A Tale Retold

[gauchecritic]

Now you may find this difficult to believe and will likely swear to yourself that you will never ever do it but... having read that I think you need a mirror scene.

The one that pops immediately to mind is having a royal carriage pass her in the street (possibly throwing mud across her) and then seeing another princess looking through the carriage window all quoiffed and bufanted about the face and head but being dressed in the beggar wife's reflection of her clothes..

Then of course having done that I would immediately follow it up with any number of mirror scenes which do exactly the same in different styles of clothing and... wait for it... this becomes a gross and unrealistic (but somehow quaint and charming) metaphor for her reviewing her own character.

Da Daaaaa. The End.

 

[BlackShanglan]

*laugh!*

I loved your style there, Gauche. Reminds me of the South Park episode that snarks on Wal-Mart. "Boys - do you understand what the mirror means? It ... it means that ... the heart of Wal-mart is ... all of us!" "Yeah, we worked that out like two weeks ago."

But you're right. That's a good idea. Use her observations of her physical condition to noodge her in the right direction. I think I've got material to work with, too, as she's already noticing that putting on a peasant's dress may be scratchier, but it's also a lot handier if you want to actually do anything. Ill push that to some more explicit connections between discovering things she actually likes about the new look and discovering things that aren't so insufferable about the new life.

 

[gauchecritic]

Use her observations of her physical condition to noodge her in the right direction. I think I've got material to work with, too, as she's already noticing that putting on a peasant's dress may be scratchier, but it's also a lot handier if you want to actually do anything.

Now there's interesting, because she might stop in the middle of splitting logs or something and wonder at, not only her physical change, but her willingness to perform physical tasks in order to receive those 'strokes'

Alternatively, that she uses new found knowledge to maybe make logs burn brighter when boiling but damping down the fire when broiling. And how come she knows what 'broiling' is anyway?

 

[neonlyte]

*laugh!*

I loved your style there, Gauche. Reminds me of the South Park episode that snarks on Wal-Mart. "Boys - do you understand what the mirror means? It ... it means that ... the heart of Wal-mart is ... all of us!" "Yeah, we worked that out like two weeks ago."

All this talk of 'mirrors' has me wondering how the dwarves will be portrayed - the Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Veils of Salome?

 

[BlackShanglan]

Now there's interesting, because she might stop in the middle of splitting logs or something and wonder at, not only her physical change, but her willingness to perform physical tasks in order to receive those 'strokes'

Alternatively, that she uses new found knowledge to maybe make logs burn brighter when boiling but damping down the fire when broiling. And how come she knows what 'broiling' is anyway?

*nods* Absolutely. She's already discovered that she can watch the hens while the tinker is out of the house and steal their eggs, then boil and eat them all up before he gets home. Haha!

Then she realizes that that feels a lot less clever and triumphant when he brings back food for her and goes to bed hungry because he's used to it and she isn't. The eggs don't sit so well, then.

 

[BlackShanglan]

All this talk of 'mirrors' has me wondering how the dwarves will be portrayed - the Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Veils of Salome?

That's a brilliant idea, Neon.

Alas, this particular story has no dwarves. If you're curious to read the original, the brothers Grimm collected and published it as "King Thrushbeard."

 

[gauchecritic]

That's a brilliant idea, Neon.

Alas, this particular story has no dwarves. If you're curious to read the original, the brothers Grimm collected and published it as "King Thrushbeard."

Well if it's a grimm's tale there must be room for seven samurai.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Well if it's a grimm's tale there must be room for seven samurai.

It's got the groups of three going instead - three tasks he tries to get her to do that she completely screws up.

 

[sweetness6280]

Thrushbeard is one of my favorite "realistic" tales. I'm glad gauche suggested a mirror scene, because when I was reading your synopsis and dilemma, I immediately thought about a possible "mirror" scene. Even if I can't seem to write anything right now, I guess there are still some decent thoughts in my head.

I worked on a modern retelling of "Fitcher's Bird" back in the Spring. I started out sticking closely to the original. I had some good feedback from others, but it just seemed all too "campy" to me. I finally ended up taking a very different approach, one which veered from the details but kept the basic thrust of the original tale. I'm not sure which is better, but I liked the end result.

I can't wait to read your retelling. I love fairy tales, and their retellings.

 

[gauchecritic]

It's got the groups of three going instead - three tasks he tries to get her to do that she completely screws up.

Well those Augean stables are a right mess.