Diversifying fairytales

[rhian_crockett]

I'm really interested in "diversified fairytales", by which I mean retellings of traditional stories which give a place to characters not generally included (or not positively included). Examples of this would be my own Happy Ever Afters, which is a version of Sleeping Beauty in which a servant-girl kisses the princess, and Malinda Lo's Ash, which is an LGBT retelling of Cinderella. I'm sure there are other retold fairytales out there: Disney's The Princess and the Frog might count, given that the princess is a person of colour -- I haven't seen it, though. Other ideas might be to include characters with disabilities, non-neurotypical people, people who don't fit into the gender binary...

In any case, I'm really interested in seeing more of this kind of thing. I would love to put together some kind of anthology, perhaps as an ebook and as a 'print on demand' type thing. Problem is, I haven't the least idea of how to do it, and I don't have many people interested in submitting.

So, I turn to you, internet! Please, bring your friends. Retweet. Reblog. Pass it around. Pass the link to authors who would support such an endeavour, and might send me some help! Share what you know. Help me figure out how to do this. If you think you know exactly what to do, talk to me -- maybe we can do this together.

(I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared by the idea of leading such a project. Be gentle with me.)

Comments

[rhian_crockett]

Hi! Good to see you.

Hm, that bears thinking about. A whole anthology could be made simply on the basis of undemonising (totally a word!) female power, and be very worthwhile and important! I'm planning to post some kind of more specific discussion about what content is going to be sought out and considered acceptable, and this is definitely something we can discuss then. If it was the only thing people wanted to submit, it could rather overwhelm the original idea, but at the same time it's something that still needs doing. I can't say yes or no without some more discussion -- I want this to be something lots of people have input in -- but I'll make sure to address this soon!

You're definitely welcome to subscribe! And poke me, if I don't keep the ball rolling on this project, heh.

[lexicalcrow]

I figured there was definitely room to discuss what kinds of characters and such would be good at a later date, but I thought I'd bring it up anyway, just to see if it would be something to consider, even if I don't end up writing it. (I'm Pagan, it's a bit of a sore point. :P) But I'm totally cool with writing other sorts of characters too. I think the more diverse the collection is, the better.

Awesome. :D Will do so. I'd love to see a project like this get off the ground.

[rhian_crockett]

Agreed! The inclusion of alternate religions in this project is, on reflection, somewhat obvious: fairytales make so many assumptions, and in so many cases, a background of Christian values and society is one of them (e.g. I study a lot of medieval texts, and might well retell one of those, so the Christian background would be a given for my work). This is definitely something we should discuss, and thank you for mentioning it -- it's important people mention anything I might overlook. Even if ultimately it doesn't quite fit, it's important to think about it.

Me too! The idea of the responsibility for it both scares and excites me, heh.