(no subject)

[skygiants]

I 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.

Comments

[brooms]

"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.

best advice always, main reason why i still can't tell if i love or hate how the NO PEEKING thing was presented in till we have faces.

[jothra]

Indeed. I always liked the later parts of the story, but the very beginning is rather wtf. I have read versions that tone it down a bit. In one, her whole family tells her she needs to look and see what's going on. And he was cursed not to tell anyone anything.

Of course, that still doesn't change the underlying message very much...

Fairy tales: awesome and yet terrifying at the same time.

[aberration]

Wow, I've only read this retelling of the story, which must be pretty significantly different, because the first part isn't like that at all. It's just like, the girl was wealthy at first, but then her father becomes ill and the family becomes poor, and her mother tells her to get water from some special, magical spring to cure her father. She goes but drops the cup she'd brought in the spring, and the prince appears as a frog and tells her he'll get it for her if she grants him two wishes. She agrees, but once her father is cured and they're wealthy again, the frog turns up and says he wants her to marry him, and she refuses. And then, blam-pow-frog-becomes-a-prince-and-trolls-appear and whisk him off to their castle, and the girl travels a long way to find the castle and save him.

So, I mean, things might've gone better if the frog had just TOLD her he was a prince, but the idea is more that her sin is pride and breaking her word, rather than you know, wanting to know what's climbing in bed with her. I didn't even realize this was so different >_>

[bookblather]

I really like East, but I agree 100%. STRANGE PEOPLE CLIMBING INTO BED WITH YOU IS CREEPY. And dude, you don't want this to happen? SLEEP IN YOUR OWN ROOM. Creeper.

[cahn]

...I totally want to rewrite this fairy tale now. BAH. Because you are totally right!

[skygiants]

I still haven't read till we have faces, to my shame and sorrow. I know I need to! And now especially since I've been thinking about this family of stories.

[skygiants]

Her whole family is smart! If my baby brother was getting in bed with a mysterious possibly-polar-bear every night, I would --

-- well, okay, I would probably laugh a lot, because WTF, man. But I would also be EXTREMELY AND I THINK JUSTIFIABLY CONCERNED.

(Her family is concerned in this one too, to be fair. But it's the mother who gives the candle, and the mother who later comes and confesses, all "I DID A TERRIBLE AND FOOLISH THING I SHOULD NEVER HAVE GIVEN HER THAT CANDLE.")

[skygiants]

I think that is probably combined with a different story! Maybe? My guess is it's mushed together with the version of The Frog Prince where she throws the frog against a wall in irritation and that's what turns him human. (Which always cracked me up.) It sounds like kind of an awesome retelling, though.

[skygiants]

There were things I really liked about East! I loved the brother's POV, I thought bringing her family in made it a much richer story. But this kept on rubbing me the wrong way and distracting me from the awesome bits.

SLEEP IN YOUR OWN ROOM INDEED, CREEPER. >:| (I think I was also bothered by it more because in this version the bear couldn't/didn't talk very much, so it wasn't like they were really building a personality rapport during the day, he just kept following her around and staring at her creepily! I mean I guess she was okay with that. BUT I WOULDN'T BE. HOLD UP YOUR OWN END OF THE CONVERSATION, ENCHANTED BEAR.)

[skygiants]

Do it do it do it! There are so many cool places to take it! And many of the bare-bones bits of the story are really awesome.

[brooms]

it's different in that the character (oural) who urges psyche to take a look at cupid is the protagonist and she's NOT treated as silly and laughable by the narrative! she's very sympathetic and human. but she IS painted as wrong in this instance and her actions as born out of a mix of love and jealousy.

i really liked the book, but as i was reading, i kept thinking, "BUT IT'S GOOD ADVICE!! being as trusting as psyche is not supposed to be a virtue, even when we're dealing with gods!"

i understand cs lewis was a religious man, but still :/

[batyatoon]

I was thinking about Till We Have Faces too. It's not quite the same situation -- for one thing, Psyche knows exactly who is coming to her bed at night, because the god has told her who he is and has acknowledged her as his wife. In the original myth that TWHF is based on, Psyche lights the lantern and looks because a doubt has been planted in her mind that her husband is who he says he is. (It's slightly different in TWHF, so I will not spoiler that.)

It does still rather require a large leap of faith on her part, though, to ask that she believe what she has been told instead of wanting to see for herself -- but that's not the same as trying to keep her in total ignorance.

[ladysingsthe]

Stamp of approval on this whole post and the comments.

So interesting. *____*

[skygiants]

Lots of good discussion! I love when people get into good conversations without me on my posts, I can just sit back and enjoy the thoughtfulness without having to muster up a brain myself.

[bookblather]

YEAH COME ON, BEAR. SPEAK UP.

All those Cupid and Psyche tales make me go :///////// very much. Especially the ones where she has CHILDREN. I'm sorry, but wanting to know who is sexing you up IS NOT A BAD THING.