Friday, April 29, 2016

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: April 2016

Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the works they enjoyed most over the previous month.  Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun.  If you wish to add your own review to the conversation, please sign on to the link list at the end of my post.

Title: The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Translator: Jack Zipes
via Amazon
Inspired by the comic book series Fables, I decided to seek out the original versions of the Grimms' fairy tales, a major source material for the series.  Many of Fables's most important characters derive from the Grimm stories, including Snow White, the lead female character.  The tales are much rougher than Disney would have one believe and Fables reflects that well.

There are many lessons to be learned from Grimm:
  • Be kind to a beggar on the road because it might be God in disguise.
  • If you are forced to marry a talking animal or an ugly person, tough it out because s/he is likely to be a gorgeous prince(ss) under enchantment.
  • Everyone gets what they deserve, though both rewards and punishments can be a bit over the top.
  • Don't leave a trail of edible goods, be they beans, bread crumbs, whatever.  Fairy tale characters make this mistake with shocking frequency.
  • Animals are more likely to remember your good deeds than people are. 
  • Don't make a pact with the Devil unless you have a clever plan for getting out of your obligation at the last minute.
  • Don't send your wife down to the cellar to draw beer from the barrel - at least, not if you expect her to come back up again.
  • Women are prizes to be won.  Men, too, though they usually have more choice in the matter.
  • Be cautious in any situation where you are being granted wishes, especially when a talking fish is involved.
  • Do not, under any circumstances, mess with St. Peter.
  • There are few sins worse than being ugly.
  • If you are dark skinned or Jewish, you should probably steer clear of fairy tales altogether.  The people in them are not likely to be kind to you.
I enjoyed the stories immensely.  There were plenty I'd never been exposed to before in any medium.  I am left wondering, though, why particular stories have become so deeply entrenched in western culture while others have not, especially when so many narrative elements are repeated from one tale to another.  "Snow White" I understand.  That story has unusual depth to it compared with others in the collection.  But why "Hansel and Gretel" when so many other stories involve children in miserable circumstances?  Why "Cinderella" when so many other stories involve wicked stepmothers?

Please join us and share your own review of your best read from the past month.  This month's link list is below.  I'll keep it open until the end of the day.  I'll post May's tomorrow.  Meetings are the last Friday of each month.  Next gathering is May 27th.


18 comments:

  1. I love Fairy Tales and have The Blue Fairy Book (my favorite because it has the story of The White Cat), The Pink Fairy Book, and The Red Fairy Book. I think there are one or two more but I haven't come across them yet.

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  2. It's something I've always meant to do...read more of the original fairy tale translations. I've picked up a few over the years, but never a whole collection. I like how they are collections of the real home-stories and superstitions of a period of time. Like a little time-capsule, complete with the prejudice of provincial life.
    Thanks for sharing!
    V:)

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  3. This reminds me of a webcomic called Erstwhile, where a group of artists illustrate some of the lesser known Grimms tales. There are so many story collections that get watered down and bowlderized to fit what modern society finds appropriate. The stories that these tales were based on are very different from the ones we know now.

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    1. Erstwhile sounds like something I will need to check out.

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  4. Fairy tales and nursery rhymes when you think about them properly are quite scary and we sing and recite nursery rhymes to children!

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    1. Life was also more brutal for most people in ages past. Perhaps it was therapeutic to make light of it all.

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  5. I think I've said before that we got my daughter the complete Grimm's a while back. We've read a few together and she reads them sporadically on her own. At some point, I'll sit down with the book, but I'm still not through Lovecraft. (It's been a horrible year for reading for me so far.)

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  6. I've been reading Baum's complete Oz. I'd recommend it as a pretty decent fairy tale/Grimm alternative.

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    1. I have read the first two Oz books. I've yet to be tempted to read more.

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  7. I can't recall if I've ever read an original Grimm fairytale! I should probably do that at some point. And yes, it is strange how certain stories latch on to our collective consciousness...

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    1. I'm sure there are folklorists who have devoted careers to such questions - almost makes me want to be a folklorist!

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  8. Sorry I missed March's club - I have posted for April though :)

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  9. You have put me to shame - had the GRIMM Fairytales on my "currently reading" shelf on GoodReads for about 4-5 years. I finally took it off quite recently because I just wasn't reading it. My aim was to do a review of each story as I went, but because of that I had to start from the beginning after I got 90 pages in, and I just didn't get very far. I hope to start over again someday not too far off. :)

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    1. Reviewing each would be quite the tough slog, especially as so many are so similar.

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