Comments | story645: Cinderella, Cinderella

story645

Cinderella, Cinderella

Jul 29, 2006 21:57

Two versions of Cinderella in the same week (Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister and Bella at Midnight) is probably not the brightest idea. Cause I start comparing and contrasting and throwing in other versions. I love Cinderella retellings, one of my fave books is Ella Enchanted, one of my fave movies Ever After but they all seem to follow the same ( Read more... )

rant, rec, fanon meta

Comments 26

thistlerose July 30 2006, 05:31:29 UTC

It also didn't help that Confessions sometimes tried to be all deep and philosophical

That seems to be one of Maguire's trademarks. I've read Confessions and Wicked, and while I enjoyed both, I got the impression that the author was a little too impressed with his own cleverness.

story645 July 30 2006, 05:39:55 UTC

That's a good way of summing it up. Some of the points, while cool and all, just weren't all that relevant to anything. Which, yeah, drives me nuts. Yeah literature is there to explore themes, but throwing all you pet theories into one piece is just sloppy.

author_by_night July 30 2006, 11:29:16 UTC

Agreed. I read a bit of Confessions, but couldn't get into it. Wicked... I loved Wicked, but some of it was rather strange, like he was impressed with himself. Of course, my other problem with Wicked was that it was also based on the Oz books, which I'd never read, so the discussion of people like Ozma made me go, "huh?"

thistlerose July 30 2006, 18:29:57 UTC

I think I liked Confessions because it read like an historical novel. I haven't read the Oz novels either, but I was able to get into Wicked. It was a good story, I thought - Wicked, I mean - but a lot of the time it felt like Maguire was using Baum's world as a vehicle for his own dissertation, and I wonder if his style would hold up without the pre-established foundation.

petitecrivan July 30 2006, 15:34:32 UTC

Scribbler of Deams is a wonderful retelling of Romeo and Juliet in modern times. It's losely based, and I love it.

Ella Enchanted is a cute retelling of Cinderella. It's written for 10-ish year olds, but I still like it. It's sweet, and I like the character of Ella, as well as the curse on her. :D

story645 July 30 2006, 16:12:35 UTC

Ella Enchanted is one of my faves. I own it and have read it countless times. It's a very clean retelling. Has all the bones, but constructs this whole world and personality and it's funny. Give me a book with humor over anything else.

petitecrivan July 30 2006, 17:48:18 UTC

Have you read anything by David Sedaris? Those books make me laugh so hard I cry at times. He's amazing.

story645 July 30 2006, 18:24:09 UTC

Nope. I tend to avoid adult books for some reason.

Thread 6

thistlerose July 30 2006, 18:24:43 UTC

Mm, and speaking of retellings of fairy tales... Jane Yolen did a nice retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I think it was called "Briar Rose" or something. Anyway, it's not the best written thing in the world, but it was an interesting concept. It was set during WW II.

Tanith Lee has written some very sensual fairy tale retellings. The only one I remember is her retelling of Snow White, which was pretty sexy. It was short, and I don't remember the name of the anthology it was in, unfortunately. Actually, there's a whole series of anthologies of fairy tale retellings. Some of the stories are better than others.

story645 July 30 2006, 18:31:01 UTC

Tanith Lee also had a really squicky full version Snow White that I ended up returning to B&N cause I didn't want to ever see it again after I read it. (Got "The Princess and the Goblin" and "The Princess and Curdie" in exchange, which I thought was worth it.)

I think I keep meaning to read Briar Rose, sounds cool.

greensweaterlj July 30 2006, 18:26:04 UTC

*gets all excited ( ... )

story645 July 30 2006, 18:34:44 UTC

The three ball's thing is actually from one of the original versions of Cinderella. The Russian version has it, and the step sisters mutilate their feet (cut off heels and toes) to fit into their slippers in that version.

Your version actually sounds like it could be cool, and sounds like something I've read. I've read too many versions of Cinderella at this point.

I'm so not really in the mood for fic at the moment. I've got a collection at CM that I should catch up on. Eventually.

shantari July 30 2006, 20:46:43 UTC

God, now I remember a retelling with male Cinderella. He didn't have any fairy Godmother. He bought nice clothes and hairgel (XD) with all the sparechange that his stepbrothers gave to him, "because the coins in their pockets made too much noise and hurt their clothes". Don't remember much else about it, read it only once in school.

story645 July 30 2006, 20:54:45 UTC

Gail Carson Levine actually wrote a male Cinderella tale, but it was kind of good. It was short, and cute. I think I know the version that you're talking about, maybe.