Of Fairies and FIFA World Cups...

Just yesterday I was indexing my lil library (It needed indexing badly, the old index showed a lousy and abysmal 114 books, while right now it’s over 150), when I reached my segment of Fairy Tales. This made me give a curious smirk for indescribable raison d'être. Maybe for the verity that I was so love-struck and smitten by them - before the age of 12 – and I now I don’t even mull over their existence. It also made me thinking.

Fairy Tale, initially time-honored castle-in-the-sky chronicles about delightful and magical people; the expression, surprisingly, now also covers far-fetched tales from many sources, including folktales and fables, which do not always embrace magic. Fairy tales are often supposed to have “timeless” rudiments, and there are unquestionably intermittent features: brawny heroes, fluky peasants, stunning princesses, good-looking and valiant princes and iniquitous - and I must say - wicked stepmothers (or stepfathers, for that matter). Similar stories are found in many countries, and early tales very often have the qualms and dreams of the regular people. (The wolves of contemporary versions of the tales were formerly the werewolves in the nameless darkness outside the firelight; in later cultures, working girls could dream of finding a sapphire slipper that would fit them and win them a prince as a husband! I wish! I wish!). Many of the tales are heavy with bloodshed and regrettably sexual symbolism. Despite their “universal” self, the tales are frequently customized to ensemble the cognizant or cataleptic tastes of each age band, chiefly when they are adapted for kids.



Britain has a protracted institution of magic and magical beings, which have passed through many fashions and crazes. Shakespeare momentarily popularized the design of gauzy-winged little creatures in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595-1596) – you’d know if you’ve read it or seen the movie variation - but on the whole the indigenous British tradition was more stout, with giants, ogres, goblins, and banshees (whose wails foretold death); the Irish leprechauns – whom we also find in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire as the Irish supporters - have a repute for playfulness, whereas kelpies were firstly water-demons, and pixies led people off beam.
The fresh fairy tale derives from a trend in late 17th-century France under Louis XIV. The prior French chapbooks (the bibliothèque bleue) and the Italian Pentamerone (1634-1636) was possibly – I haven’t read these books! A friend of mine told me about it, so I can’t be sure - the font of “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Cinderella”, and “Puss in Boots”.

In Britain, from the 1760s, most likely, the tales appeared in discounted popular editions (although they were less popular in the United States). In the 19th century the stash of fairy tales was augmented by the addition of English folktales, such as “Jack and the Beanstalk” and stories derived from the Arabian Nights.

Despite antagonism from moralists and educationalists, the fairy tale became progressively more all the rage in the 19th century, moving swiftly from adults’ to children’s editions. No fewer than four versions of the Hans Christian Andersen collection Eventyr (fairy stories) – I’ve read them, they’re terrific and fab - appeared in 1846 (1st edition, i.e.). Some scholars feel that Andersen was the writer who had the most sway on the growth of children’s literature in the 19th century, and his often-heartrending tales, notably “The Little Mermaid”, “The Ugly Duckling”, and “Thumbelina” have remained popular and have been fruitfully filmed. Though as for me I haven’t seen the movie versions…I read them being excellent in an Internet article.

As a result of this popularity, fairies of various kinds appeared in children’s literature: famous examples are George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin (1872), and the collection of short stories, The Happy Prince (1888) by Oscar Wilde. At the end of the 19th century, fairies became part of a exceptionally over-romantic and schmaltzy view of childhood; the olden English spirit, Puck, in Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906) by Rudyard Kipling, complained that they misrepresented the hard-hitting, potent, magical figures of legend, in an accentual way…

As fairy tales became more and more exclusively reading material designed for children in the 20th century, they have urbanized and changed. Generally, the cruder, more sadistic and scary elements have been cut out. A good example is “Little Red Riding Hood”. A very good example, I say! In its earliest versions, which I read, the wolf kills the grandmother and puts her flesh on a plate, and her blood in a bottle *scary, eh?*; Little Red Riding Hood then comes to an distasteful and horrid closing stages in the wolf’s bed. Other adaptations show her (but not the grandmother) escaping through her own ingenuity which made me go BONKERZ I got so puzzled…Nineteenth-century versions introduced the male woodcutter to save the “vulnerable” females, and many 20th-century editions present a blissful ending in which only the wolf is actually debilitated—and most recently, as I read in my 6 year old cousin’s book of fairy tales, even the wolf has been rehabilitated. Wow! Generosity. Psychologists have seen the story as being fundamentally about relationships between men and women. I wonder how.

