Sweetness and Bite: A Book Review

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

Turning to the fist page of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is like stepping into the midnight garden of the initiated--those who tenderly love fairy tales and Know What They're About, all sweetness and bite and none of the Disney sanitation.  The very first line of the novel is fair warning to the casual wader:

Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog.

And if there were any hint of doubt left, the sentence immediately following casts it aside:

Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her and flew to her window one evening just after her twelfth birthday.

Here, in two sentences, is the bone and sinew of fairy tale: something ordinary expectedly-unexpectedly intercepting the extraordinary.  This knowing tone--the expected unexpectedness--is carried through the story seamlessly and with much obvious enjoyment by Ms. Valente, making it a delight to read and a sort of wink aside to fairy tale enthusiasts.

Ann Lambert, source

The story itself is not complex and takes the form of the hero's journey, but the characters, respectful attention to fairy tale tradition, and exquisitely crafted syntax make for a heady feast.  Ms. Valente chooses to circumvent the cultural-specific folkore and go straight for the idea-of-fairytale-personified: the Strange Country, the universal otherworld.  This mix of folkloric traditions might be jarring if it wasn't done so thoroughly.  There's a pooka, or pwca from the Welsh (love it!!); spriggans from Cornwall; a marid from Indian mythology; glashtyn from the Manx; the tsukumogami of Japanese tradition, and witches.  All tied together into an exotic bouquet with a steel wire of steampunk.  I love that September's mother works at a factory and sports the greasy muscles of Rosy the Riveter.

September's relationship with her parents is an example of how Valente skilfully works the Victorian narration.  A lot of the character development and revelation is secondary--not part of the action but disclosed to us in prose.  It's done extremely well, by the curious technique of witholding knowledge.  We get the impression in early chapters that September is a disloyal child, but we are given a glimpse into her growth as time goes on, only becoming aware of it as September does.  I'm finding it hard to describe, but if anyone who has read the book and has something to add, let's discuss it in the comments!

artist? [not credited in my copy]
September going "native" in the country of Autumn.

Other things I enjoyed about The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making:

• the vocabulary.  I learned several new words, no lie.
• the Victorian chapter introductions--clever, whimsical, and functional!
• the ridiculously long title
• the subtle love story.  I don't think Saturday's name would have worked as well without it.  As a pair with September, though, it makes sense.
• September's love of Halloween.  Valente nails the autumn mood and suspense the same as Ray Bradbury, and that's saying something!
• A-Through-L, the Wyverary.  I've been cultivating my own type of book-loving dragon since learning about the my high school's literary magazine the Pendragon

I'm looking forward to reading the sequels and sharing the stories with my son as he grows.  The Fairyland series is a modern classic, and is an luscious addition to any fairy tale library.

A few closing notes:

I can't emphasize enough how much Ms. Valente knows her stuff.   It's delightful to read an author who has so carefully studied Faerie--and as is the way with Faerie (and fairy tales) this book isn't simpering and innocent.  There must be blood is one of the sovereign rules of Fairyland.  There's also lying, witches, blood tithes, and unsympathetic creatures.  But the fickle, dangerous, and mysteriously ordered otherworld of folklore and human memory is intact and recognizable. The witticisms abound, and are somewhere between fact and nonsense--which means it's probably, as is the way with literary things, truth.  Such as the assertion that children have no hearts, which is what makes them terribly thoughtless, reckless, and selfish, and that we grow hearts as we age.   It's biting but beautiful observation, and put in a way that maybe skims the truth of the matter far better than psychoanalysis.

This is a book of Fairy, and sojourners should expect to get messy; charmed; ravished; and even lose their hearts. . .

{If you liked this review, please consider supporting this blog by purchasing the books via my Amazon Affiliate links.  Thanks for your support!}

Non-Disney Princesses II

{Read the original Non-Disney Princesses? article here.}

Remember the "good old days" of franchise-launched fantasy cartoons centered on toys, such as My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Lady Lovely Locks, and Rainbow Brite?  (Children of the 80's, you know what I mean.)  Some are getting modern-day makeovers, but there are also some new kids on the block.  Out of curiosity, I clicked on a mini-series called Ever After High on Netflix, and it just goes to show that fairy tales will never, ever get old . . . or lose their potential for advertising!

From left to right: Briar Beauty, Apple White, Raven Queen, and Madeline (Maddie) Hatter

Ever After High is like Clueless meets Ponyville: where the children of famous fairy tale characters dress like themed lolitas and talk in insufferable puns while gushing about shoes, secret parties, and the dating scene.  It's where Hogwarts gets a run for its money with adult authority figures such as Headmaster Grimm, Baba Yaga, and Professor Rumplestiltskin.  It's also where they're expected to fulfill their pre-written destinies by following in their parents' footsteps.  Enter the main series conflict.
Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends
It's interesting to see what types of fairy tale trends take hold in this Barbie-esque multiverse.  There is the super-sugary blonde goody-goody befriending the antagonist-presented-as-protagonist misfit (Wicked); crossover characters from literary fantasies, such as Alice in Wonderland and Robin Hood (Once); and the forbidden romance between Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf (every supernatural romance ever).

