The other day my daughter said something that caught me completely off guard. We were watching A Tale Dark and Grimm on Netflix (which if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend) and there was a reference to Rumpelstiltskin. She turned to me and asked who Rumpelstiltskin was.
Reader, I was flabbergasted!
How could it be that my child didn’t know a seminal character from Fairy tales? I remember reading the story, among others, to her when she was little. It was the story that started my Fairytale Feminista journey asking the question where Fairy Tales fit in modern storytelling and life. Where did I go wrong?
It really got me thinking about universality and storytelling. When I was a kid, my friends and I basically watched the same shows, read the same books, and went to the same movies. We had common reference points to communicate with each other. We all knew what it meant when you said, “I feel like Cinderella” or “I’m looking for my Prince Charming”. Now, everyone can have follow a sub-sub-genre of anything that caters to seemingly an audience of a hundred, a dozen, or even less. With all these “curated media experiences” we’ve lost something connective.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s wonderful and amazing that we’ve expanded the lexicon of storytelling by adding more people and experiences that were otherwise lacking (read: European and patriarchal to diverse in all senses of the word). I am happy that I finally see myself in some of my favorite genres. I also miss talking about a book I’m reading with friends and family because they’ve never heard of it.
What does this mean for something as arcane as fairy tales? Will their origins get lost or will the entire genre simply disappear? I know it’s not a dire threat, what with Disney and fairy tale retellings, but even that might one day lose its appeal.
In the meantime, I will continue to watch A Tale Dark and Grimm and fill in any gaps in what I consider a vital education for my daughter. Wish me luck!
Reader, do you think there are still universal stories or should we let go of that idea all together?
