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So I've wanted to make this thread for awhile, but haven't had the time. I still don't have the time, but I'm going to give it a go anyway.
One of the things I like best about fantasy literature is when it touches something I recognize somehow as core or foundational in the human experience. This is the same reason that I like (abstractly) Jungian archetypal analysis and the poetry of TS Eliot. Mythology (of which I'd say folk tales is a subset) is rich in these foundational images that move us in ways we can't explain. I'm fascinated by archetypes like the fisher king, the cursed ring, the limping God, etc. I'm a big fan of Joseph Campbell.
So all that is to say I'm interested in folk tales. I'm interested in how people tell them, what elements they use. What are people's favorite folk tales (or, expanding to the broader class, mythological stories), especially those that strike an ancient chord?
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My favorite folk stories are the Native American Trickster tales. I wrote a decent thesis on them for my Folktales, Myth and Ballad class. My favorite Coyote story is the Coyote and the Mallard Ducks or Coyote and the Prairie Dogs. Both are the same story, but with different animals for the characters. Also, they aren't terribly family friendly, so I won't link to them. But I'll keep looking for a good example that is family friendly.
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Did you ever read "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" by Ursula LeGuin? The coyote/trickster motif is central to the story. I really liked it. I haven't read the other stories in the collection I linked to, but the title short story (along with "Hatrack River") is collected in Thomsen's The American Fantasy Tradition which I highly recommend.
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Hey, both of those look pretty good. I will have to check them out. They probably have Thomsen's book at the library, but not the first one. Thanks!
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I'm wondering how many of you have actually read "Grimms Fairytales". Some of them are a little odd, and of course your old favorites are there, but with much more grim and dark endings than the Disney versions. Some are downright cruel in their endings, but still very insightful.
For many, the deeper meaning is not really that obvious, you sometimes find yourself wonder what the whole thing was all about, yet they are intriguing tales.
I think you will find some of the less popular and more obscure tales to be the best ones.
For those looking for a more moderner version of fairytales, consider "Firebirds" an anthology of original fantasy and science fictions short stories (Edited by Sharyn November - Penguin Group Pub). These are very much in the fairytale tradition, and are a good crosssection of authors in the genre.
"Baby in the Night Deposit Box" was good.
"The Lady of the Ice Garden" had a very oriental flavor to it.
"Flotsam" was especially enjoyable.
16 in all, and all with a decidedly Fairytale flavor.
quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: Can I just list my favorite stories, or is this thread deeper than that?
Of course you can share whatever you want (I'm always interested), but my intent was to find out what instances, imagery, events that resonate with you for unknown (unknowable?) reasons.
To give an example, one of my favorite folk stories is Bluebeard. The terror of the locked room, the push/pull of it, strikes me somewhere deep in my Id. That motif shows up in other stories as well. Something about it speaks to people on an almost instinctual level.
To give another of my favorites, the here-then-gone castle of the Fisher King. The ephemeral dream made real, just for a moment, that then haunts you for the rest of your life.
Objects and places of power often do the same thing for me. From fantasy literature (but borrowed largely from folk myth), I can think of (among others) Herne's mask in the Prydain Chronicles and the Dark is Rising, the ancient hill where Ged casts his dark spell in A Wizard of Earthsea, the Rings in LotR, and of course the grail in, well, lots of stories.
I can't explain why these things affect me the way they do, or even explain exactly how they affect me. But for some reason there are certain words, phrases, images that make me feel...ancient, I guess. Give me a tie back to the dawn of man. I love that feeling. Like somehow my life, in all its modernity and superficiality, is just a thin crust of earth covering ancient vaults full of wonder. Reading these stories is like brushing my hand through that dirt to touch the rune-engraven door of the caverns below.
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