Cheryl’s Comments (group member since Dec 04, 2022)

Cheryl’s comments from the Once Upon a Time... group.

John Collier's *The Chaser* is a quick little moral lesson, reminding me a bit of some of Thurber's work but more of an anecdote to be told at the Club, so to speak.

Philip K. Dick's The King of the Elves reminds me why I like his short stories better than his novels. I love the main character, and the depiction of the elves, and the setting which is a filling station that doesn't get much business since the highway bypass was built.

Dick's skill shines even in the light fantasy. For instance, consider our hero Shadrach Jones. With a name like that, a reader guesses right away that he is probably of African descent; only well into the story is there a reference to his brown skin that confirms it.

*Bluebeard's Daughter,* by Sylvia Townsend Warner, is also old-fashioned... to a point. There are included 'adult' elements, such as a distinct reference to "the Persian erotic poets" for example. But it's written in homage to the traditional (European) tales ... and meant, I believe, to appeal mostly to grownups who loved the Andrew Lang colored fairy tale series.

I love the theme of it. Yes, 'curiosity killed the cat.' But (view spoiler)[it's revealed as a good thing to channel natural human curiosity into scientific pursuits (hide spoiler)].

But gosh The Lovely Myfanwy by Walter de la Mare bucked that trend. It's very old-fashioned, and at least the names are very Welsh (which isn't English, eh?) and *very* wordy. It really could have been told in 1/3 the pages, and to greater effect imo.

I did like the nuanced view of asses, as in "making an ass of himself." One character refers to the beast as docile, patient, and humble.

I also see the theme of the story as still relevant, with over-protective parents seeking to ban books from schools and libraries to such an extent that their child cannot even imagine, much less learn to understand, other viewpoints. The girl is not only lovely but a saint for putting up with her father's cage (not very much larger than Rapunzel's tower).

Gem, best wishes to you and your husband.

I'm still not done with the collection and will continue to welcome and respond to late comments. :)

Kyle, that's a good point - there is indeed a trend here from a certain sort of isolationism towards more diverse kinds of stories, and towards stories that seem to draw on less Anglo-centric traditions. So Lurie and/or Oxford wanted to show that trend specifically, maybe.

Do Not Delete: Georgina's self-promotion. I have flagged it, and Goodreads will want to see it while they deal with it.

I always assumed that Lord Dunsany was older and that his works would be more difficult to read. But, though *The Kith of the Elf-Folk* is old-fashioned, it's as easy to read as anything from 1910. And it's quite moving, too. I imagine that I'd appreciate it even more if I were Christian, or at least if I believed in souls.

Now Carl Sandburg is a more challenging read. He's written a lot for children (his poem *Arithmetic* is fairly widely anthologized, and his Rootabaga Storieshave been reprinted). But here he's represented by a story about a teenager - I guess Lurie is focusing this anthology on stories 'for adults.' But it's another one that I'm not sure has a theme beyond the obvious (think for yourself instead of wishing for luck), *The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power of the Gold Buckskin Whincher.* I believe it's nonsense, word-play, song... like much of the work of Edward Lear for example.

"The Aarne–Thompson classification systems are indices used to classify folktales: the Aarne–Thompson Motif-Index (catalogued by alphabetical letters followed by numerals), the Aarne–Thompson Tale Type Index (cataloged by AT or AaTh numbers), and the Aarne–Thompson–Uther classification system (developed in 2004 and cataloged by ATU numbers). They are named after their authors, Antti Aarne, Stith Thompson, and Hans-Jörg Uther. The indices are used in folkloristics to organize, classify, and analyze folklore narratives and are essential tools for folklorists, as Alan Dundes explained in 1997 about the first two indices, "the identification of folk narratives through motif and/or tale type numbers has become an international sine qua non among bona fide folklorists"."

https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37990#... and https://handwiki.org/wiki/Social:Aarn...

Re' the second question, about others:

I'd welcome works in translation, or some nod to the rest of the world beyond US & UK. (It seems to me that the most "diverse" rep. is from Singer and Malamud, the men who are Jewish, and Erdrich, to 'go-to' token Native American author.)

If there were to be an updated edition, I'm sure there would either be more works from the rest of the world included, or there would be an explanation why not. Does "Oxford Book of..." imprint mean English language from the northern hemisphere?

Some questions about the book as a whole, because the month is over. I will, however, continue to post my thoughts and questions about individual stories and hope that you all get a chance to read at least some of these.

Note the absence of Hans Christian Andersen. Do you think Lurie left him out because he's already too well-known as a writer of fairy tales? Or does she think his works are only for children?

Is there anyone else you know of who should have had a work included?

Do you know of other appropriate works by the included authors that you prefer, or that you hope, at least, that she considered?

