Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Disillusions


The older adaptations of the story of Snow White include the evil Queen demanding that Snow White's heart be given to her after she is killed. I find this one detail of the story to be so frightening. She draws similarities to the infamous "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory, which isn't any more comforting. I've been told that the legends of Bathory bathing in the murdered maidens' blood is NOT true...but any fact on her history has been so permeated with fiction, that its hard to tell whats actually true.

I've been looking back at the art that influenced me as a child. Henry J. Ford's illustrations in the Fairy Books series were one of my early obsessions. I was too young to really understand the stories, but I remembered the illustrations fascinating and haunting me at the same time. Beautiful women, twisted trolls, both magical and horrifying at the same time. I learned that I loved artists like Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham earlier than I ever had the capacity to remember their names.

I don't think there's enough fairy tales for the older generation any more. I guess they would fall under the fantasy novel genre, or graphic novels, but I haven't found anything quite like the Fairy Books in modern publications. If anyone knows of some good books to check out, please inform me!!


Bexoxo
- Larissa