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Howdy! My name is Delilah and I’m your host on the new fairy tale podcast, Fairy Tell-Tales. I’ve always been an avid reader, but after taking a fairy tale course in college, I became more interested in this realm of literature. Since taking that course, I’ve been able to realize how much pop culture is influenced by older fairy tales.
As I learned in my course, fairy tales can often work as a form of social commentary. We can take our modern fairy tales and view them through the lens and influence of the older versions of the same tale. From there, we can reveal almost entirely different stories than the ones we currently accept based solely on entertainment value. This season we’re going to be looking at examples of fairy tales in pop culture within the context of older versions of the same fairy tale.
Fairy Tell-Tales, Episode 1 Breakdown:
For episode one, we will be discussing three Cinderella tales, including Taylor Swift’s music video for her song “Bejeweled”. First, if you haven’t seen the video, stop what you’re doing and go watch it right now. Not only is it an actually stunning masterpiece, but it’s also crucial for our discussion that you be able to recall some elements of the video. Whether or not you’ve seen it before or you’ll be watching it for the first time, there are a few points that I want you to pay special attention to.
- The comment at the beginning about the talent competition
- Cinderella’s performance
- The dragons on the castle at the end
The older tales we will be discussing in this episode are Charles Perrault’s “The Little Glass Slipper” and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s “Cinderella”. Below, you can find links for the music video and both of the other versions. There is also a link to “A Girl, A Shoe, A Prince: An Endlessly Evolving Cinderella” written by Linda Holmes for NPR. This is great to read if you want to learn more about the history of Cinderella and different versions of her tale. There is also a link to more information on Katherine Orenstein.
I’m excited for our discussion and can’t wait to be your new favorite fairy tale podcast!
Links:
Perrault’s story:
https://www.worldoftales.com/fairy_tales/Charles_Perrault/CINDEhttps://www.npr.org/2015/03/13/392358854/
NPR article:
a-girl-a-shoe-a-prince-the-endlessly-evolving-cinderella
Katherine Orenstein:
https://www.theopedproject.org/about-katie
Clock image: https://pixabay.com/vectors/clock-old-clock-antique-clock-face-1605224/
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