Something else I found interesting was the choice to make Apple White, Snow White's daughter, a blonde.  Though this was probably a purely aesthetic choice to make her contrast the daughter of the wicked queen, Raven Queen.

Will he rescue Snow White or Red Riding Hood?

There are some clearly problematic things that naturally arise when combining fairy tales that were not addressed in the series.  Such as, in which story does Hunter Huntsman belong?  Or is the Huntsman, his father, the archetypal character that plays one role in many stories.  If the princes Daring and Dexter Charming are the sons of King Charming, aren't they also the brothers of Cinderella's daughter, Ashlyn, and even Apple, making the pre-determined pairing of Apple and Daring incestuous?  If the Evil Queen is Snow White's stepmother, then Apple and Raven should be a generation apart, and Raven effectively Apple's aunt (Raven's mother is Apple's mother's stepmother).  How far back do the generations go, exactly?  Is there a line of hundreds of Goldilocks, or just the two, Goldie Locks and her daughter Blondie?

There's nothing of really deep, lasting substance here, but Ever After High can't help but to stumble upon the roots of what haunts in fairy tales; too bad it doesn't care to water them and see how they grow.  Perhaps, the opportunity for delving is better humored in storybook format: Shannon Hale, acclaimed author of The Goose Girl, is authoring an Ever After High fiction series, with several books currently published.

Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends

21st Century Fairy Tale Telling

Metalalia--Postmodern Fairy Tales for Your Tablet and Phone

It's been about 200 years since the brothers Grimm first committed pen to paper in order to preserve the folktales of their native Germany.

Since then, fairy tales have grown and contracted, been melted down and reforged to make new alloys of folk-and-fiction.  The twenty-first century has already seen impressive and stunning contributions to the fairy tale tradition, but what about the storytelling medium?  To see the written word upon paper expire is the last thing I want, as I'm sure all of you agree.  But adaptability is key to survival.  And movies just aren't cutting it as a successful fairy tale medium (see my review of Disney's latest Frozen).

Enter Metalalia, an immersive, digital fairy tale storytelling experience.

character design for The Wind-up Boy

Musician Pam Shaffer and author Alex Nicholson have defied distance to join their creative efforts over the width of the Atlantic (Steel thistles and glass mountains?  Please!).  Together, with a team of talented professionals, they've laid the foundations for an app that will bring "future-twisted fairy tales" to your fingertips with original scores, fresh imagery, and interactive elements.  This means users will be able to "tailor their experience by combining or removing artistic elements, customizing the story, and making it more accessible."

first page of The Hair-Woven Rope

A multimedia storytelling experience that harnesses organic audience-to-author interaction recreating folkloric origins in a 21st century context?  I think yes.

The Metalalia team are rallying fairy tale enthusiasts and free-spirited creative types to help them fund the launch of their app on Kickstarter.  At the time of my writing, they have already raised almost $2,000 of their $9,000 dollar goal.

If this looks like something you'd appreciate; if you feel the importance of the digital medium in preserving our sacred fairy tales and engendering new ones; or if you just want some really cool freebies, click over there and donate anything from $1 to $1,000.  Whatever you feel moved to contribute.

If you're at all like me, they'll have you at "digital illuminated manuscript" and "William Blake."

The Kingdom of Arthur

I'm sorry I've been neglectful of this blog for the past year or so.  My personal life has undergone some huge shifts in the past months, one of which has been to temporarily relocate to Wales--the country adjacent to England, part of the island of Britain.

Wales is my heart's home and, as you fairy tale lovers might know, the mother of the great English-speaking tradition.  It sounds paradoxical; but most scholars agree that the culture, language, and people of Wales are the most direct inheritors of pre-Roman Britain.  It is unfortunate that the pre-Christian mythology did not survive intact like it did in Ireland, but the little that does remain is wealthy enough.  The most influential being none other than King Arthur.

So why else should people who care about fairy tales care about Wales?  The great historical scholar, Geoffrey Ashe, wrote a comprehensive volume converging British history and myth, Mythology of the British Isles, modeled on Robert Graves's book on Greek mythology.  This divides the myths chronologically and by themes, with a summary of each myth and then a historical analysis.  What emerges from these collected mini-volumes is a trail of bread crumbs leading back to Wales--which would have been to where the Brythonic peoples retreated during both the Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasions.  What is more, there was a great deal of Irish settlement in Wales from the West, cross-pollinating the mythologies and restoring and/or preserving the mythic elements shared in common between the two Celtic peoples.*

Following Chesterton's lead that all folk stories are growths from roots of fact and seeds of history, Ashe speculates that King Arthur really lived.  And out here, near the gray Irish sea-waves crashing on gray rocks and mysterious doors-in-walls, it's not a bit hard to believe.



* Though a Celtic identity was popular in the early 20th century, scholars are now in doubt as to whether or not the Celtic language-speaking peoples could justifiably be considered part of the same ethnic and cultural groups.  It is doubtful whether those who lived in Britain before Roman rule even shared genetic link with the people known as Celts to the Roman Empire of the time, or if there was merely similarity from trade and cross-cultural influence.