Major influences on the development of the tales have been the films of Walt Disney. These have been criticized for corniness, and embodying explicitly American values – Though I didn’t find that objectionable with me! In recent years there has been a fashion for “adult” fairy tales (!!), for example, The Bloody Chamber (1979) by Angela Carter, which proved really weird for me, you know, it’s nothing like those sweet little charming fairy tales you read, and for feminist and “politically approved” versions.

Fairy tales are at the heart of the British pantomime tradition, you’ll find them in some of the Enid Blyton stories, and have become immersed into the national (and global, for that matter) ethnicity. Such is the assumed pervasiveness of the tales that Roald Dahl was able to incorporate fairy-tale characters in his parodies Revolting Rhymes (1982) which is really cute. The fairy tale seems likely to carry on to be an indispensable facet of world mores.

I wonder if Harry Potter essentially is a Fairy Tale…? You know, considering it has magick and everything… Perhaps it’s, but the idea is so preposterous and ludicrous, that I can’t help dropping it! What do you think?
OK, now done with that shit. Sometimes, I myself dunno what I ranting about…my brain is you know jammed and stuck and totally grossed!

So, now I’m back from my enchanting trip to US. It was heavenly. It was heavenly. It was heavenly. It was heavenly. Ahh…what else…can you describe heaven? I went there along with my maternal uncle. They live at Pennsylvania. My uncle works at Pennsylvania University, see, so it was bit academicky milieu for me for the former fraction of the trip. Later on, as my uncle issued a leave, we, that’s to say, uncle, aunt and their 2 sons who are older that me – had a super-duper blast. We visited California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Washington, Hawaii, Kentucky. Phew. Now you know, why I’m being an all creep and behaving like a weirdo. All these 10 states in, let me see, I went on 24th May, and returned on 6th June. So that’d be 13 days! Yo, American babe! Haha! Of course I didn’t visit all the cities in each state – only, which were chic and flashy like San Francisco, LA, San Diego and a few others I don’t remember the names…in California.

The people over there were so…different! They were you know blithe, laid-back and well unfussy…people walking and cycling around with headphones and walkmans (men?), and the studentz well they can hardly be called studentz! Wearing what-you want dresses at school, life is just happy-go-lucky for them! I wish! I wish! I went to Abbey’s school, he studies in grade 11, and my! What cute girls and what handsome guyz! Like, o_o! But they were also damn tall, and to me uh uh, I sucked! All the girls were I could swear no less that 5’6” although they were just maybe 1 or 2 years older to me! And the boys were oh, 5’9”! Abbey himself is 5’9” and Ray, who is now in college, is about 6’…I hate myself! **sobz**

Although Ronney doesn’t studies in a hi-fi school but the school was much above Indian standard schools...the infrastructure was too good for words! But I must say the items were pretty expensive…so not much shopping out there for me…I only got some glosses and some T-shirts and my uncle and aunt gave me perfumes, outfits, toyz for Ryan, make up stuff for mom, shaving kit for dad, loadz of chocolates (YUMM!) and this that…trinkets you know. Abbey and Ray gave me loadz of CDs and second hand trashed junk (which includez stunning posters of different celebz…I’m not sure if I’ll put them all up…cuz some of them are uh not really good)…but no less good for me. Hah! I wonder what they’ll be thinking if they’re reading this right now. Creepz!

