Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Linking back to this morning

This is an accessible but well-written (and supa-short!) online essay which discusses the "Victorianization" (or whatever) of fairy tales - which is what I feebly tried to express today near the end of class. Although the title and conclusion of this essay are geared toward choosing Christmas gifts, the bulk of it is concerned with history, revision, and adaptation, and it takes the Little Red Riding Hood tale as its example.

Also, Spongebob.

2 comments:

  1. The Spongebob thing is interesting! Here's a precursor:

    http://thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2009/october2009/ozpoppycockoct09.php

    It's part of the debate over whether L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz" is an allegory of the debate over the silver (vs gold) basis of American currency in the late 19th century. It comes down to a debate over intentionality and mind-reading / necromancy, of course, but it has always surprised me how well many of the allegorical identifications fit!

    FP

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  2. wow! that was great... i admit, the only things i had ever read about tWoO concerned, as this author calls it, "theosophy" - primarily in relation to it being "post-WWII propaganda."

    and this especially blows my mind when i think of Wicked...

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