(Untitled)

[readingredhead]

I was realizing I very rarely share my original fiction with people via this journal anymore, but I really like this particular little story and feel like it's self-contained and not horrendously written...and also it wouldn't fit in a comment, so I had to link to it from somewhere. :)

Title: Untitled at the moment, because I can't come up with

Comments

[readingredhead]

I really like the writing style too. The conceit just isn't given enough room to play itself out here, I think. If I rewrote the entire story with this as the expected ending, it would be very obviously different throughout. I still think it's doable, though, and I'm having a lot of fun imagining the kind of female knight-errant who has no family ties of her own but would agree to live with a beast in order to save the merchant's daughter and unborn grandchild. I suspect her plan was only to live with him until such time as she could discover his weakness and defeat him...but by the time she figures this out, things have changed.

In the McKinley version, her name is anglicized to Beauty (which is also the title of the book), and I was thinking in those terms when I wrote this. But McKinley is actually rather brilliant, and her novel begins:

"I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour, but few people except perhaps the minister who had baptized all three of us remembered my given name. My father still likes to tell the story of how I acquired my odd nickname: I had come to him for further information when I first discovered that our names meant something besides you-come-here. He succeeded in explaining grace and hope, but he had some difficulty trying to make the concept of honour understandable to a five-year-old. I heard him out, but with an expression of deepening disgust; and when he was finished I said: 'Huh! I'd rather be Beauty.'"

(As the fact that I have quoted this might tell you, I have the book with me at the moment and you're free to borrow if you're interested. Apparently it's the unacknowledged source of some of the imagery that Disney added to their version -- including the library! Although it's cooler in McKinley's.)

[ext_37496]

I still like Belle better than Beauty, but the intro does make it make sense...although clearly it's a different story! Three daughters? Eh?

I would love to read it, but probably shouldn't, even this early in the semester. Hm...

[readingredhead]

The original French fairytale has three daughters. In fact, instead of reading Beauty, you should go read the original.* Although if you are interested in going on a Beauty and the Beast retelling kick, let me tell you, I have been there and back (and enjoyed the journey!). Beauty is closest to the original tale, but my favorite reimagining is Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood, because it is everything that my Beauty and the Beast meets Jane Eyre with werewolves story wants to be and isn't (yet).

*Technically Beaumont's telling is not the original, it's an abridgment/retelling of an earlier story by Villaneuve...but having read them both, I can safely recommend Beaumont's. It's a better read.

[ext_37496]

Huh. I'm not one for description, but that's just so factual as to lose most emotion. It would probably be better read aloud, but in dry Project Gutenberg text it just seems...almost like an outline. (I'm sure I'd like it a lot better in a nice printed form.)

Old fairy tales always seem to have characters they just forget about -- in this case the brothers. They show up, what, twice?

I may get to these some time in the future. (I just remember that when Rebecca was reading "Heart's Blood" I repeatedly complained about stealing Jane Yolen's title for a completely different book.)