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PMills7
Registered User
(6/8/01 3:26:50 pm)
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If you were a fairy tale character tale,who would you be ?
For a school essay I'm undertaking on fairy tales and their effect on modern culture,I have to conduct
a poll via the net,on those with an interest in the subject.
The question I have to seek out the most creative and witty responses to is :
If you were a character in any reasonably well known (rather than obscure) fairy tale/s,which would
you choose to be – AND WHY ?
If anyone can respond,I'd greatly appreciate it. If this has ever been discussed anywhere before,
or if there are other similar boards to this to post on,please let me know where.
Sincerely,
Paul Mills
Edited by: PMills7 at: 6/8/01 5:37:24 pm
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Helen
Registered User
(6/8/01 4:01:40 pm)
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The witch in the woods ...
I've always liked Baba Yaga (though, if I were to follow her model myself, I'd probably try to eliminate some of the more ... cantankarous ... aspects of her personality). I've always liked the bit players - the wise-woman in the forest who give advice, grant wishes, etc. They typically act as pivotal characters and authorial surrogates ... something in that appeals to me greatly.
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(6/9/01 3:04:21 am)
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My Heroes
I have always been partial to the Sister in "Brother and Sister" and the other heroic young women, like Janet in "Tam Lin" and Maid Marion in Robinhood, and Mollie Whuppie. NEver much liked the sleeping princesses waiting to be kissed awake into life.
Jane Yolen
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Lotti
Unregistered User
(6/10/01 3:06:52 am)
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Who would I be or who would I like to be?
You really got me thinking. Then, when I was starting to get angry with myself for not being able to decide, suddenly it was obvious: Rumpelstilzkin! I have to admit that I do have a temper... Time and again I was so upset I could have gladly ripped myself in half or stomped my foot through the floor... Of course, poor Rumpelstilzkin is treated quite sadly in the story, don't you think? Just because he is a bit hotheaded...
Of course, who I would like to be is a different matter. I do not know if Jemelya and the fish are a familiar tale for you? He is first and aboveall, LAZY. And when he returns a fish to the water, he is rewarded with a magic spell. What does Jemelya do? Have his work done by magic, of course, so he doesn't have to leave the top of his beloved stove. When he is summoned to the tsar for speeding, he simply has his stove move with him! Yes, that is a comfort I would like to live in!
Regards, Lotti ;-)
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Annette
Unregistered User
(6/12/01 4:59:07 am)
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Who?
I'd probabaly have to say Maid Marion (although not strictly a fairy tale), espcially the character as portrayed on an 80's tv show, "Robin Of Sherwood." I do not like the one showing at the moment, five minutes was enough!
Annette
Silent Screams - Not all monsters are under the bed
www.annettegisby.n3.net
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(6/12/01 10:11:42 am)
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Re: If you were a fairy tale character tale,who would you be
I'd have to say the young woman in East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Why - well it is one of my favorite tales and I like her curiousity and determination. Alternatively, I'd go for Beauty and the Beast. I must admit Robin McKinley's wonderful novels and characters have influenced me in that direction.
Laura Mc
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Heidi
Unregistered User
(6/12/01 10:50:46 am)
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Beauty
Beauty has always been one of my favorite characters. I don't know that I wanted to be her as much as be her friend. However, I will concur with Laura and say that after reading McKinley's "Beauty" many years ago, I have always had the dream of the library of books from past, present and future with all the time to read them.
Like Jane, one of my other favorite characters is Sister in "Brother and Sister." She is one of the spunkier and wiser of the heroines. Cinderella has never been a favorite except in a few incarnations.
And when I am really tired, I always want to be Sleeping Beauty.
And when my allergies are driving me crazy, I consider myself the Princess in "Princess and the Pea" with her supersensitivity to her environment. I also love all of the mattresses! What a cozy bed except for the pea!
Heidi
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cianalouise
Registered User
(6/12/01 12:28:56 pm)
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Re: If you were a fairy tale character tale,who would you be
I have always loved heroine from the Beauty and the Beast stories, as well as the Cupid and Psyche myth upon which it is based…Robin McKinley's books certainly strengthened my love for them.
For some odd reason, I also thought it would be interesting to be the eldest princess in the 12 Dancing Princesses. I'd like to get inside her head and figure out why she and her sisters do what they do.
And of course, I love Puss in Boots! He's such a con artist - I love how clever and suave he is. I would never have the guts to be as audacious as that crafty feline. I recently read Angela Carter's version of the story - I highly recommend it! It's so lush and lusty and decadent…
Okay, that's my 2 cents…
Luciana
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Midori
Unregistered User
(6/12/01 3:26:10 pm)
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interesting creature
O.K. I've given this some thought since my MA defense (which I passed). It was a weird experience, between hazing and congratulating, between celebrating a good student and humiliating her for being too independent. My advisor even as he told me I passed called me an excellent student and..."an interesting creature". What to make of that comment I wondered. So I believe it is my lot in life not to be a heroine, a wise woman or a baba yaga. I think I want to be one of those interesting creatures: the salamander of the earth's fiery heart in East of the Sun, or a Manticore, or a Gorgon. Interesting....
