“Are Fairy Tales out of Fashion?” Libby Copeland asks in Slate, in response to a recent study by a British TV channel called Watch.
It’s no surprise that many parents have stopped reading fairy tales to their young children because they’re too scary, according to a new study by a British television channel. Why should they? Many were never really meant for children, not when the original folk tales were first gathered by collectors like the brothers Grimm.
It’s refreshing to discover a writer who has done the hard work of reading up on the tales and their histories. Copeland understands the importance of preserving the versions told in times past when life was “nasty, brutish, and short,” and she also recognizes that Disney films, as appealing as they may be on many different levels, have created global master-narratives that may not reflect the values we want to impart to our children. The stories were never written in granite, and we can make them our own by being irreverent about them. There’s nothing wrong with editing, refashioning, and creating your own version for a child, or choosing a tale from the many different versions out there–one that is age-appropriate and also leaves something to the imagination–let’s you fill in the many blanks. What I’ve always loved about fairy tales is that they are so compact and surreal—no one accepts the story at face value and we can’t help but react to the terms of the tale. Fairy tales get us talking about what you do when you meet a wolf in the forest, encounter a beast at home, or find a talking frog in your backyard. The story is just the beginning of a bigger conversation that continues over the years. The best tales offer a worst-case scenario and provide a tool kit for surviving the great “What If?” And children have great instincts about stories–when it’s too much for them or too little and not just right, they let us know right away by turning away or falling asleep.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/02/why_i_don_t_want_to_read_fairy_tales_to_my_daughter_.html
Longtime lurker, here. Ogden Nash has a very amusing poem on this subject – I can’t immediately find the whole thing online, but the title is “Don’t Cry Darling, It’s Blood Alright.” I have a copy, but don’t feel like typing it in; if you can’t find it, and email me, I’ll send it to you, though.
I think children enjoy exploring the dark spaces of the world as much as adults do. Obviously discretion is required in choosing age/content appropriate tales. But young readers are more complex in their tastes than we often give them credit for. The great advantage of fairy tales is that they give children the opportunity to wander into the dark forests of the imagination safe in the knowledge that the fairy tale will bring them back home safe again.