Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale

Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale by Jack Zip·* When we thkik of the taky tale today, we primarily thkik of the classical taky tale. We thkik of those taky tales that are the most popular ki the Western world: Ckidereia. Snow White. Little Red Ridlno Hood. Sleeping BSfluft, BlBurjzeL Beauty and the Beast. Ruirtoelstittskln. The UoIv DuckRno. The Princess and the Pea. Puss ki Boots. The Froo King. Jack and the BeanatoJk. Tom Thumb. The Uttie Mermaid, etc. It is natural to thkik mainly of these taky tales as H they had always been with us, as if they were part of our nature. Newly written taky tales, especially those that are innovative and radical, are unusual, exceptional, strange, and artificial because they do not conform to the patterns set by the classical taky tale. And, if they do conform and become tamüar, we tend to forget them after a while, because the classical taky tale suffices. We are safe with the tarnftar. We shun the new, the real innovations. The classical taky tale makes K appear that we are al part of a universal community with shared values and norms, that we are al striving for the same happiness, that there are certain dreams and wishes which are irrefutable, that a particular type of behavior wi produce guaranteed result, Hke Ivkig happly ever after with lots of gold In a marvelous castle, our castle and fortress that wi forever protect us from Inimical and unpredictable forces of the outside world. We need only have faith and beieve ki the classical taky tale, just as we are expected to have faith and beieve ki the American flag as we swear the Pledge of Aiegtence. The taky tale is myth. That Is, the classical taky tale has undergone a procesa of mythldzation. Any fairy tale ki our society, if it seeks to become natural and eternal, must become myth. Only innovative taky tales are antimythical , resist the tide of mythidzation, comment on the taky tale as myth. Even the classical myths are no longer vaid as Myths with a capital M but with a smal m. That is, the classical myths have ateo become Ideologically mythicized, de-hbtoricized, de-podticized to further the medgemonlc interests of the bourgeoisie. As we know from Roland Berthes, myth is de-podticized speech. Myth is a type of speech defined by its intention much more than Hs Itérai sense; and that ki spite of this, its intention Is somehow frozen, purified, eternalized, made absent by this Itérai sense. ... On the surface of language something has stopped moving: the use of signification Is here, hkftig behind the tact, and conferring on it a notifying look; but at the same time, the tact paralyses the intention, gives it something Hke a malaise producing krmobtty: in order to make it Innocent, K freezes IL This is because mythl is speech stolen and restored. Only speech which Is restored is no longer quite that which was stolen: when K was brought back, it was not put exactiy ki Hs place. H is this brief act of larceny, this moment taken for a surreptitious taking, which gives myth Hs benumbed look. (124-25) The taky tale, which has become the mythMed classical taky tale, is indeed petrified in Hs restored consternation: H is a stolen and frozen cultural good, or Kulturgut as the Germans might say. What belonged to archaic societies, what belonged to pagan tribes and communtttea was passed down by word of mouth as a good only to be hardened into script Christian and patriarchal. It has undergone and undergoes a motivated process of revision, re-ordering, and refinement. Al the tools of modem Industrial society (the printing press, the radio, the camera, the film, the record, the vidéocassette) have matte their mark on the taky tale to make H classical ultimately ki the name of the bourgeoisie which refuse· to be named, denies kwoKemerrt; for the taky tale must appear harmless, natural, eternal, ahistorical, therapeutic. We are to five and breathe the classical taky tato as fresh, free ak. We are tod to beieve that this air has not been...