Vladimir Nabokov said great novels are great fairy tales. It's hard to disagree with him. I was a kid once. To me, every fairy tale had to have a princess in it who, after overcoming many obstacles with a prince, had to live happily ever after. But, I also remember reading the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. No wonder I was scared to go to bed after reading them. Their characters died terrible deaths, like the poor grandmother of Little Red Riding Hood eaten by a wolf, and very, very rarely did they live happily ever after.
After a workshop with author Kate Bernheimer at the 2011 Nebraska Summer Writers Conference, I understood why. Some fairy tales are just not meant for children. Period.
What was a fairy tale in my understanding in the past? A Hollywood romantic comedy with a happy ending. It's not like they don't exist in real life, they do (thank God). But in those "fairy tales," there is a particular scenario with minimum surprise. Sometimes we watch them because we don't want those surprises — we just want a happy ending, even if it's a cliche.
I learned a great deal about the fairy tales. I learned in fairy tales, cliches can and do work. I learned there is a reason why things are not overly explained and other things are not mentioned, even though they might raise a question in the reader's head. The questions might never be answered, but that's not the point of a fairy tale. The purpose of it is to give food for thought, show deep things through symbolism and, of course, to entertain.
Bernheimer said fairy tales are the skeletons of story. During the workshop, she explained some key elements of a fairy tale.
Abstraction. A woman lived; a man lived; they died, but before that, they had a baby. Not a whole lot of details. What were the parents' names? Why did they die? How did the baby survive on its own? Those would be expected questions in a reader's head. But don't expect the fairy tale to answer them: It's almost never an issue. As Bernheimer said, the fairy tales are deceptively simple.
Flatness. Characters in fairy tales are flat. We don't get to know them most of the time. What kind of hair do they have, are they blue-eyed or not, what do they do in their free time, etc. The writer can also mention that there were, for example, two brothers, and one of them is not mentioned later at all. It's just not his story. But he was there, so he's apparently worth being mentioned at least once.
The characters are not given emotions. It's almost impossible to see a line like "She was devastated with the loss of her daughter and cried all day long, caressing the sorrow in her heart, until one day she died of grief," in a fairy tale. It will be more like "her daughter died. The queen died of grief."
Intuitive logic. Fairy tales are not crazy about providing the explanation for anything. The question "why" is never answered, which leaves us with an option to interpret things the way we want to. Things just happen there. It's a fairy tale, remember? Animals talk and people like you and me have superpowers.
Everyday magic. In fairy tales, magic is not surprising; it happens on a daily basis. A hero jumps into the water without being able to swim and survives. He doesn't have superpowers, but he's in a fairy tale, which means that no matter what he does, he'll get around (with the exception of the Brothers Grimm, who were not that tolerant toward their characters).
The same thing happens in the Hollywood movies, but there, everyday magic raises questions. If a hero is beaten to death, he is supposed to die, right? No. If it's a romantic comedy, he'll have to make it to the final kiss scene, otherwise we will be disappointed. But we're disappointed anyway, because we don't believe it. In the fairy tales, we do.
As a grown up, I learned a lot of things from fairy tales. First of all, I learned that it's never too late to read them, and it's not embarrassing to love them. I also learned that no matter how simple it can be, the story leaves a trace in my heart. "King Thrushbeard" of the Brothers Grimm is still my favorite fairy tale. Every time I read it, I can't help but shed a tear or two. It teaches me that changes are for the better, that it's never too late and that there's always hope for the hopeless.
The more I read fairy tales, the more they open to me their meaning. Wisdom from our ancestors is brought to us through those fables, folk tales and parables. They say never to give up. They teach to believe that everything's for the better. They say "BELIEVE." And it's OK if they are a little scary sometimes. After all, I'm not a child anymore.
Marina Marshenkulova is a Fulbright student from Russia getting a master's degree in journalism. Reach her at marinamarshenkulova@dailynebraskan.com
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