Do you think that her selections indicate real trends (as discussed above, for example towards less didacticism), or did she select to create the appearance of trends?

Have you read any other anthologies that purport to survey and/or analyze wonder tales? I'm thinking of the website Sur La Lune, and the author Jack Zipes (for works such as Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children's Literature), and the Aarne–Thompson systems, for example.

I expected a theme from the story by H.G. Wells but I'm not finding one in The Magic Shop. Do any of you see one?

The boy king in The Queen of Quok by L. Frank Baum doesn't have much of an adventure, but he is a clever lad and deserves the magic gift he is given. And of course, it's Baum, so it's well-written and funny.

(Just an aside, this reminds me of one of the few instances in which the movie was better than the book. Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz is so wonderful that when I read the book I was disappointed.)

E. Nesbit's story, here, *The Book of Beasts.* is a very funny fable about a boy king who learns a lesson whilst having an adventure. Sounds similar to a lot of stories from the era, and some MG novels even now. But of course Edith Nesbit pulls it off with verve... there's a reason she's still read by those open to the older works. I like her short stories best, esp. The Book of Dragons. What have you read by her?

The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame is the cover story to this book. It's also been done more than once as a picture-book. (I set the link to an edition I've enjoyed.) My inner child and I both love to read and reread this story that is both fable and satire. Grahame is, of course, the author of *The Wind in the Willows* which I used to like until I got fed up with the lack of female representation, and now I'm a little less keen on this story because the only woman is the timid/fretful but overly nurturing Mother.

As we see by the fact that these stories are in order, girls and women were recognized as real people, by some wiser authors, well before Grahame's time. I will not give authors a pass on the 'isms just because 'it was the old days.'

Some of these are indeed very odd. I have no idea what to make of *The Song of the Morrow* by the canonical Robert Louis Stevenson. I mean, yes, I get that there's (view spoiler)[a cycle, revealed at the end, possibly hinted to earlier (hide spoiler)], but what the heck does "power of the hour" mean?

I'm a bit disturbed by Laurence Houseman's *The Rooted Lover.* The author seems to be saying that (view spoiler)[ even if the love of the princess for the ploughboy was achieved by magic, she'll be happier in rags with him, instead of in an arranged marriage to an ok person who can offer her security & comfort (hide spoiler)]. Do you agree this is what he meant, and if so, do you believe this to be true?

Then there's The Selfish Giant. Did any of you ever see the film? I did, when younger and more naive, and I missed the main theme (view spoiler)[of the Christ child, because I was raised agnostic (hide spoiler)] but I was still so moved that I remembered it and was delighted to rediscover the story while looking for more by Oscar Wilde.

He wrote such beautiful fairy tales.... Andersen gets all the fame, but if you get a chance to read an illustrated collection by Wilde I recommend you do so!

Frank Stockton deserves to be better known. I wonder if he's not just because he's not as prolific as Thurber, Nesbit, Grahame, and Tolkien, who also infused their stories with social commentary. Another problem might possibly be that there are no princesses or children in *The Griffin and the Minor Canon." But I don't know.

Certainly young me would have loved seeing adults with foibles get their comeuppance, had I read this as a girl. In fact, young me might have loved the story even more than adult me does. I will continue to try to find more by Stockton for sure.

In *Good Luck is Better than Gold* by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing (aka Mrs. Ewing, etc.) and *The Apple of Contentment* by Howard Pyle the heroes are given fairy gifts for no good reason. The first is a cautionary tale, but, then, the MC really had no chance to learn how to make the right choice. And the second is basically a Cinderella tale, equating beauty with good. At least the royal in the second is patient and didn't seize the apple by force, and there's an explanation for the fondness between the two that get the HEA. But still, I found both surprisingly dissatisfying and I'm not moved to read more by either, though their names are certainly well-known.

I enjoyed *The Toy Princess* by Mary De Morgan. The themes are a little in earnest, but I appreciate the gentle satire. And it has another golem/robot, as in *Feathertop!* I believe I can source more by the author and will prioritize doing so.

*The New Mother* is horrifying. I don't know if it's meant to be in the sense that modern horror is, or if it's sincerely didactic like so many of the children's stories of the 19th century. I can't appreciate it and will likely not hunt for more by Lucy Lane Clifford (though I am off to investigate to see if this is typical of her work, as I have a recollection of hearing the name before).

Charles Dickens, otoh, knows that childhood is not a time of easy joy for many children. In The Magic Fishbone there's still plenty of playfulness and wit... but the themes are, well, more Dickensian. This is a story I did not encounter until I read it here, but I love it now and believe that I would have as a child, too.

The only other Dickens that I've read is *A Christmas Carol.* I really ought to remedy that someday, as I do love that novella. It's just that his other books are so dang long....