I'm on a storytelling mailing list (people who stand in front of live audiences and tell stories, storytelling), and this is a theme that occasionally crops up-- people will be telling a fractured fairy tale, and suddenly realize that the audience (of any age) doesn't know the original.
It's caused a couple of people to concentrate on the old stories, and avoid the variations, because how can you have parody or satire without the original? It's scary to them/us that no one else is focussing on that.
(And then there's the kids who say, when you're telling Cinderella, "But what about Bippity Boppety Boo?" which either leads to an interesting discussion about the impermanent, fluid nature of the oral tradition, or hysterics on the part of the teller...)
going back to lurking, but i am really interested in this conversation, alia
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branchandroot
fairy tales
Date: 2004-10-22 04:59 pm (UTC)It's caused a couple of people to concentrate on the old stories, and avoid the variations, because how can you have parody or satire without the original? It's scary to them/us that no one else is focussing on that.
(And then there's the kids who say, when you're telling Cinderella, "But what about Bippity Boppety Boo?" which either leads to an interesting discussion about the impermanent, fluid nature of the oral tradition, or hysterics on the part of the teller...)
going back to lurking, but i am really interested in this conversation,
alia