I've been reading about Little Red Riding Hood because there are seven reputable main stream literary magazines in Australia (oh, and Southerly) - one of which is aimed at writers under the age of 25 - and only one focused on speculative fiction (and when I say mainstream, I mean devoid of anything that could be in the slightest bit fantastic because that's not Real Art so we must keep our characters two-dimensional, our stories dull and at no point consider using a thesaurus, let alone a poetic turn of phrase. Not that I'm bitterly disappointed in the slightest. It's not like this kind of hide-bound, ignorant prejudice shows a fundamental lack of respect to a vast body of past literature or limits the possibilities of literature both now and in the future, not to mention the way Australian art is represented in a world that is rapidly outstripping us in artistic fields. Not at all. But I digress. Where was I?)
I've been reading about 'Little Red Riding Hood'. In particular I have been reading about the different versions of Red, focusing on what is known about the oral versions that predate Perrault jotting it down and nicely neutering it to encourage appropriate female behaviour amongst young girls everywhere. And I keep coming up against the phrase 'in the original versions...' (which I imagine to have been written with so much smug pretension that you can just hear the author sniffing imperiously beforehand).
The problem here as that no one knows what the original version were! We're talking about a body of stories that were spread verbally amongst adults, that were never written down, let alone published in a set form, before Perrault. The plot structure varies wildly, from the wolf gulping down grandmother and Red without any hint of rescue to the wolf convincing the girl to unknowingly canabalise her grandmother, from her performing a striptease and climbing into bed with the him to Red tricking him into letting her go. In interpretation of the tale, much is made of the red hood (or more often a cap) but also of the fact that Perrault is the first recorded mention of the colour of it, but then he was the first record of the story and whether the Grimms and other collectors of similar stories based their versions on Perrault or on other oral tales is open to question. The concept of an 'original version' of any fairy tale is problematic at best and at worst downright laughable.
And behold, I manage snide comments on four topics in only three paragraphs. Truly I have talents that know no bounds. For those curious about the connection between Little Red Riding Hood and mainstream literary journals, I'm writing a story based on the tale. Without any fantastic elements in it whatsoever. No. Really. Hasn't everyone been tricked by a talking wolf into... wandering... off the... path....
Just me then.
I've been reading about 'Little Red Riding Hood'. In particular I have been reading about the different versions of Red, focusing on what is known about the oral versions that predate Perrault jotting it down and nicely neutering it to encourage appropriate female behaviour amongst young girls everywhere. And I keep coming up against the phrase 'in the original versions...' (which I imagine to have been written with so much smug pretension that you can just hear the author sniffing imperiously beforehand).
The problem here as that no one knows what the original version were! We're talking about a body of stories that were spread verbally amongst adults, that were never written down, let alone published in a set form, before Perrault. The plot structure varies wildly, from the wolf gulping down grandmother and Red without any hint of rescue to the wolf convincing the girl to unknowingly canabalise her grandmother, from her performing a striptease and climbing into bed with the him to Red tricking him into letting her go. In interpretation of the tale, much is made of the red hood (or more often a cap) but also of the fact that Perrault is the first recorded mention of the colour of it, but then he was the first record of the story and whether the Grimms and other collectors of similar stories based their versions on Perrault or on other oral tales is open to question. The concept of an 'original version' of any fairy tale is problematic at best and at worst downright laughable.
And behold, I manage snide comments on four topics in only three paragraphs. Truly I have talents that know no bounds. For those curious about the connection between Little Red Riding Hood and mainstream literary journals, I'm writing a story based on the tale. Without any fantastic elements in it whatsoever. No. Really. Hasn't everyone been tricked by a talking wolf into... wandering... off the... path....
Just me then.
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