To Read & To Write

Steven Swann Jones' "The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination" is a great beginner's introduction to the fairy tale genre. While much of his criticism stresses what seems to me "dated" (actually the book is a bit dated for this field) concerns regarding the fairy tale - the regulation of female protagonists to domestic duties under the patriarchy, for example - I really learned a lot about the fairy tale genre as being a form of story exemplary of the "common" person, the "regular" man or woman, the "ordinary". I'd say I, for the most part, agree. Swann Jones makes clear that fairy tales usually feature a main character who isn't *special* in any particular way and under enormous social pressure as well. My response to both these criticisms is this: how can we find a way to understand the fairy tale story as a way of expressing the *extraordinary* tasks of women (whether in the domestic sphere or otherwise)? ...

This edition of "Aesop's Fables" - published on the 2500th anniversary of Aesop's death (1941) - is dated. Therein lies its value. The introduction is very informative, letting readers know the myth behind the collector and storyteller Aesop who was a slave to the Greeks, circa 600 years B.C. However, despite the value of the stories in this collection (from my personal bookshelf), this isn't a book I'd recommend to someone who isn't an academic, scholar, or intellectually inclined... the stories are very reductive, always ending with "The Point --->" followed by a quick summary of the short story's moral, which is one or two pages length at the most. I found most of the stories hilarious, as the "points" were either entirely obvious or so far-fetched as to almost seem like jokes. The general theme of the fables seems to say: in a world where every man is for himself (although every "man" is in fact an animal withi...