Fairy Tales: Their Influence Over Modern-Day Media

    Pretty much everyone has heard the story of Little Red Riding Hood or Jack and the Beanstalk. They’re kids' stories. Ones passed down long enough that they’re almost unrecognizable compared to the Grimm’s fairy tales that most originated from. But the stories almost always hold a lesson. Something that teaches the new generations to be “better” than the countless others that have ignored the basic human decency taught by these stories. 

    Many of the morals are applicable in solid stories today. Little Red Riding Hood teaches not to talk to strangers, and Jack and the Beanstalk teaches to reach for opportunity. So many stories have values that many could benefit from learning, but books catered to older audiences usually keep these as a theme. 

    Even if it isn’t through the moral, many modern novels take inspiration from classic tales but twist them into something enjoyable for teenagers and up. How to be Eaten by Maria Adelmann shows twisted and modern versions of classic fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella). She keeps the basic story of each fairy tale in her novel, but makes the stories far more intriguing for adult readers. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, however, provides a dystopian version of fairy tales. I know someone else has reviewed them in blog posts, but I quite enjoyed these books. They were interesting (albeit cringey) and an intriguing take on the older stories. Ash by Malinda Lo is yet another retelling of a classic tale. It is a saphic rendition of the Cinderella story and is, once again, a generally good book. 

    So many stories are even loosely based on old ones. That’s how literature works. No idea is completely and truly original. It’s important to recognize the stories that came before the ones today. Even if the inspiration is subtle, I still think it’s very interesting how much literature is wrapped around the so-called “children’s stories”. Maybe your favorite movie took an idea from The Sleeping Beauty, or you have to solve a riddle in a game (like Rumpelstiltskin). No matter what media you're consuming, it has to come from somewhere. 

    So yeah, fairy tales are kind of part of everything we consume. I think it’s pretty cool, but I also think fairy tales are pretty cool. I any of y’all like fantasy, look at the original Grimm Brothers’ stories, a lot of them are far more interesting than the watered-down Disney stories we were raised on.