Not so happily ever after!

Fairytales, with their adult themes, continue to fascinate children and adults. Anuradha Varma finds out why

The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest

And the creatures who crawl, run, and creep.

I know you’re not thirsty. That’s bullshit. Stop lying.

Lie the fuck down, my darling, and sleep.

 

So, you thought fairytales and bedtime tales were only for kids? Here’s news — the “children’s book for adults” Go The Fuck to Sleep, written by a frustrated father trying to put his kid to bed, climbed to No 1 on bestseller lists and also became a viral hit. And not long ago, Fables, created by Bill Willingham, which puts fairytale characters in modern New York, also had adult readers hooked. Much like Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, it seems we all have a kid within us who never grew out of reading about our favourite characters.

Whimsical & contemporary

Says author Deepa Agarwal, “When I read Go the F to Sleep, I said, ‘God, this is what was actually going through my mind all those times my kids wouldn’t go to sleep.’ This book provides the catharsis so many of us need when we can’t be perfect around our children. Using the format of a children’s picture book drives the point home more effectively.” Says graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee, “It brings in the contemporary anxiety of parenting. Its whimsicality makes it attractive to be parent.”

Radio jockey and comic book enthusiast Mihir Joshi is a fan of the Fables series. He says, “If you’re a lover of comics, I don’t think you'll ever get over fairytales. Imagine your favourite fairytale characters in a dark gangster/fantasy/film noir setting...and that's what Fables is.”

Not so happily ever after!

J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan said, “Nothing that happens after we are twelve matters very much.” That perhaps explains our fascination with fairytales. And who says fairytales are for kids anyway? Much of the original content had to be toned down when told to children. The Little Mermaid in Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale comes on land after drinking a potion that makes her feel like she is walking on knives all the time, but the prince goes ahead and marries someone else anyway, and she throws herself into the sea. In one version of Cinderella, the stepsisters lock her in a closet while they saw off their toes to fit into the glass slipper. In The Red Shoes, the little vain girl has to cut off her feet as they won’t stop dancing! As for Snow White, the original German version by the brothers Grimm has the wicked queen fatally punished by being made to dance wearing a pair of red-hot iron shoes until she falls over dead. And Jack may have been a thief and Little Red Riding Hood a seductress!

Welcome to the real world

So, what purpose do fairytales really serve? Morals were often appended to fairytales when they were rewritten for children, according to Mary Tatar, who teaches Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University and is the author of Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood, Off with Their Heads! She says, “Fairytales connect with all kinds of adult secrets. They tell children about death, which is something that adults talk about in hushed tones. They tell them about romance and marriage and in some cases, they'll tell them about sex and violence."

Remarks author and mother of a three-year-old Madhuri Banerjee, “I have found that the popular fairytales need to be toned down. They were probably meant to scare children into doing things the adults wanted. If you trespassed, you would be punished like Goldilocks. If you didn't keep your promise, Pied Piper would take you away. Adults are fascinated with them because it keeps their kids busy and each story can be interpreted in a kinky way.”

Adds Sarnath, “Kids are cruel by nature… they’re lovable yet petrifying! Much of children’s literature is written by adults who think they knew what children want. My personal favourite is Vikram and Betaal… the setting is fantastic, where the king has to pick up a corpse from a tree. We need to revive our stories.”

A twist in the plot

There are some feminist versions of fairytales around too. The Paper Bag Princess, first published in 1980, rescues her not-so-charming prince from a dragon and then dumps him when he criticizes her for not being dressed like a princess. Modern-day Princess Bubble achieves her personal happily-ever-after even before she meets her Prince Charming! The plot gets a bit twisted in Just a Plant, where parents introduce their little girl to the benefits of marijuana.

It’s a mean world out there and looks like fairytales and lullabies are not afraid to admit it… remember the lullaby “Down will come baby, cradle, and all”? One British lullaby threatens that Bonaparte will “…beat you, beat you, beat you, And he'll beat you all to pap. And he'll eat you, eat you, eat you, Every morsel, snap, snap, snap.”

However, as G.K. Chesterton said, “Fairytales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

And, parents, if you’re trying to put that kid to sleep, try telling a fairytale, one that you enjoy too!

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-07-03/people/29733035_1_fairytales-fables-bedtime-tales