels intended for young adults; for adults there is Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (2012).

“Rapunzel” has been adapted into graphic novels and for dance,

stage (including incorporation into a Broadway musical), television, video, had its eponymous protagonist turned into a Barbie doll, and—with Tangled (2010)—animated by Disney and consequently into inestimable Disney Princess merchandise.

And that’s just one fairy tale, not even a story considered among the very best known, most popular, or most beloved.

Fairy tales evolve. This mutability is one of the many reasons fairy tales have endured and continue to both reflect and effect culture.

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? Paula Guran ?

In the last few years, the idea of fairy tales being more than “kid’s stuff” has found a broader audience. What had been (re)established among scholars and in genre and mainstream literature for decades has, through television and film, now truly reached the masses.

Although far from the first fairytale-based television series, Grimm debuted on NBC in fall 2011. The premise: dangerous fairytale creatures exist in the “real” world; only a cop descended from a line of “guardians,” the “Grimms,” can defeat the monsters. ABC introduced series Once Upon a Time in October 2011. In it, fairytale characters have been brought into “our” world by a curse. A spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland will hit small screens fall 2013. The CW

premiered Beauty and the Beas t on October 11, 2012—loosely based on the Ron Koslow-created 1987-1990 CBS series—which was, of course, an updating of the fairy tale.

In 2012 there were two Hollywood versions of Snow White’s