Then I met with Abbey’s 14 girlfriendz…**winkz**…if you ask me, all the girlz look charming and just charismatic…but the girlz I saw were mostly Spanish…there were hardly any you know native Americans…who aren’t as good…

About visiting the attractions, well, can I say bad? It was incomparable and brilliant! I’ve never seen anything in my life so dazzling! I guess it’ll take me an entire day describing facts and trivia to you, so letz drop it. I’m not in the mood to waste an entire day… It was good. So there’s it. My vocabulary and lexis is devastating and distressingly underprivileged and incomplete in even the most crucial wordz **uh** so I’m not the brightest person around with adjectives cuz the only wordz which are coming into my head are nice and good (and fine)! Damner!

Nearer home…R.Y.A.N. Hehe. His latest ‘school-name’, as we say it here, is Ryan Archit Paul, or Archit Ryan Paul. Any one of them…give me your poll. Huh. Which one soundz better? Or if you have any good names, I’m wanting. My fave names are you know just too many to list. I wish I’d more brothers…haha.

If I’d the emancipation I’d change my name to Cheznie. It soundz so kewl. Or Kenzington. Kenzy for short! Damn me!

Latest addition to my library is Best Of Guy De Maupassant and Tell me Your Dreams by Sidney Sheldon. Book review later.

To end on a bitter note…uh…I’ve yet not completed my shitworkz, Physix and Math are still untouched…long live untouchability…no pun intended!
My individual projectz, well,

English – ahh, almost done, haven’t still made the Q card. But it’ll probably deal with some grammatical know-how whatsoever. My book review is on Eragon of The Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini. It’s a damn terrific book; I’ll post the analysis sometime. It’s not great, but at least you’ll get an idea. Wall magazine is on the development of surnames in England. Damn boring, but whatever. When was shitworkz exciting? Lotz of aricles, poems for the class magazines…I intend to whip up a story also, if I can. Collage is on Football World Cup 2006 in Germany. It’s pretty eye-catching with a burgundy frame. Dad loved it and gorges over it everyday! I must say a mishap happened tio it. We were supposed to do it on a half chartpaper, but I simply forgot about it and made it lavishly on a full chart. When I came to know I was like pissed off and broken…poor me! Mini-Dic is group and I’m least bothered! Haha.

Bio – I’ve worked out what I’ll make. It’s on smoke conservation and air pollution – or the other way around. You’ve got to make a working model based on any ecological issue or on any theme which is in your syllabus. I went for the former one! At first I was simply lost! How do you make a working model of anything? Although I’ve done a 3-year Electronix course at my school, but still without some sort of backing it can prove tricky. But then Dad became a sweet angel and showed me the way. I’ll publish it here once the entire class submitz their model…I don’t want them creepz coming in and stealing ideas from me – damn cheaterz! Damn plagiarizers!

History – no idea…I mean no idea how I’ll do it…I’ll probably ask Zeba, the History mugger.

Chem – Group. And the group suckz.

I saw the opening ceremony of FIFA world cup on Friday night. Wasn’t it funny? The girls flying all over the place on whatever you call dresses? But it looked arresting and beautiful nevertheless. The match between Costa Rica and Germany was also fascinating. 4-2 to Germany…YAY? This is probably the first opening match Costa Rica lost…but like against Germany! Germany minus Ballack played stupendously! I predominantly loved their passes! Whhosh! Smooooth! Oh, btw, my new crush, Klose…nay, kidding, no one can be akin with my *david*! Long live English team! My dad supports Argentina but sayz Germany has a good chance to win…I support England but say England has a good chance win…haha, an English girl through and through! That I am! I’m particularly on the lookout for Peter Crouch…wonder how he’ll be…

So, I think it’s really a loooooong post, so that gives me a pretext not posting till next Sunday! Haha! I can say with poise and self-reliance that I’m the most slothful and languid person in existence, and that I plan to keep myself that way – NO MATTER WHAT!

Word Count – 2280 wordz. Just to show you how much I (am) RIIIIGHT!