MWT talks about fairy tales

[ccwtaylor.livejournal.com]

At her blog, Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, author Katherine Langrish has a series called Fairytale Reflections--different authors visit, and talk about their favorite fairy tales. This weeks guest is none other than MWT! http://steelthistles.blogspot.com/2010/11/fairytale-reflections-11-megan-whalen.html

Comments

[katecoombs.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I've added this link to my current blog post, which happens to be about fairy tales. And now I want the scary Provensen fairy tale book... :)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Me, too! The cover looks familiar, though I might be picturing Wm. Blake's Inn.

I had not heard of Ms. Langrish's books, but just added one to my book order...

[charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I've read two of her books--Troll Fell and Dark Angels aka in the US as The Shadow Hunt, and enjoyed them both lots!

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

The illustrations look familiar...and scary!

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

"I thought they were dry, their characters two dimensional and their plots predicatable." Aw, that makes me feel really...unintelligent for loving fairy tales, especially since it's true. On another note, Katherine Langrish describes Megan's books really well, one of the best posts I've seen about MWT.

[(Anonymous)]

I whittled my post down a good bit because I didn't want to run on too long. In my first draft, I admitted that when I was looking for reading material at my grandmother's house, I preferred the old copies of books like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jean Stratton Porter, and Oliver Optic, to the stories in Andrew Lang's Fairy books with their tiny type, their two dimensional characters and their brief moralizing plots. You know, bigger type, stereotypical characters and moralizing plots are SO MUCH BETTER. Not.

I think that when people say they either liked or didn't like Fairy Tales as a child a lot depends on what they mean by the words. I loved those stores in The Provensens Book of Fairy Tales once I actually got up the nerve to read them. But when you say "Fairy Tales" to me, those stories aren't what pop to mind. Megan's definition of Fairy Tales = Those things I don't like. It's a kind of stupid definition when you look at it. So if your definition is Fairy Tales = Those things I like a lot. What could be better?

~mwt

[katecoombs.livejournal.com]

Those Andrew Lang books include a number of "fairy tales" written by French courtiers in the 1600s--blah, blah, blah. But a good Grimms' collection can be nice and hair-raising, though still more plot- than character-oriented.

Consumed by curiosity, I ordered a used copy of Provensen's Book of Fairy Tales from Amazon yesterday. Thanks!

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I used to read fairy tales a lot. A lot of the appeal for me was definitely the illustrations, but I think I was also kind of obsessed with them BECAUSE I didn't like them (though I didn't think of it quite in those terms). One reason so many of us do fairy tale rewrites is that the originals are so weird. Like, if you want your son to get married, should you really have a ball and invite all the women to see whom he likes best? Sounds like a creepy reality TV show. Or, if you fell in love with that nice beast, do you really want to marry some handsome prince who suddenly appeared in his place and has half his personality?

So for me it was love/hate. :)

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

I've never looked at those stories that way before...I suppose it IS odd to choose a your wife at a ball. O_O And I've just been reading these stories as a romantic sap.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

DAH! I never thought of that. Cinderella is really the original version of Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire! Why do I love this image? It's so funny!

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Not that they had reality TV when I was a kid...But I did always think it was kind of a sick way to go about choosing a spouse. And don't even get me started about choosing one based on shoe size.

[puppeteergirl.livejournal.com]

Man what Megan said about the illustrations reminded me of this book I had when I was a kid. Not sure if my mom still has it or not. It was called The Many Selves of Ann-Elizabeth. The book was about a little girl who spends lots of time by herself, and shows the different "selves" (moods or personalities) she has. I remember the book because the illustrations were really creepy, and one of her selves was a monster that freaked me out so much I didn't want to look at that page!

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Hmm... MPD as a children's book? What is our world coming to?

[filkferengi]

I've put the Creepy Book on hold at the library. Thanks for the heads-up, mwt!

Barbara Leonie Picard came in for lots of love in the comments on the post. In addition to the collections of fairy tales from various nations [British, German, Celtic, French, Persian, etc.], she's written several collections of her own stories, which are excellent! [_The Faun & The Wood-Cutter's Daughter_, _The Lady Of The Linden Tree_, _The Mermaid & The Simpleton_, along with some novels]