Five hundred new fairytales found

Fairy tales forewarn and prepare us for a life that will be loaded with dangers – but dangers that can be intelligently calibrated so that we’ll know when we must be brave and fight despite the odds, and when we should retreat to seek a safer way around. Moving beyond films, I am hopeful an upcoming video game being developed by Krillbrite entitled "Among The Sleep" brings this classic fairy tale aesthetic to the gaming medium with a compelling and rich narrative to go with it. I also believe the Latin American literary movement known as “magical realism,” exemplified in novels like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is another example of the reemergence of the fairy tale in “adult” storytelling. Not to be confused with “surrealism,” in “magical realism” the narrative remains absolutely realistic – but with the moments of magical epiphany just as emphatically asserted to be “real.” The effect is a powerful statement that there is more to life than what the controlling “order” demands life must be limited to. The novels of Isabel Allende also comes to mind as examples of "magical realism”. In his “real” fairy tales, Marquez teaches that there is real magic in our lives, but it is only attainable by those with the truest and most faithful hearts.

Full link can be found here

As for the questions:

What is your favorite classic fairy tale and why do you suppose it has a special significance for you?
Alice in Wonderland, It always seemed so exciting to be in a completely different world where flowers and animals could talk, but it wasn't made terribly unrealistic by simply accepting that this was possible, therefor it seemed to be able to happen. I kept appreciating it as I grew older for the fantastic mental images it provided in the story context. Alice grew up, and so did I, but I never quite forgot Wonderland, although it might have become a little darker *smile*.

2How do you feel about Snow White and Alice in Wonderland becoming armored women warriors in their latest film retellings? Is this an empowerment of women?
I must say they were brave enough in their original context. I always admired Alice for her intelligence, Snow White a little less, but her I appreciated because of her inner beauty. Making them armored women just seems a little overdone, hollywood-style. It's a bit too much, I enjoy the subtle context of a good book more than an easy movie with special effects.

3Is there a particular fairy tale that terrified you as a child?
There was one particularly cruel fairytale version of hansel and Gretel in which they were locked into a boulder by a cruel stepmother and shoved into the sea to arrive on an abandoned island with a witch that was quite explicitly described as a cannibal(with heads on stakes adorning her cabin) I was never spared the gruesome details as a child, because of those too, you have to learn. And what can be possibly wrong about telling those when there is a perfectly responsible adult around to tell you the meaning of them and the context/lesson of the story?

4Is there a particular fairy tale that excited your imagination and lifted your heart?
None in particular, I wouldn't be able to make a fair choice without regretting my answer. I simply love fairy tales in general and there are some I favor in particular, but they lift my heart in general.

5In your view which popular film, book or video game has most misrepresented or tortured the essence of a classic fairytale?
I have (been) read fairy tales from all over the world bound into a book over a hundred years old by my grandmother, she passed away when I was 12 and the stories will never be quite as magical. But it also keeps all stories read to me surrounded by an ever-magical aura that will never quite lose it's meaning no matter what influence modern times let lose on them. I think it's wonderful in a way modern media prevents fairy tales from being erased from our collective memories horrible in another that they milk them for all they're worth, which prevents people from reading and indulging themselves into the wonderful stories they actually are.