Modern Fairy Tales: Angela Carter, AS Byatt

Fairy tales are one of the oldest and most basic forms or storytelling. How can a writer resist? I began experimenting with writing fairy tales and have now compiled quite a little collection of my own. What to do with them? I'm not sure. There's the possibility of sending some out individually to journals like Fairy Tale Review. There's also the possibility of publishing a collection somewhere down the line.
The idea of fairy tale collections for adult readers is not a new one. Angela Carter published The Bloody Chamber in the 70s. I recently finished reading it this slim volume. It's a fascinating exploration of fairy tale archetypes and the timelessness of imagination and even sometimes superstition. She sometimes explores the same type of tale several different ways. Carter offers two different versions of the Beauty and the Beast story in the collection, and two variations on Little Red Riding Hood. The collection also includes a bawdy and wicked version of Puss in Boots, an unsettling adaptation of the German lore surrounding the Erlking, a story of a young vampiress who is dissatisfied with her role as queen of the night, as well as several other tales. It's a wonderful read.
Over the winter I read AS Byatt's Little Black Book of Stories, it's perhaps more distant from the classic tales of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm than Carter's collection. The stories of Black Book... are more grounded in the contemporary world, but explore how magic happens in them: how love can cast a spell, loss can make us change our shape, and how monsters can invade our life.
Fairy tales never were intended for children, that's why many of them are far more gruesome than the sanitized Disney films we watched as youngsters. They often explore danger and the deep instinctual fears of humans. That's why themes of lost children, cannibalism, and darkness pervade theses stories. Modern writers take up the cause of exploring these fears and exploring the moral complexities such stories can contain. What it means to be a hero or a heroine is an ever shifting framework.
What are your favorite fairy tales new or old?

Possession: The Book vs. The Film

Possession is a romantic novel that traces the love affair between two Victorian poets as well as the story of the modern academics piecing together the trail of letters they left behind. The novel is beautiful, full of the lush language A.S. Byatt was famous for. Though, there are some long passages of poetry that seem a little indulgent and unnecessary, you gradually get more and more drawn into the story of the Victorians, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte.
I saw the 2002 film last night with starred Gweneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart as Maud and Roland, the modern academics turned historical detectives. Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle play Ash and LaMotte.
Of course the film makes many cuts so that it can fit in a 1 hour and 40 minute time slot. They trim down many things (like some of the epic poems) that don't effect the story too much, but the film seemed to be missing something deeper. The character of Roland, especially seems underdeveloped. Everything seems to happen very quickly and some of the slower, more character driven moments from the book are missing.
Filmmaker and playwright Neil LaBute does tap into a few highly emotional moments which came as a surprise to me. His plays are often rather cool and cynical, but he found his romantic side while working on this screenplay.
Even though it's not my favorite of Byatt's novel, it is certainly worth the reading, even if you've seen the film. If you've read the book, but haven't seen the movie, it's nice to see the story brought to life, but you may have the strange sensation of missing the characters you know from the book. As with nearly any book to film, the book is better, but it was a decent adaptation. Still interesting, intelligent, and romantic. It will never be the way I saw it in my head, of course, but that's always the problem with adaptations.

Fall Reading Mini Reviews

I've just finished my reading of A.S. Byatt's Possession. It wasn't quite as luminous as The Childrens Book. It was very intellectual, less emotional, but as the stories grows, it does grip you. Part historical, part mystery, part love story, Possession explores the nuances of what ownership means. Possession of our hearts, minds, bodies, objects. It also evaluates the genre of "romance" and classifies itself as such, but presents many variations on the term.
Besides my readings for class for this week (The Friar and Summoner's tales for my Chaucer course and Toni Morrison's Bluest Eye for my contemporary lit class), I'm working my way through Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith.
So far I'm enjoying it. Smith has a timeless, light, whimsical style and a clever way of entwining the stories of the lives connected together by the Mansions. After I finish this novel, I'd like to try some of his mysteries.
Next on the pleasure reading agenda is Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. It was suggested by my advisor and I just found out that Masterpiece Mystery is showing an adaptation of the story next week. I'm such an English major. I unwind from class readings by reading.
Today I have a respite from my classes and am using it to catch up on work as well as baking scones while singing Florence + the Machine at the top of my lungs.

Teaser Tuesday: The Children's Book

I'm elbow deep in A.S. Byatt's recent novel. The story begins in the 1890s and surrounds the Wellwoods, their family, and friends. Olive Wellwood is a children's book author whose son finds a runaway named Philip in a museum basement on a trip to the city. Thus, the story is set into motion. Byatt paints a landscape of artists, revolutionaries, and dreamers, their lives intertwining and changing at the turn of the century. Teaser:

The Palace of Electricity was set about with warnings. Grande Danger de Mort. It was death without tooth, claw or crushing. An invisible death, part of an invisible animating force, the new thing in the new century.
page 355

I'm enjoying this novel better than her Possession. Though it can be a bit slow at moments, it is an enjoyable pace. Instead of sprinting toward the next action of the plot, Byatt allows the reader to stroll-- drinking in detail and getting to know the characters' internal life along the way.

Etsy is Eating Away at My Life

...and I haven't even had a sale in over a month.
I was inducted into a team and have to do my required blogging for them. I like being on a team though, hopefully sales will pick up soon now that I am further networking.
Several new projects are in the works, but I have had time to get a ways into Possession by A.S Byatt. I tried it in the spring, but couldn't get into it. Maybe it is the slightest breath of autumn in the air that makes me in a better mindset, but I'm getting into it now. A.S. Byatt's use of language is beautiful, but the book is a bit of a collage of many different elements: letters, poems, fairy tales all add to the overall narrative. Sometimes I do find myself wishing the story would return to the primary narrative that I am interested in hearing more about.
And yes, I missed Teaser Tuesday... that makes this Woeful Wednesday.

Sherlock Assurance

My Masterpiece newsletter for August (yes there is such a thing and of course I signed up for it) assures me that the new Sherlock is coming to PBS... sometime in 2010. That narrows it down.
Word on the street- or internet- is that the series made up of three episodes was so successful that a second series may be on the way next year. It always creates mixed emotions in an American Anglophile to hear about exciting projects in the works, you're glad to hear about them, but a little anxious over the amount of time you'll have to wait, the slightly illegal online videos you may have to resort to, and/or the money you'll have to lay down to get the DVDs if that is the only method of watching left. Personally, watching something online doesn't remove the possibility that I'll buy something. I'm more apt to make the purchase if I've seen something and already know I like it. Jane Eyre 2006 and North and South were two series I watched online and then purchased.
I'll be back on Tuesday with a teaser from Possession. I don't know if I'm suddenly in the right mind set, but I'm really starting to progress with and enjoy my reading of that novel. I'll also have an entry for my new series of reviews I'm calling "Notorious Reads" that I'll be continuing with through Banned Books Week in September. This particular read will also double as my first review for my DH Lawrence Challenge.