Coming Up!

Just wanted to let all of you know, I'm almost done with my recap of my talk!  All I have left to do is I've decided to try and make a brief video with a sort of summary of my talk to go along with the Prezi presentation, because I figured just having the image slideshow wouldn't make much sense!  So I'm hoping this video making experiment will go well, and if not I'll just post a written summary of sorts.

I also have a few more posts in the works which should be up soon, but as the end of the semester is dawning I've been really busy with class!

I've also been working on a new presentation on the place of religion in the reading of fairy tales which I'll be presenting in my Grimm's Fairy Tale class, which has been a lot of fun so far! I'm focusing my talk on two classic fairy tales (Faithful Johannes and one that's still TBD), a work of illustration (Trina Schart Hyman's Snow White), a film (Snow White and the Huntsman) and a new retelling (A Tale Dark and Grimm)! And I wanted to say thanks to Adam Gidwitz for some great feedback for my presentation and point all of you to his essay called, "In Defense of Fairy Tales" in which he wonderfully melds discussion of a critical view of fairy tales with the practical use of them as well by way of his experiences teaching and telling these stories to kids! Here's the link to his essay: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/10/14/the-forest-beckons-the-magic-of-real-fairy-tales/  And there's also a great interview with Adam and Monica Edinger over at her blog Educating Alice: http://medinger.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/adam-gidwitz-on-spooky-spooky-fairy-tales/

Classic Fairy Tale: Grimm's Faithful Johannes

Work of Illustration:  Trina Schart Hyman's Snow White

Film: Snow White and the Huntsman

New Retelling: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Fairy Tale-A-Day: The Snow Queen & Snow White

Hi Everyone! So I'm still figuring out how to structure my fairy tale posts...but I wanted to let you know that I added more images to my Snow White Pinterest board which you can find here: http://pinterest.com/illuminate90/snow-white-past-and-present/

And I created a board for The Snow Queen which you can find here: http://pinterest.com/illuminate90/the-snow-queen/

Here are some of the new images I found for Snow White and for The Snow Queen:

How about comparing these two images of Snow White's mother:

They are so different Charles Santore's version on top has much more light, it's streaming in on Snow White's mother and there is a sense of hope, something to come, her face is not as sad for she has already seen the three drops of blood and garnered her inspiration for a wish for a child.  On the other hand, Trina Schart Hyman's work is a bit darker, sadder, less hopeful in part because the mother has yet to see the three drops of blood, she is lost in thought still.  Hyman's mother looks more like she's been in depression, struggling while Santore's mother is so perfectly put together.

And two images from The Snow Queen of Gerda and the reindeer (sorry if there was a random image here earlier instead of the Dulac illustration, I've fixed it!):

The image on top is from Edmund Dulac and on the bottom from Errol le Cain.  The two images present startling differences in their depictions of Gerda and her escape on the reindeer.  Both are beautiful images, but in my head this scene looked more stylistically how Dulac chose to show it, especially in terms of what Gerda is wearing for example.  She is in a little girl's dress, a bit tattered, no shoes; she looks a bit to almost regal in Cain's depiction.  It's interesting that he chose to represent the robbers in a Gypsy/Arabian Nights type flare, for that's not implied at all in the written story.

That was fun, it felt like a picture study/slide comparison from art history, except with illustrations!  

What do you think about these images? Do you prefer one more than the other, how do the stylistic differences impact your relation to that moment in the story?