More Alice Hoffman and Fairy Tale Memoirs

A few weeks ago, I linked to an article about Alice Hoffman that included Q&A with Hoffman about her fairy tale influences, see Alice Hoffman and A. S. Byatt in the News. She's busily promoting her new book, The Story Sisters, so another article, Alice Hoffman In West Hartford Sept. 23, has appeared with more discussion about fairy tales, quoted below:

As a little girl growing up in what she calls "an unhappy situation," Alice Hoffman found great solace and truth in the fairy tales she loved to read.

"I felt almost moved to tears by fairy tales. They felt so psychologically true," the author says in a recent phone conversation. "They seemed very real to me."

What's more, her Russian grandmother often told her tales of the old country that seemed just like fairy tales to young Alice.

"Grandmothers telling stories is what women always did, just naturally," Hoffman says. "The meaning rises up and comes from a psychological place."

I always enjoy reading about the fairy tale experiences of readers, be they well-known or living out of the spotlight of life. Kate Bernheimer has edited two collections of personal essays from writers discussing how reading fairy tales impacted their lives: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales and Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy Tales. They are both excellent and I highly recommend them if you, too, enjoy reading about the commonality of experience through specific recollections.


Just this year, Maria Tatar published Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood which also includes the adult memories of childhood reading.

All three books are highly recommended especially since they were written and/or edited by leaders in the field of fairy tale studies.

PS: Hoffman's The Story Sisters uses fairy tale motifs--one of the sisters creates a fairy tale fantasy world as a coping mechanism to deal with her sexual abuse. There's an excerpt and plenty of reviews on the book's Amazon page.

More Alice Hoffman and Fairy Tale Memoirs

A few weeks ago, I linked to an article about Alice Hoffman that included Q&A with Hoffman about her fairy tale influences, see Alice Hoffman and A. S. Byatt in the News. She's busily promoting her new book, The Story Sisters, so another article, Alice Hoffman In West Hartford Sept. 23, has appeared with more discussion about fairy tales, quoted below:

As a little girl growing up in what she calls "an unhappy situation," Alice Hoffman found great solace and truth in the fairy tales she loved to read.

"I felt almost moved to tears by fairy tales. They felt so psychologically true," the author says in a recent phone conversation. "They seemed very real to me."

What's more, her Russian grandmother often told her tales of the old country that seemed just like fairy tales to young Alice.

"Grandmothers telling stories is what women always did, just naturally," Hoffman says. "The meaning rises up and comes from a psychological place."

I always enjoy reading about the fairy tale experiences of readers, be they well-known or living out of the spotlight of life. Kate Bernheimer has edited two collections of personal essays from writers discussing how reading fairy tales impacted their lives: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales and Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy Tales. They are both excellent and I highly recommend them if you, too, enjoy reading about the commonality of experience through specific recollections.


Just this year, Maria Tatar published Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood which also includes the adult memories of childhood reading.

All three books are highly recommended especially since they were written and/or edited by leaders in the field of fairy tale studies.

PS: Hoffman's The Story Sisters uses fairy tale motifs--one of the sisters creates a fairy tale fantasy world as a coping mechanism to deal with her sexual abuse. There's an excerpt and plenty of reviews on the book's Amazon page.

The Adventures of the Gingerbread Man

My next trip to Atlanta will include a visit to The Center for Puppetry Arts. I have driven by but have never been there at the right time to go inside. I'm a big puppet fan thanks to my own collection as a child as well as my continued collecting as an adult. It doesn't hurt that I'm part of the original Sesame Street and Jim Henson generation either. I grew up with puppets, muppets, etc. permeating my childhood existence. If I were to ever be on one of those "live your dream, try an alternate career reality shows," I would choose to be a puppeteer. That's how much of a fan I am.

Showing this weekend (Fri-Sun) in the rain-flooded city, The Adventures of the Gingerbread Man!

Enjoy a batch of lighthearted fun for the whole family in this whimsical adaptation of The Fisherman's Wife, The Three Wishes, The Little Red Hen, and The Gingerbread Boy. You'll meet Redina, a mixed-up chicken with a passion for chocolate chips; Gripe and Bicker, two monstrous friends who together must decide how to use three wishes; and a greedy wife whose plans don't quite pan out.

by David Stephens, All Hands Productions, Atlanta, GA

There is also a Create-A-Puppet Workshop in which you can make your own Gingerbread Man Shadow Puppet.

Atlanta is very much underwater right now with its rare flooding, to think that it was drought ridden only a few years ago. (Nashville is getting more than its fair share of rain, too, but not to the flood levels experienced further south.) The Center is open year round and a great stop right on the edge of downtown Atlanta if you happen to be in the city. Many more fairy tales are listed in the Upcoming Performances including The Shoemaker & the Elves, A Woodland Cinderella and The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Other Tales.