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Helen
Unregistered User
(6/12/01 6:48:53 pm)
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Congratulations!
Dear Midori:
I take it that your defense was recent? Congratulations on passing!
Best,
Helen
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Karen
Unregistered User
(6/12/01 8:30:16 pm)
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characters
Congratulations on your defense, Midori!
I'd be the girl in The Red Shoes, if I could change the ending and keep dancing. I also think Melusine is a spunk to emulate (Does that count as a fairy tale?)
Karen.
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(6/12/01 11:03:33 pm)
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Functionaries
It sounds as if a number of us love the darker side and would change the unhapy ends of some of the spunky characters in fairy tales. (Is this like having a crush on a bad boy in high school?)
Why is it no one wants to be the law giver, solon, the one taking care of business: the king burning the spinning wheels, or the king trying to find out why his twelve daughters are so self-destructive?
The adults in ma hy of our favorite fairy tales are just functionaries, or roadblocks to fun, or plot devices. And who wants to be a plot device?
Jane
PS Congrats,Midori, you interesting critter. Will you be going on with our story now?
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Midori
Unregistered User
(6/13/01 4:46:13 am)
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going on
Thank you everyone for the congrats! And Jane, yes, I would love to go on. Would you mind dropping me a note c/o endicottstudio@earthlink.com and giving me your email address? I'll admit to being horribly shy about writing on line. I feel like one trying to change behind a towel on a crowded beach. Yet the project has been much on my mind these days as I have suddenly discovered that writing YA rites of passage novels has opened a similiar vein of stories that are midlife rites of passage stories for myself and this little exchange of letters seems to offer such a fertile ground for thinking about those changes.
and oh yes...the bad boys are always so much more interesting and dangerous! Next year Terri and I want to do a panel on Transgression in fairy tales at Wiscon and I think those transgressing acts between parent and child (whether it is veiled abuse as in Donkeyskin or a child breaking the interdiction not to step off the path) are very intriguing moments of conflict and change.
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Terri
Unregistered User
(6/13/01 5:09:07 am)
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fairy tale characters
Myself, I've always been partial to Donkeyskin. She's brave, she's ethical, she's not afraid of hard work, she's clever (slipping that ring into the cake), she has a good fairy on her side, and she's got fabulous clothes...
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(6/13/01 5:55:09 am)
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Interesting?
Congratulations on the defense, Midori.
And to mangle Oscar Wilde: "The only thing worse than being interesting is not being interesting."
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Sharlit
Registered User
(6/13/01 12:51:12 pm)
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Re: If you were a fairy tale character tale,who would you be
Tatterhood, probably. Rampaging around on my donkey, smacking people upside the head with a wooden spoon.
At least, she's who I'd most *like* to be.
etc,
charlotte
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Laura
Registered User
(6/13/01 8:00:32 pm)
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My character choice
I think I have to agree with Jane on this one -- I'd pick Janet from _Tam Lin_. Even though she knows she could lose her possessions, even her virginity, she runs off to danger just as fast as she can go! Then, pregnant, she saves her lover from the queen of the faeries. She gets her man, her child, and one hell of an adventure -- never once a passive, whinging girl. :-) One of my true favorites. If you aren't familiar with it, this is an excellent site:
www.tam-lin.org
Laura Scheuer
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Gregor9
Registered User
(6/14/01 5:05:16 am)
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Midori
Congratulations on the MA, Midori. Sorry, I haven't checked in for a couple of days--and look what I miss. Your advisor's comment reminds me of one Damon Knight made to a friend of mine at Clarion: "You have a fertile mind." Thing is, he wasn't being exactly complimentary.
I still don't know who I would be in the fairy tale universe. Probably someone along the lines of Loki. I am definitely driven to take on trickster attributes. And how often can one steal fire from the gods?
But that aside, I'd prefer to be Scaramouche.
GF
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Heidi
Unregistered User
(6/14/01 12:47:49 pm)
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Please keep going..
Jane and Midori. The letters were oh so much fun.
And I'll add my congrats, Midori. It is always wonderful to have another piece of parchment and more education that can virtually never be taken away from you.
Question now is: What (or who) are you going to be when you grow up? ; )
Heidi
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CoryEllen
Registered User
(6/15/01 6:56:03 am)
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pick a character, any character . . .
Congrats to Midori! Yay!
I think I would be Gerda, from the Snow Queen. Though I might have
dallied a bit on my quest, too intrigued by the Robber Girl
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Midori
Unregistered User
(6/15/01 9:50:11 am)
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Cheirion
Heidi,
As it turns out I have indeed grown up into one of those interesting creatures, following in the hoof prints of that wise centaur, Cheirion, educator of Hercules. I am to be a High School english teacher this fall at a Jesuit all-boys Prep School. No doubt on bad days the boys will see me as Baba Yaga and on good as the sparkly Glinda. And as I am glutton for punishments, I will remain in academia since I have been accepted into the Phd program (this time Creative Writing) where I will tread lightly, head down, sweeping the floors and counting the beds like Jenny the pirate, as I have published more than my professors. (but oh, when the black ships roll in, then will their heads come off!).
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