[LMB] OT: Stereotypes was DOS Attack, Iraq Style...

[Margaret Dean]

Kalina Varbanova wrote:
> 
> On 5/2/06, Margaret Dean <margdean at erols.com> wrote:
> >
> > But fairy tales are not supposed to be realistic, and in other traditional
> > fairy tales, princes (and princesses) end up with far more unlikely
> > partners.  Caveat:  I haven't seen the Disney "Little Mermaid."  But I
> > have read Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories," where he argues that the
> > happy ending -- or "eucatastrophe", to use his coined term for it -- is
> > as intrinsically necessary to the form as it is for a classic tragedy to
> > end with a death.  So when I heard about Disney's "Little Mermaid," I
> > couldn't help thinking that (whatever else they did with the story) they
> > were remolding it truer to the classic form.
> 
> I wonder how Tolkein fit in Anderson at all... Well, the Snow Queen ends
> happily (and other stories too), but... The little mermaid, the little
> matchbox-seller... so many of his fairy tales end up sadly. Tragically.
> Sigh.

Well, strictly speaking, since they have a known author,
Andersen's tales aren't "traditional" fairy stories anyhow.  I
think Tolkien would say that some of Andersen's stories were
closer to the true form of the fairy story than others.


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>