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Matt03
Unregistered User
(4/16/01 5:32:38 pm)
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Happy Ending Vs UnHappny Ending
Hi, I am looking at some happy ending in Cinderella, Snow White, & Sleeping Beatuy and comparing them to Tanith Lee unhappy ending.
I just wondering why Tanith Lee has unhappy ending while Grimm's are happy.
Thanx
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(4/19/01 8:51:46 am)
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Because. . .
Because Tanith Lee is a modern storyteller interested in alternative view points. Because Tanith Lee is not retelling a story but re-envisioning it.
Jane
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Midori
Unregistered User
(4/19/01 1:49:26 pm)
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Endings
Matt,
As I recall you are working on a paper for a class that has asked you to compare Tanith Lee's version of Snow White with the traditional tale (or perhaps its just a study of Tanith Lee's use of fairy tale? And the issues that she is interested in writing? I forget which). One thing that is really nice about the board is that it can serve two functions: to answer questions, but also to give someone a chance to express their ideas to a very receptive crowd of writers, readers, editors artists and fellow students.
So let me suggest that you venture an answer to your own question---don't worry if you aren't certain, just take a few steps and try to puzzle for yourself. Then we can respond to your ideas, perhaps help you get them into focus through a discussion. You already know there is a difference Lee's telling and our traditional reading of SW. Start there--what is different about them? What are the conflicts, the problems that Lee's version highlights that may not be highlighted in the traditional tale we are more used to? Is there something in the nature of those conflicts that make a happy ending very difficult? And what do you think Lee is saying by not allowing a happy ending to make the problem go away?
So let me bounce this back to you. Think about it and post us your thoughts. At the very least it will give you an opportunity to allow a whole orchestra of gentle people to wrestle the ideas you hope to express in a formal paper.
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Kate
Unregistered User
(4/19/01 2:30:48 pm)
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Also
I'd like to suggest, in very simple terms, that it is possible to read the "original" versions of these tales and interpret their endings as not happy. That doesn't necessarily mean they are unhappy endings, but that they are vexed. One idea I have is that you look at the endings of the tales Lee revisits, and ask yourself "How might this ending seem less-than-happy?" Or, to rephrase it, despite the foregrounding of final "happy" resolution, what else is going on--imagistically or otherwise--that might be discomfiting?
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Matt03
Unregistered User
(4/19/01 3:49:13 pm)
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re:
I don't really get what janeyolen by revision of the tale. I am really having problem with this topic because I am not fimilar with it and that english is not my strongest subject. I really need help in interpreting Tanith Lee's "Red as Blood", "When the Clock Strikes" and "Thorns". What does it mean when there is no happy ending, she is not stating that live is unhappy? I really don't know please help.
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(4/21/01 2:25:12 pm)
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Re-envisioning
What I mean, Matt, is that Lee is not just retelling a story but completely re-inventing it.
Jane
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Matt03
Unregistered User
(4/22/01 6:44:02 am)
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RE: Re-envisioning
janeyolen,
By re-inventing, Lee does not provide a happy ending and that it is ironic because all of the tales in Red as Blood does not have original happy outcomes but instead its like a fansty in which character turns into witchs and vampires, so can I say that she is sucessful in reinverting it due to no happy ending and ironic charaters. Can I also say by reinventing it can bring a different type of readers compared to Grimms? thanx
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(4/22/01 8:34:32 am)
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Reinventing
Matt says: By re-inventing, Lee does not provide a happy ending and that it is ironic because all of the tales in Red as Blood does not have original happy outcomes but instead its like a fansty in which character turns into witchs and vampires, so can I say that she is sucessful in reinverting it due to no happy ending and ironic charaters. Can I also say by reinventing it can bring a different type of readers compared to Grimms? thanx
I suppose you can say that, but can you prove that?
I think that the original readers were adults, than when fairy tales were pushed into the nursery, a lot more of them got happy endings than before. Or at least less bloody endings than before. But Lee's re-inventions are for a literary--not an oral-- audience. You have seen that they are rife with irony where the earlier oral tales are not. But the unhappy (or sardonic or realistic--take your pick) endings have to do with a single and singular writer producing the proper--surprising yet appropriate--ending for the story SHE is telling.
I am sorry if I am puzzling you even more than before.
Jane
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