DISCUSSION THREAD -- August 75 Word Challenge

[Teresa Edgerton]

RcGrant is snowed under with work and has been unable to start the new thread, but she's just notified the mods of her chosen theme and genre, so the new Challenge is now up!

Let the discussion begin ...

 

[Gary Compton]

Fairytales, fantasy, love?

I think I'll take the month off

Anyone fancy Barbados?

 

[RcGrant]

Hey now, some of the best fairy tales are full of horror, sadness and gore.

 

[Gary Compton]

Hey now, some of the best fairy tales are full of horror, sadness and gore.

And to think my vote put you in the tiebraker.

Only joking.

 

[Grimbear]

Ye - if you read the original versions: The evil step-mother being made to dance in red-hot iron shoes... The Grimm's version of Cinderella where the sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into the slipper...

The Russian tales are gory - there's one where someone is frozen to death.

dismemberment and brutality and bloodbaths.

Good theme

 

[RcGrant]

And to think my vote put you in the tiebraker.

Only joking.

You know you're one of my faves, Gary.

 

[RcGrant]

Ye - if you read the original versions: The evil step-mother being made to dance in red-hot iron shoes... The Grimm's version of Cinderella where the sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into the slipper...

The Russian tales are gory - there's one where someone is frozen to death.

dismemberment and brutality and bloodbaths.

Good theme

Yup, some of them are horrific (but fascinating!). And then you've got stuff like the stunningly beautiful The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, which also counts as fairy tale fantasy.

I'm hoping there's going to be some really diverse entries.

 

[Culhwch]

Well, that felt odd. What am I going to do for the rest of the month?

 

[Ursa major]

Worry, I expect.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Hey now, some of the best fairy tales are full of horror, sadness and gore.

And knowing this group, I'm sure there will be plenty of stories with all of these.

Ye - if you read the original versions: The evil step-mother being made to dance in red-hot iron shoes... The Grimm's version of Cinderella where the sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into the slipper...

Certainly the older stories can be crueler than more modern versions, but you can't go by the Grimm collections, because a lot of the violence was added to some of the stories between one edition and the next (and there were several editions). And because this was done, I think the graphic nature of the violence in traditional fairy tales is sometimes exaggerated.

Also, almost all fairy tales go back further than we can trace them, and they were altered again and again in order to suit times and places, and bits and pieces exchanged between them, so we really can't speak with any certainty about the original versions. The storyteller gets a pleasing little screech from the female members of his audience when he mentions the red-hot iron slippers in one story, and at the next stop he adds it on to another story for effect. And so it goes. Even some of the literary fairy tales, by authors like Perrault, were influenced by older stories.

That said, some of us did get the goriest Grimm versions to read when we were children (I know that I did) and for us, I think, they will always feel like the authentic versions.

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[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Fairytales, fantasy, love?

I think I'll take the month off

Anyone fancy Barbados?

Can I come along? Or at least get money to get to Antartica?


Fantasy I can do. Unrequited love, I think I could pull off, maybe. But I don't write fairy tales, even the uncensored, Victorian era versions.


Am I allowed to beat my head against the wall until I put a hole in it? The wall, of course. I've been told my head's harder than granite.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Oh, you always say you can't do it, Karn.

And then you do it.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Perhaps.


I mean, I know I usually pull SOMETHING off. But I'm usually not at all satisfied with the results. And to be honest, I sometimes might have to mimic the styles already posted. But I AM very, very inexperienced at fairy tale setup.

 

[Culhwch]

If you're experienced in fantasy, I think you've got a pretty solid basis in fairytales. Fairies (or even faeries) are not a huge leap away from elves, after all.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Oh dear.. another one for Barbados, count me in.

pH

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

But I AM very, very inexperienced at fairy tale setup.

Of course you could wait a few days, read a few fairy tales, and write a couple for practice. Expand your repertoire, as it were.

 

[Culhwch]

Oh dear.. another one for Barbados, count me in.

pH

Well as it's all doom in here, we may as well just close the challenge now and vote on the entires already in, huh? All in favour?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Now there is a purely disinterested suggestion!

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Doom and gloom may be, Cul, but try not to pull an added advantage out of your hat.


I suppose I should be lucky that I have two Fairy Tales volumes within easy reach but...I have read them all before and still no idea to really see how to set anything up. I think I'll have to wait until at least tomorrow to see what others put down, go from there.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Well as it's all doom in here, we may as well just close the challenge now and vote on the entires already in, huh? All in favour?

Haha smart thinking! Not so fast....I've not given up..... Barbados was research, Cul, reeeeesearch

Okay, maybe not. I have the zygote of an idea though

pH