Okay and this just made me laugh when I was deciding on imagery for this post:

The Adventures of the Gingerbread Man

My next trip to Atlanta will include a visit to The Center for Puppetry Arts. I have driven by but have never been there at the right time to go inside. I'm a big puppet fan thanks to my own collection as a child as well as my continued collecting as an adult. It doesn't hurt that I'm part of the original Sesame Street and Jim Henson generation either. I grew up with puppets, muppets, etc. permeating my childhood existence. If I were to ever be on one of those "live your dream, try an alternate career reality shows," I would choose to be a puppeteer. That's how much of a fan I am.

Showing this weekend (Fri-Sun) in the rain-flooded city, The Adventures of the Gingerbread Man!

Enjoy a batch of lighthearted fun for the whole family in this whimsical adaptation of The Fisherman's Wife, The Three Wishes, The Little Red Hen, and The Gingerbread Boy. You'll meet Redina, a mixed-up chicken with a passion for chocolate chips; Gripe and Bicker, two monstrous friends who together must decide how to use three wishes; and a greedy wife whose plans don't quite pan out.

by David Stephens, All Hands Productions, Atlanta, GA

There is also a Create-A-Puppet Workshop in which you can make your own Gingerbread Man Shadow Puppet.

Atlanta is very much underwater right now with its rare flooding, to think that it was drought ridden only a few years ago. (Nashville is getting more than its fair share of rain, too, but not to the flood levels experienced further south.) The Center is open year round and a great stop right on the edge of downtown Atlanta if you happen to be in the city. Many more fairy tales are listed in the Upcoming Performances including The Shoemaker & the Elves, A Woodland Cinderella and The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Other Tales.

Okay and this just made me laugh when I was deciding on imagery for this post:

Maison Martin Margiela Glass Slippers

Well, if you have $20,000 to burn, you can get your own exquisite glass slippers. It's also possible to buy only one if you prefer. Not sure if they are actually wearable. I wouldn't risk it--just thinking of the possible pain involved if one where to break makes me cringe. Besides, one's toes would look quite crunched, good pedicure or no. Stilettos aren't really slippers, of course, but they are what most fashionistas imagine as such.

But they are lovely to look at.

Found via Cool Hunting. Which is much easier to navigate and enjoy than the horribly designed Maison Martin Margiela website. (I'm married to a web designer. I can say these things with impunity. Art should never overpower functionality where commerce is concerned.)

Maison Martin Margiela Glass Slippers

Well, if you have $20,000 to burn, you can get your own exquisite glass slippers. It's also possible to buy only one if you prefer. Not sure if they are actually wearable. I wouldn't risk it--just thinking of the possible pain involved if one where to break makes me cringe. Besides, one's toes would look quite crunched, good pedicure or no. Stilettos aren't really slippers, of course, but they are what most fashionistas imagine as such.

But they are lovely to look at.

Found via Cool Hunting. Which is much easier to navigate and enjoy than the horribly designed Maison Martin Margiela website. (I'm married to a web designer. I can say these things with impunity. Art should never overpower functionality where commerce is concerned.)

Bryan Singer to Direct 'Jack and the Giant Killer'

Okay, this could be fun: Bryan Singer to Direct 'Jack and the Giant Killer' which is reporting from the fresh Hollywood Reporter announcement.

Jack is a slight reworking of (shocker!) Jack and the Beanstalk with a dash of The Brave Little Tailor. It dispenses with that "I'll sell you some magic beans, and some oceanfront property in Arizona" trope, and is instead set in motion when a giant kidnaps a princess. Obviously, that premeditated action is unacceptable, and it threatens the longstanding peace between men and giants. A young farmer named Jack is given the task to lead an expedition to the giants' kingdom in the hopes of rescuing her. Mark Bomback and Darren Lemke penned the script, which is reportedly a more mature take on the fairy tale than you or I might expect. I don't think that means any rampant sex, violence, or cussing but rather that it'll feature the kind of unblinking action that Lord of the Rings did. I mean, Jack's fighting giants. That's hardcore when done realistically.

And there's more about other versions of the tale at Bryan Singer Tackles Jack the Giant Killer For New Line, the only article I saw that admits that Giant-Killer is different from Beanstalk Jack. It even mentions the story's occasional ties to King Arthur. I'm impressed by a fully researched article!

Hopefully there will be some women actually doing stuff in the movie instead of waiting around to be rescued. The movies always seem to be weakest at updating women's roles.

This one is now slated for a 2011 release, so don't hold your breath or anything, but a change of directors is a pretty good sign it will go into development and actually appear on a screen somewhere, someday.

I enjoyed the first two X-Men movies Singer directed, but Superman Returns not so much although that was from script issues more than directing. (And I'm really picky about Superman. And I was disappointed that we got that movie instead of a better X-Men 3.) So I'm hopeful this will be a fun take on the fairy tale whatever the final storyline.

Oh, and if you want to read the original tale--kidnapped daughter included--try here at Jack the Giant-Killer.