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Apr. 16th, 2012 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI picked up Edith Pattou's East in a bookstore ages ago because . . . well, basically because it's a fairy-tale book. I like fairy-tale books! And I always liked "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" as a fairy tale; it's one of the ones where the plucky heroine goes off adventuring to save her love interest, and that's always fun, especially in comparison to the ones where the plucky heroine hangs out in a coma.
And East is a perfectly good retelling of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." If you didn't know, the fairy tale goes something like this:
WHITE BEAR: Hello, impoverished family! I will make you rich and solve all your problems, but I would like your youngest daughter for unexplained purposes.
IMPOVERISHED FAMILY: . . . 'kay.
WHITE BEAR: So hey, human lady, how do you like this magic castle I brought you to?
OUR HEROINE: Well it's fine and all, except I keep getting this creepy feeling that there's someone I can't see climbing into bed with me every night. @___@
WHITE BEAR: . . . weird. >.>
OUR HEROINE: However if it's all the same to you, I've been cooped up in a castle with nobody for company and I'd kind of like a chance to . . . go home . . . and see my mom?
WHITE BEAR: If you must! But don't talk to your mom alone, that will RUIN EVERYTHING.
OUR HEROINE'S MOM: I don't think I'm okay with creepy strangers climbing into bed with you, honey.
OUR HEROINE: Moooooom, I'm fiiiiiine --
OUR HEROINE'S MOM: Here's a magic candle for seeing things in the dark, and I would seriously recommend that you use it.
OUR HEROINE: Well, I am super curious. And it's not like anybody here tells me anything. *lights candle*
WHITE BEAR: WELL NOW YOU'VE DONE IT. I'm really a handsome prince, and if you'd just held out for a while longer in complete ignorance, I would have been turned back into a human full-time and we would have got married and it would have been great, but nooooo, you just had to look at my face and now I'm tragically cursed to marry a troll! NICE GOING.
OUR HEROINE: Ack! Sorry sorry whoops sorry it's all my fault sorry sorry --
And I'm going to pause our story here, because this is the part where I realized that "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairytale I like less than I thought; or, in other words, it's the part where I had to put down the book and get unexpectedly furious.
I mean, what happens next is our heroine has some hardship and some adventures and goes and rescues the prince from the troll. Fine. And East is doing some interesting things with the storyline -- it turns our heroine into a RESTLESS CHILD who is all for the opportunity to go off with a mysterious white bear, it spends a lot of time with our heroine's family and how they're reacting to everything, there's all this stuff with culture and superstition . . .
. . . but this bit, it plays completely one hundred percent straight. Our Heroine's foolish, superstitious mother (whom the narrative consistently treats as silly and laughable despite the fact that her superstition is always proven to be right) gives her the candle. Our Heroine lights it, because she's been in this castle for a year and had no answers to anything that's going on -- and then OH NO! You weren't patient! You weren't trusting! You wanted to actually KNOW something about what was happening to you! And THAT RUINED EVERYTHING.
The story says "if you had just waited with the monster, he would have turned into a prince." Because that's totally how it works.
I would like to write in to the show going on here and offer some different advice, if I may. My advice goes: you know what? Listen to your mother when she says, "if a strange man is climbing into bed with you, you might want to get a look at his real face." Be curious. Be clever. if the rules that say you should be patient and wait in silence, they're stupid rules. Wanting to know the truth isn't a betrayal. It is, in fact, your right.
And East is a perfectly good retelling of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." If you didn't know, the fairy tale goes something like this:
WHITE BEAR: Hello, impoverished family! I will make you rich and solve all your problems, but I would like your youngest daughter for unexplained purposes.
IMPOVERISHED FAMILY: . . . 'kay.
WHITE BEAR: So hey, human lady, how do you like this magic castle I brought you to?
OUR HEROINE: Well it's fine and all, except I keep getting this creepy feeling that there's someone I can't see climbing into bed with me every night. @___@
WHITE BEAR: . . . weird. >.>
OUR HEROINE: However if it's all the same to you, I've been cooped up in a castle with nobody for company and I'd kind of like a chance to . . . go home . . . and see my mom?
WHITE BEAR: If you must! But don't talk to your mom alone, that will RUIN EVERYTHING.
OUR HEROINE'S MOM: I don't think I'm okay with creepy strangers climbing into bed with you, honey.
OUR HEROINE: Moooooom, I'm fiiiiiine --
OUR HEROINE'S MOM: Here's a magic candle for seeing things in the dark, and I would seriously recommend that you use it.
OUR HEROINE: Well, I am super curious. And it's not like anybody here tells me anything. *lights candle*
WHITE BEAR: WELL NOW YOU'VE DONE IT. I'm really a handsome prince, and if you'd just held out for a while longer in complete ignorance, I would have been turned back into a human full-time and we would have got married and it would have been great, but nooooo, you just had to look at my face and now I'm tragically cursed to marry a troll! NICE GOING.
OUR HEROINE: Ack! Sorry sorry whoops sorry it's all my fault sorry sorry --
And I'm going to pause our story here, because this is the part where I realized that "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairytale I like less than I thought; or, in other words, it's the part where I had to put down the book and get unexpectedly furious.
I mean, what happens next is our heroine has some hardship and some adventures and goes and rescues the prince from the troll. Fine. And East is doing some interesting things with the storyline -- it turns our heroine into a RESTLESS CHILD who is all for the opportunity to go off with a mysterious white bear, it spends a lot of time with our heroine's family and how they're reacting to everything, there's all this stuff with culture and superstition . . .
. . . but this bit, it plays completely one hundred percent straight. Our Heroine's foolish, superstitious mother (whom the narrative consistently treats as silly and laughable despite the fact that her superstition is always proven to be right) gives her the candle. Our Heroine lights it, because she's been in this castle for a year and had no answers to anything that's going on -- and then OH NO! You weren't patient! You weren't trusting! You wanted to actually KNOW something about what was happening to you! And THAT RUINED EVERYTHING.
The story says "if you had just waited with the monster, he would have turned into a prince." Because that's totally how it works.
I would like to write in to the show going on here and offer some different advice, if I may. My advice goes: you know what? Listen to your mother when she says, "if a strange man is climbing into bed with you, you might want to get a look at his real face." Be curious. Be clever. if the rules that say you should be patient and wait in silence, they're stupid rules. Wanting to know the truth isn't a betrayal. It is, in fact, your right.
