It's over! :D *confetti*
anonymous
July 3 2017, 15:01:24 UTC
You made it! I guess it wasn't too hard to get through those last two, but still, you made it! After "Beasts", I wouldn't have blamed you for flushing the book down the toilet and telling the library it was lost, but you kept at it. Go you!
That one wasn't so bad, like you say, unnecessary infidelity aside. It was just kind of...boring. I mean, a king and queen fall in love, raise kids, go through a midlife crisis and cheat on each other, make up, and grow old together till the king dies and the kids go on to have happy marriages of their own? Where's the magic? Where's the excitement? What makes this a fairy tale?
And why does the title have a slash in it?
Anyway, I think your interpretation of the happy ending's existence is spot-on. I'd like to add, though, that A.N. not only failed at making his original point, but at understanding fairy tales. He goes on about how only the beautiful and special get their reward, while the ugly and commonplace are punished, but that's not true. In fairy tales, it's usually kindness, virtue, and intelligence that are rewarded, while evil is punished. True, oftentimes the kind, virtuous, and intelligent are also beautiful while the evil are ugly, but that's not always the case. There are plenty of stories where nobody's appearance is stated outright, and I can think of one where the evil person is explicitly beautiful: Snow White. Somebody, methinks, needs to pay more attention when he reads.
Anyway, once again, excellent job! And let's be grateful there weren't any more. I was terrified after "Little Man" that he'd get at another of my favorites, but fortunately he didn't. XD Do you have any more sporking/reviewing/anything projects planned? :)
Re: It's over! :D *confetti*aikateriniJuly 5 2017, 21:00:42 UTC
/You made it! I guess it wasn't too hard to get through those last two, but still, you made it! After "Beasts", I wouldn't have blamed you for flushing the book down the toilet and telling the library it was lost, but you kept at it. Go you!/
Thanks! ^^ Yeah, no, I don't think that I could do that to a book, even if I hated it as much as I hated this one.
/That one wasn't so bad, like you say, unnecessary infidelity aside. It was just kind of...boring. I mean, a king and queen fall in love, raise kids, go through a midlife crisis and cheat on each other, make up, and grow old together till the king dies and the kids go on to have happy marriages of their own? Where's the magic? Where's the excitement? What makes this a fairy tale?/
That's a very good point (and is another similarity that this book shares with "Feminist Fairy Tales" by Barbara Walker). There really isn't a main conflict here. Even the infidelity is quickly swept away as soon as it randomly pops up. The biggest hurdle seems to be at the beginning when the prince is dreading his marriage to someone that he doesn't know, but then that's solved too. Really, the only 'fairy-tale' aspect of this is the fact that the characters are royalty, and even then that's not enough because this could have been a story about a real-life king and queen or historical fiction. There really isn't any excitement, just...contentment. Which I guess is the best possible outcome that one can hope for in this book.
/And why does the title have a slash in it?/
For the same reason that "Dis.Enchant" has a period in the middle of it? To be 'artsy?' I really don't know.
/In fairy tales, it's usually kindness, virtue, and intelligence that are rewarded, while evil is punished. True, oftentimes the kind, virtuous, and intelligent are also beautiful while the evil are ugly/
And I think that that's what a lot of people (including A.N.) have a problem with. Since villains are often described as being ugly in fairytales, the suggestion is that fairytales are saying that ugly people are evil. But A.N. didn't subvert that idea fully either. Rapunzel and Snow White are beautiful, but they escape from character destruction in these retellings. The witch in "Crazy Old Lady" isn't beautiful and she still gets shoved into the oven, and the giants in "Jacked" still get killed.
/but that's not always the case. There are plenty of stories where nobody's appearance is stated outright, and I can think of one where the evil person is explicitly beautiful: Snow White./
And Beauty's sisters are described as being beautiful themselves in the original version of "Beauty and the Beast." They're just not as pretty as Beauty.
/Anyway, once again, excellent job! And let's be grateful there weren't any more. I was terrified after "Little Man" that he'd get at another of my favorites, but fortunately he didn't. XD/ Thanks! What are some of your other favorite fairytales? :)
/Do you have any more sporking/reviewing/anything projects planned? :)/
Well, I told Zelda-Queen (https://zelda-queen.dreamwidth.org/) about this book, so we're planning to spork it together for Das-Sporking (http://das-sporking2.dreamwidth.org/). I don't really have anything else planned, I'm more of a commentator than a sporker. ^_^ But maybe something else will come up.
