Syler 1 to Offer a Definition of a Fairy Tale, Marina Warner Writes That
Syler 1 A more detailed study of fairy tales would teach us what awaits still in the world. -Elias Cannetti1 [The 20th century is like] a badly-written drama. Act I—greed and hypocrisy leading to a genocidal world war, post war injustice and hysteria, boom, crash, totalitarianism. Act II—greed and hypocrisy leading to a genocidal world war, post war injustice and hysteria, boom, crash, totalitarianism. Act III—greed and hysteria…I don’t dare to continue…What do you do if you’re a hypersensitive like Mahler and instinctively know what’s coming? You prophesy, and others pick up your trail. -Leonard Bernstein2 To offer a definition of a fairy tale, Marina Warner writes that “Fairy tales exchange knowledge between an older voice of experience and a younger audience, they present pictures of perils and possibilities that lie ahead, they use terror to set limits on choice and offer consolation to the wronged, they draw social outlines around boys and girls, fathers and mothers, rich and poor, the rulers and the ruled, they point out the evildoers and garland the victorious, they stand up to adversity with dreams of vengeance, power and vindication.”3 The very basis of the tale, it seems, is contrast, and the highlighting of that contrast. Expect the unexpected: through fantasy, nothing is as it seems, nothing can be taken at face value: compassion for the beggar, who is actually a fairy in disguise, and scorn for the handsome young prince, who is actually a fearsome monster. Strangely enough, the same correlation could be made for the works of Gustav Mahler, whose fairy tales with a twist draw the same conclusions.
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