Varieties of enchantment
Our conversation turned to the fairy tales we had loved as children. One of the first things my mother read to me was Little Red Riding Hood, using different voices for the girl, the wolf, and the grandmother. Later I read Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment and went, Hmmm.
Neil Jordan and Angela Carter collaborated on the film The Company of Wolves, based on the story in Carter’s book The Bloody Chamber. The Company of Wolves takes off from Little Red Riding Hood; it starts with Granny knitting a bright red shawl for the girl and warning her to stay away from men with monobrows. If you have not read Angela Carter, stop reading this and find The Bloody Chamber at once. The entire collection is awesome but the one that will blow your eyes out the back of your head is the title story, a retelling of Bluebeard.
Photo: The Wolf Who Cried Boy by Robert Langenegger. See Robert’s lightboxes exhibit at Finale Art File at the La Fuerza compound, Pasong Tamo, Makati.
Another childhood favorite was The Little Mermaid, which I enjoyed reading under the covers with a flashlight when I was supposed to be sleeping. Do not believe the Disney-fied version: The Little Mermaid is a dark and tragic tale. I’ll never forget the description of the mermaid after she had traded her tongue for a pair of human legs: with each step she felt like she was walking on knives.
Then there were Rumpelstiltzkin, a bizarre tale about a little man who could help you do the impossible—if you knew his name, and Rapunzel, which bothered me because I couldn’t imagine the prince rappeling up the tower using her hair. And The Six Swans, in which six brothers are placed under an enchantment and their sister must sew a special shirt for each brother in order to restore him to full human form. Also, she must not utter a single word for six years. She finishes five of the shirts on time but the last one lacks a sleeve, so her youngest brother spends the rest of his life with a wing instead of a left arm.
The Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer (Otesanek, Alice) has some gorgeous claymation shorts based on fairy tales. And Jim Henson’s The Storyteller series is wonderful, particularly The Soldier and Death which was based on a Russian folk tale, and Fearnot, the boy who left home to find out about the shivers.
Oscar Wilde wrote one of the loveliest, saddest fairy tales in existence: The Happy Prince. Here’s the cartoon adaptation that made us all cry when we were little.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 8th, 2011 at 03:10
I know about the Little Mermaid thing, my goodness. And in the end, the mermaid died pa! Ano ba yun! The closest interpretation of this is Once on this Island I think :)
I love the narration of the Happy Prince :)
January 8th, 2011 at 13:27
same here. when i was young, after reading the original story of the little mermaid, i craved for more… more stories with unhappy ending… btw, i was really really disappointed on the disney’s version of the story.
i hope i could find a copy of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber. ang hirap maghanap eh.
January 8th, 2011 at 18:32
Oh no no no no… You can’t bust out “The Happy Prince.” Mass sobbing will only be the result. At least you didn’t post the cartoon of “The Selfish Giant.” That would kill me DED. (Ah, the days of Channel 9…)
January 8th, 2011 at 21:31
I loved Jim Henson’s the Storyteller! The Luck Child, Sapsorrow and True Bride were my favorite episodes.
Naalala ko rin may mga cartoon version ng Russian fairytales/ folklores sa TV, parang channel 4 or 9. Aside from the stories, I liked the animation style kahit old school.
January 10th, 2011 at 22:32
i have long been disenchanted of disney movies and of fairy tales..it was a betrayal, yes and if at the right time, enlightenment and freedom..haha, i’m so affected! and i’m mad..nyahahaha! i like “a dog of flanders”. it was more faithful..