But thank you so much again for your kind comments!
That one wasn't so bad, like you say, unnecessary infidelity aside. It was just kind of...boring. I mean, a king and queen fall in love, raise kids, go through a midlife crisis and cheat on each other, make up, and grow old together till the king dies and the kids go on to have happy marriages of their own? Where's the magic? Where's the excitement? What makes this a fairy tale?
And why does the title have a slash in it?
Anyway, I think your interpretation of the happy ending's existence is spot-on. I'd like to add, though, that A.N. not only failed at making his original point, but at understanding fairy tales. He goes on about how only the beautiful and special get their reward, while the ugly and commonplace are punished, but that's not true. In fairy tales, it's usually kindness, virtue, and intelligence that are rewarded, while evil is punished. True, oftentimes the kind, virtuous, and intelligent are also beautiful while the evil are ugly, but that's not always the case. There are plenty of stories where nobody's appearance is stated outright, and I can think of one where the evil person is explicitly beautiful: Snow White. Somebody, methinks, needs to pay more attention when he reads.
Anyway, once again, excellent job! And let's be grateful there weren't any more. I was terrified after "Little Man" that he'd get at another of my favorites, but fortunately he didn't. XD Do you have any more sporking/reviewing/anything projects planned? :)
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Thanks! ^^ Yeah, no, I don't think that I could do that to a book, even if I hated it as much as I hated this one.
/That one wasn't so bad, like you say, unnecessary infidelity aside. It was just kind of...boring. I mean, a king and queen fall in love, raise kids, go through a midlife crisis and cheat on each other, make up, and grow old together till the king dies and the kids go on to have happy marriages of their own? Where's the magic? Where's the excitement? What makes this a fairy tale?/
That's a very good point (and is another similarity that this book shares with "Feminist Fairy Tales" by Barbara Walker). There really isn't a main conflict here. Even the infidelity is quickly swept away as soon as it randomly pops up. The biggest hurdle seems to be at the beginning when the prince is dreading his marriage to someone that he doesn't know, but then that's solved too. Really, the only 'fairy-tale' aspect of this is the fact that the characters are royalty, and even then that's not enough because this could have been a story about a real-life king and queen or historical fiction. There really isn't any excitement, just...contentment. Which I guess is the best possible outcome that one can hope for in this book.
/And why does the title have a slash in it?/
For the same reason that "Dis.Enchant" has a period in the middle of it? To be 'artsy?' I really don't know.
/In fairy tales, it's usually kindness, virtue, and intelligence that are rewarded, while evil is punished. True, oftentimes the kind, virtuous, and intelligent are also beautiful while the evil are ugly/
And I think that that's what a lot of people (including A.N.) have a problem with. Since villains are often described as being ugly in fairytales, the suggestion is that fairytales are saying that ugly people are evil. But A.N. didn't subvert that idea fully either. Rapunzel and Snow White are beautiful, but they escape from character destruction in these retellings. The witch in "Crazy Old Lady" isn't beautiful and she still gets shoved into the oven, and the giants in "Jacked" still get killed.
/but that's not always the case. There are plenty of stories where nobody's appearance is stated outright, and I can think of one where the evil person is explicitly beautiful: Snow White./
And Beauty's sisters are described as being beautiful themselves in the original version of "Beauty and the Beast." They're just not as pretty as Beauty.
/Anyway, once again, excellent job! And let's be grateful there weren't any more. I was terrified after "Little Man" that he'd get at another of my favorites, but fortunately he didn't. XD/
Thanks! What are some of your other favorite fairytales? :)
/Do you have any more sporking/reviewing/anything projects planned? :)/
Well, I told Zelda-Queen (https://zelda-queen.dreamwidth.org/) about this book, so we're planning to spork it together for Das-Sporking (http://das-sporking2.dreamwidth.org/). I don't really have anything else planned, I'm more of a commentator than a sporker. ^_^ But maybe something else will come up.
But thank you so much again for your kind comments!
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