Writer's Block: Grimm Question
Maybe this is a bit stereotypical, but I don't care. It also doesn't answer the prompt (exactly).
My favorite story as a child (and I certainly treated it like a fairy tale) was Journey to the West. Why stereotypical? Well it was written to be fairly simple, so it's been a Chinese kids classic for... well centuries. I think since the Tang dynasty anyway.... erh, no, I take that back, the guy is supposed to be the Tang priest, so it had to have been written after the Tang dynasty. Whatever.
So why isn't it a fairy tale? It has magic, fighting and all sorts of fun things that a person could use to define a fairy tale. Well, first and foremost it was designed to be a Buddhist allegory. Not that I cared as a kid. Plus, the kid's edition I read had barely any Buddhist philosophy in it. As far as I cared it was a serial that had a pattern somewhat like this: Monkey et. all enters a town/city/some kind of area. They either agree to fight the local demons or the Tang priest or Pig does something stupid to get them in trouble with said local demons. Cue Monkey "There's a monk with a face like a thunder god", "He's Sun Wukong, the Great Sage equalling Heaven who caused havoc in Heaven five thousand years ago" and the cudgel. Boom boom boom, usually lots of death and destruction. Repeat with variations on Monkey needing help from various other figures, stupid humans instead of demons, etc. The "adult" Wade and Giles translation I read later, had a significant amount more philosophy... though I still wouldn't have seen the allegory unless someone told me.
For the curious: Each character - the Tang priest, the Monkey King, Pig, Friar Sand and the horse (yes, even the horse, he's the dragon king of the Eastern Sea's son after all) represents a characteristic that is necessary to gain Enlightenment but they also show what happens when this trait occurs in Excess. Monkey, for instance, probably represents something like energy. He is boundless, crazed energy and it needs to be tamed to gain Enlightenment.
Why do I love this story? Why does anyone? Because of Sun Wukong! The great Monkey King who causes havoc in Heaven, refuses to die and erases his name off the book in Hell... and bashes everyone with his cudgel that can shrink to a toothpick or expand (I forget how big it got, but it got big). Who doesn't love that crazy guy? He's the star of the show, and he's every kid's favorite.
Um... I always loved the Arabian Nights and stuff out of the colored books of fairies, though I'm at a loss to remember a particular favorite story at the moment.
My favorite story as a child (and I certainly treated it like a fairy tale) was Journey to the West. Why stereotypical? Well it was written to be fairly simple, so it's been a Chinese kids classic for... well centuries. I think since the Tang dynasty anyway.... erh, no, I take that back, the guy is supposed to be the Tang priest, so it had to have been written after the Tang dynasty. Whatever.
So why isn't it a fairy tale? It has magic, fighting and all sorts of fun things that a person could use to define a fairy tale. Well, first and foremost it was designed to be a Buddhist allegory. Not that I cared as a kid. Plus, the kid's edition I read had barely any Buddhist philosophy in it. As far as I cared it was a serial that had a pattern somewhat like this: Monkey et. all enters a town/city/some kind of area. They either agree to fight the local demons or the Tang priest or Pig does something stupid to get them in trouble with said local demons. Cue Monkey "There's a monk with a face like a thunder god", "He's Sun Wukong, the Great Sage equalling Heaven who caused havoc in Heaven five thousand years ago" and the cudgel. Boom boom boom, usually lots of death and destruction. Repeat with variations on Monkey needing help from various other figures, stupid humans instead of demons, etc. The "adult" Wade and Giles translation I read later, had a significant amount more philosophy... though I still wouldn't have seen the allegory unless someone told me.
For the curious: Each character - the Tang priest, the Monkey King, Pig, Friar Sand and the horse (yes, even the horse, he's the dragon king of the Eastern Sea's son after all) represents a characteristic that is necessary to gain Enlightenment but they also show what happens when this trait occurs in Excess. Monkey, for instance, probably represents something like energy. He is boundless, crazed energy and it needs to be tamed to gain Enlightenment.
Why do I love this story? Why does anyone? Because of Sun Wukong! The great Monkey King who causes havoc in Heaven, refuses to die and erases his name off the book in Hell... and bashes everyone with his cudgel that can shrink to a toothpick or expand (I forget how big it got, but it got big). Who doesn't love that crazy guy? He's the star of the show, and he's every kid's favorite.
Um... I always loved the Arabian Nights and stuff out of the colored books of fairies, though I'm at a loss to remember a particular favorite story at the moment.