Hello!
It’s time for Writer Wednesday, when I discuss another author and his or her work.
Fairy tales capture the imagination and transcend borders. They are often the first foray into another culture.
In traditional fairy tales, the lesson is often that if you encounter wonderful circumstances, then you can be removed from the ordinary and become something of value.
Carolyn Turgeon has rewritten fairy tales to paint a larger, often darker version of the stories. I have read two of these recently. Godmother tells the story of Cinderella’s godmother cast into New York City after the encounter at the ball goes terribly wrong. The Fairest of them All tells the story of what happens when Rapunzel grows up and the very famous stepmother that she becomes.
What strikes me most about Turgeon’s work, a theme that goes across both of these books, is that she puts not only fairy tales on their head, but this entire crux of traditional transportive fairy tales. She asserts that no matter what circumstances or events happen to you, you never lose your value.
Wonderful circumstances give value- tradition
vs.
Terrible circumstances don’t take away value- Turgeon
Perhaps, Turgeon has been the fairy godmother who has given us the best and fairest moral of them all.
My best to you all,
Megan