Fairie Tale Fettish

One of my book fettishes is fairy tale adapatations. I love it when an auther takes a traditional fairy tale, then modernizes it, gives it a new twist, puts in a different setting, etc. By far, the most adapted fairy tale I have found is Cinderella. The whole plot is just so easily applied to any time period and any setting. I just read a book called A Countess Below Stairs, by Eva Ibbotson. I wasn't expecting it to be a Cinderella plot book, but was delighted to find one of my beloved fairy tales retold. (Also, I was delighted by how refreshing a read it was. Yes, it is what I consider a romance novel, but it also contains adorable characters and has interesting things to say about social classes in a English manor house post-WWI.)

So, in an effort to give myself a reason to blog more, I may start posting a feature about fairy tales and their adaptations. I'm not sure of the format, or if I will be motivated to post with any sort of regularity, but I'll try it, at least for a little while. Ok, first post, Cinderella.

Note: Anything that sounds factual probably came from the Wikipedia article on Cinderella.

There are countless versions of this beloved fairy tale told in various ancient cultures across the globe, including Greco-Egyptian (possibly the earliest version), Chinese, Japanese, Arabian and Celtic. Though I always assumed that the Brothers Grimm fairie tale was the original European version, I learned that Charles Perrault had written his own version in 1697 (according to the Wikipedia article) and that an Italian version had been published even earlier. Perrault, though, was the one who added the pumpkin turning into a coach, the fairy godmother, and the glass slippers. Grimm's version, which I prefer because it's more gruesome, has birds (Aha! Here's where those friendly woodland creatures come from!) and a magic wishing tree instead of a fairy godmother, stepsisters that cut off various parts of their feet to fit into the shoes, and pigeons that peck people's eyes out. Good stuff.

My Top Five Favorite Adaptations:

Disclaimer: All of the following is my opinion. Keep in mind that I am a silly fangirl at heart. Hence, many of the versions I love and enjoy are silly and girly and have no substance.

-Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Any of the three movie versions, also the stage musical)
-Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (the book, NOT the movie)
-A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson
-The Brothers Grimm version
-Ever After (1998)

Honorable Mentions:
-The Glass Slipper (1955) starring Leslie Caron
-Faerie Tale Theatre's "Cinderella" (1985) with Jennifer Beals and Matthew Broderick
-Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey
-The Slipper and the Rose (1976)
There are about a billion others. Check out the Wikipedia article here for more adaptations. Make a comment if you have a favorite that I simply must read/see. Or make a comment to suggest what fairie tale to do next.

Small Town Stories

I have just decided that there are some great bonuses to working in a small town. One of the older residents of Gurley just told me a story about why Gurley has no jail.

So, this young man got tired of being locked up every weekend for being drunk, so he took a big chain from the lumbermill, attached it to a freight train and to the little jail building. The jail, of course, went flying down the tracks. A local farmer built a barn out of the remains. And the young man who did the deed was none other than the mayor's son!

Aren't small towns great?

Things That Make Me Smile About My Job

Gurley, the town where I work, has a street called Elvis Presley Blvd.
Half of the people that come into the library ask if we have the Twilight books.
The scenic drive to work, though a half hour long, is absolutely gorgeous in the spring.
I filled in at another branch this morning and got to work with one of my favorite people!
When I work at other branches, I get to ransack their DVD collections.
Old people tell great stories and gossip like fiends.
Apparently, I'm grown-up enough to run a branch all on my own. Scary. But a good scary.
Small children bring me handmade crafts made of sequins and popsicle sticks.
Small children ask me to read them stories.
Small children gaze in wonder at our awesome Brio train table.
I found a copy of James E. Talmage's Jesus the Christ in our small collection.
I think we have the entire series of The Waltons on DVD. At our one tiny branch.
I can change the background color on Workflows, and no one ever changes it back to blue!
When the computers were busted the other day, the IT people were so grateful that I was a young, technologically-inclined person.

Bookmarks

So, I found this page that has "cool bookmark designs," and thought I'd share. My favorite is the bookmark lamp. I seriously need one of these. Too bad my birthday's past already.

Flying Solo

I must be doing well with my new job.

I must be doing well, because they have me running a tiny branch for a couple weeks ALL BY MYSELF! It's all me. No one else. Scary.

Ok, well, I do have the phone-a-friend lifeline if disaster strikes. But still, for all the everyday things, I'm by myself. And I have been out here by myself for the past couple days now and everything has run smoothly. No angry patrons. At least, not yet. I hope I can keep it that way.

I've done a little organizing. I put the DVD cases in rough alphabetical order (all the movies starting with 'A' grouped together and so forth). Now I'm working on the discs.

I've helped people find stuff. Today, a lady was looking for some I Spy books and we found where those are. Yesterday I scoured the catalog for a book about haunted houses for this little boy. That was fun.

I've had some interesting conversations. Old people like to talk, I've learned. And they have opinions about everything.

Right now, this is a temporary situation. But it's not so scary as I thought it was going to be. And I've even enjoyed myself at times. It is rather intimidating to think that there's really no one I can pass the buck to, but I've handled it so far. I don't know if I've handled it well, but I have handled it.

And I do kinda like the drive out here. I get to drive over the mountain and through rural Alabama, which is quite pretty, even in the brown month of February.