Monday, August 10, 2009

Old stories for a new audience

The weekend may be over, but the severe thuderstorms remain. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

These days I'm reading a book based on an old fairy tale. I won't say which fairy tale, but there was a Disney movie made of it, and I'm 99% sure the the brothers at Grimm Inc. did an adaptation as well. The version I'm reading is completely different from Disney's (which is good), and darker and more mature than Grimm's (which could be good).

Anyway, it got me thinking about these old stories that keep getting reinvented and reinterpreted for the adults and children of every generation. It's how Baba Yaga can go from Russian stories to the American Hellboy comics, to the Japanese anime Spirited Away. Or how Dorothy can go from a Frank Baum novel to Technicolour MGM, to Ryan Bourret's Postcards from Oz project (seriously, check it out). Or how Dracula and vampires can... um, you know what? We don't need more vampire talk.

Anyway, I'll review this book in a few days. I hope the quality is consistent to the end, because I'm going out on a Neil-Gaiman-recommended limb for this one. The first line shocked me, and the rest of the chapter was very eye-opening. I thought to myself: "This is a fairy tale adaptation? For kids?!" But why not? Audiences evolve, and children will read shocking material anyway, whether it's with our consent or not. As long as the writing quality is good, let 'em have it. I think the hermanos Grimm would have agreed.

4 comments:

Aarti said...

This sounds so intriguing! And hey, if Neil Gaiman likes it... can't wait to read your review!

Errant Knave said...

hehe, agreed. In Neil we trust.

Big Bear said...

I started reading http://www.gunnerkrigg.com because of Neil's reco on his blog, and it's amazing. The best online comic IMO.

Thanks for the pimpage btw!

Errant Knave said...

No problem. Pimping was once my other calling. We'll see if I chose wisely.

I will check out the comic ASAP.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...