There's just so much that people willingly overlook in contemporary myths and fables.
There truly is, and the really ironic thing is the attitude that entertainment has become more violent.
But I also think fairytales possess a double-ness that allows for them to be extra dark. The fact that magic and the supernatural are present in fairytales makes it easier for the reader/listener to accept the gory details (like drinking of mother’s blood and so forth), because the story is so clearly not real. The inclusion of say trolls sets the precedent that anything goes, and the storyteller/narrator gets a wider scope to spin her story in. Thereby all the dark little details of the human psyche can be let out in the safe containment of the fairytale. I think this is one of my reasons for liking fantasy so much, be it books, tv-shows or films, for through the fantastical setting some deeper, more disturbing themes can be tackled.
I’m not saying that this is always the case, because once you get into the territory of mythology and certain fables a whole new dimension comes into play.
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Date: 2006-09-11 08:12 pm (UTC)There truly is, and the really ironic thing is the attitude that entertainment has become more violent.
But I also think fairytales possess a double-ness that allows for them to be extra dark. The fact that magic and the supernatural are present in fairytales makes it easier for the reader/listener to accept the gory details (like drinking of mother’s blood and so forth), because the story is so clearly not real. The inclusion of say trolls sets the precedent that anything goes, and the storyteller/narrator gets a wider scope to spin her story in. Thereby all the dark little details of the human psyche can be let out in the safe containment of the fairytale. I think this is one of my reasons for liking fantasy so much, be it books, tv-shows or films, for through the fantastical setting some deeper, more disturbing themes can be tackled.
I’m not saying that this is always the case, because once you get into the territory of mythology and certain fables a whole new dimension comes into play.