The Guardian newspaper in the UK challenged three writers -- Hilary Mantel, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Audrey Niffenegger -- to create new fairy tales "fit for the 21st century" for the Children's section of the paper. You can read the results here.
Okay, dear readers, what are your thoughts about this "challenge," and about the stories themselves...?
The art in this post is by the wonderful Julia Jeffrey, who lives in Scotland. You'll find more of her work on her MySpace page and in the Endicott/JoMA gallery.
To me a good fairy tale, or any story, should not be restricted to time or place. While they may be set in a specific time or place that shouldn't be what is key to the story. By making time be essential to the story the author, or challengers in this case, are stunting the story's future.
Posted by: Dragan | November 15, 2007 at 07:19 AM
And thanks for the art links. :-) Always appreciated. (Her work is terrific).
Posted by: tlchang | November 15, 2007 at 03:00 PM
Not sure what I think about challenges like this. In the end if the produce amazing stories then I guess it was a success. More often than not I think putting restrictions on a writer doesn't allow them to always to their best work. An example of a 'challenge' that I think works is Neil Gaiman's story The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch, in which Neil was given a Frank Frazetta image, one of my favorites, to create a story around. Doing something like that still ties the story to some sort of theme and yet gives the author free reign to do whatever they wish.
And I agree with tlchang, I'm excited to look at more of her art!
Posted by: Carl V. | November 23, 2007 at 08:25 AM