Thursday, September 18, 2008

Friday, September 5









is for Beanstalk





"All literature is displaced myth" ~N. Frye
"There are no authors or speakers, just participants in the story" ~Dr. Sexson
Storytellers:















"wise person" archetype of a storyteller, old
"speak mnemosyne" ~the mother of the muses
"Speak to me, Muse, of the adventurous man who wandered long after he sacked the sacred city of Troy." ~The opening lines of The Odyssey by Homer
polytropos: one of many shifts
  • because children have heard something before, they want to hear it again (they love the simplicity of repetition)
  • they are different than adults because if someone repeats themselves we annoyingly say "I've heard that before"
  • which is why games like 'peek-a-boo' are so much fun to children and so obnoxious to us

  • all children's games are repetitive

few people have names in FT's, it's just not important to the story, it is more important that they remain ambiguous

Runge: the man that the Grimm's took most of their stories from

"Of Mere Being' by Wallace Stevens

The palm at the end of the mind,

Beyond the last thought, rises

In the bronze distance.

A gold-feathered bird

Sings in the palm, without human meaning,

Without human feeling, a foreign song.

You know then that it is not the reason

That makes us happy or unhappy.

The bird sings. Its feathers shine.

The palm stands on the edge of space.

The wind moves slowly in the branches.

The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down.

red shoes: Dorothy, ballet

FT's take on all sorts of versions from all genres, and they have stood the test of time




is the magic number, everything happens 3 times

fawkes the Phoenix from Harry Potter


"You must believe the incredible because the story demands it"

bodice ripper: one who rips bodices

"The covers of these novels [romance novels] tended to feature scantily clad women being grabbed by the hero, and caused the novels to be referred to as "bodice-rippers." A Wall St. Journal article in 1980 referred to these bodice rippers as "publishing's answer to the Big Mac: They are juicy, cheap, predictable, and devoured in stupefying quantities by legions of loyal fans." The term bodice-ripper is now considered offensive to many in the romance industry." wiki article

Generic cast of characters:

  1. mom- dead

  2. stepmother- evil

  3. father- stupid

  4. sister- jealous and mean

  5. brother- unknown or stupid too

"They are just sisty uglers" ~ Dr. Sexson

these are crude to the umpteenth degree: language, subject matter, and written word

The moral of 'The Juniper Tree': Don't kill your stepson

these books were written for children, but changed to make the children into good citizens

Isaac Watts: 'The Victorian Web'


"How doth the little busy Bee

Improve each shining Hour,

And gather Honey all the day

From every opening Flower!

How skilfully she builds her Cell!

How neat she spreads the Wax!

And labours hard to store it well

With the sweet Food she makes.

In Works of Labour or of Skill

I would be busy too:

For Satan finds some Mischief still

For idle Hands to do.

In Books, or Work, or healthful Play

Let my first Years be past,

That I may give for every Day

Some good Account at last."

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