Unlike Any Other

This past week, I had the absolute honor of sitting in on a lecture by Dr. Ochieng ‘K’Olewe. The Education Professor at McDaniel College is a native of Kenya, Africa, and took the time out of his schedule to tell us stories of his home continent. At some points, I had absolute chills from his high level of story-telling.  

The why behind the stories (the setting, interaction, etc.) is all because the community and society is much like a piece of woven fabric- one strand is the folktales and folklore, which overlaps with things such as music, religion, history, and geography.

What made this story-telling experience unlike any other? For one, the level of interaction between Dr. Ochieng was unlike anything else I had ever experienced or even heard of. Every story began with a call and response- such as ‘Come Story Come’. Not only did we have that, but many of the stories required participation on our end, as the listeners, to chime in on the chants that were relevant to the story- such as the tale of the woman that was leaving her husband, returning to her lake, chanting and warning anyone nearby that a storm was coming and to bring the cows home:

Lake Simbi Nyaima (pic from Google)

Uuun ma-uwinja

Koth biro

Kel-uru dhok e dala

 

As we were told by our guest of honor, one of the main reasons that many of the stories had chants or songs is, not only for dramatic effect, but because the story is then not just my (as the storyteller) story, but our story/ the “us” is more important than the “me”, an idea that I find to be extremely powerful and not considered enough in our current culture.

A Cinderella Story- Realistic or nah?

I must admit, while I was never the typical little girl growing up (I preferred my computer games and books to makeup and shopping), I of course, dreamed of the idea of being able to have whatever I wanted, when I wanted. Growing up, up until I was eight years old, it was just my single mother and me. She worked hard so that we could have a little bit of extra spending money for things like gymnastics lessons for me (that lasted about three months) or dance lessons (that one lasted almost a year), or whatever I decided I wanted to pursue for the month. There’s always been something somewhat romantic about the idea of going from a poor situation to one where everything you could ever want is at your fingertips (whether it be through marriage or magic).

Apologies for the blurry photo, but a picture of tiny me (in orange) at a gymnastics birthday party

I must admit, I had never seen Pretty Woman until it was required for this week’s blogpost. I kind of adored it. It was simple, sweet, and the quintessential “Cinderella” story. The one thing that most people equate with a “Cinderella” story is the idea of rags to riches (usually through marriage or magic).

And certainly, Cinderella and Vivian (our street-smart protagonist of Pretty Woman), achieve their riches through marriage. But how realistic is that exactly? As much as many women like to pretend it’s possible, when considering today’s culture and perspective on things such as prostitution, it just does not seem feasible.

I really enjoyed Pretty Woman I did. But I have a feeling, if you were to ask a millennial (female more likely) their perception of the film, they would take a very feminist perspective when criticizing both Vivian and Edward, our Prince Charming. Their top argument against the film is that it would be unrealistic and portrays women as hookers, when women should be aiming for better jobs and more equality. 

Acceptable? Pic from abovethelaw.com (there was a lawsuit!)

What I find poignant from Pretty Woman, and the sequel to Disney’s Cinderella, is that both women want to do more with their lives. Vivian wants to go back and finish high school and do more with her life. While the original Cinderella from Disney does not show much, in Cinderella II she is shown not quite as the delicate, compliant woman that the Prince marries. Instead, she is shown going out and about in the town, solving problems for various townspeople (including her own stepsister). 

Over the years, there has been many, many variations- all sorts of "A Cinderella Story" movie sagas, and I absolutely loved every variation of them- because truly, the underdog wins out and it's the ultimate "rise tale". And of course, being the huge fan of Walt Disney World that I am, a picture of Cinderella's Castle and I was a must add to this blog post!

Photo credit: My sister, otherwise she would be angry :)

One last thing before I finish my rant- Disney’s Cinderella is certainly frowned upon by much of the current culture and community for not “having a backbone”, being too submissive, and the like- I never got that perception. What I saw was a young woman that had lost both her mother and father and was thrust into a terrible situation, but still tried to make the best of it. Cinderella worked to keep a calm, collected persona as much as possible. She was kind. And the message I received from that was that as long as you tried to be calm, collected, and kind, good things would come your way, no matter what else you encountered along the way.

Which story has the fairest of them all?

My first introduction to Rammstein came just about two years ago when I worked in a local music shop, and the metal-head manager put on the band while we went through the closing procedures (he only put that on at night as we weren’t allowed to put on anything considered heavy metal). The only song I was able to recognize (after hearing the albums over and over) was ‘Du Hast’. I had absolutely no idea what the German band was singing about, but I found myself nodding along to the beat nonetheless!

I was once again shown the worldwide recognition of Rammstein during my class on Folk and Fairy Tales, when we were shown the music video for ‘Sonne’, as the entire video is based upon the tale of ‘Snow White’. But how does it compare to the collected stories of Snow White by Maria Tatar?

For certain, the least similar to ‘Sonne’ is that of “The Young Slave” By Giambattista Basile. Basile tells a tale of a Baron’s niece that is abused by his wife, her aunt. Painted a slave by the cruel Baroness, our heroine, Lisa, we see as she struggles with the idea of suicide until her uncle finds out the truth of his niece and rescues her from the pits of despair, sending the cruel woman back to her parents. 

The Snow White portrayed by Rammstein shows a risqué, selfish woman that takes advantage of the dwarves. Nowhere in the tale of Basile did I find anything that would remind me of the conventional tale of Snow White (by “conventional tale”, I refer to that of the Disney movie). 

However, I would argue there is something to compare and that is the mention of suicide. In the written tale by Basile, the young woman is threatening to kill herself, and is about to do the deed, when her uncle barges in and saves the day. On the same note, the protagonist in the music video is addicted to gold (which seems to be symbolic for either heroin or cocaine), snorting the powder, and using a needle to insert it into her body. This is what causes “Snow White” to go into a deep sleep. Therefore, I would say a similarity between the two is the idea or contemplation of ending the pain, or thoughts, or escaping them- through suicide or drugs… which often leads to the exact same place. 

Behind the Scenes of the 'Sonne' music video- pic from Pinterest

Meanwhile, the story many people know (or close to it) is the story of “Snow White” by the Brothers Grimm. I find the biggest correlation between Rammstein’s video and the story by Brothers Grimm is when it comes to the characterization of the dwarfs. In both versions, the dwarfs have a positive relationship with Snow White (from their perspective I believe. I would argue that the beauty in the music video does not have a positive relationship with the dwarfs- it is a very one-sided relationship). In both versions, the dwarfs care greatly for the human and are devastated when she goes into her deep slumber. They then put her into a glass coffin and carry her onto the mountain where she can lay, mourned by the little men that loved her. This is where the similarities end. Snow White, in the music video, is awakened when the single apple falls from the dead tree on the mountain. The tale from the Brothers Grimm ends with Snow White awakening from, not from true love’s kiss, but from the piece of poison apple falling out of her throat. 

A curious similarity between the Rammstein video and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Anne Sexton is the use of modern language and tools. In the video, the dwarfs are using power tools- something completely unthought of. Fairy tales are supposed to be timeless, you are not supposed to be able to pinpoint an exact time or place that they occur. But, with showing the power tools, we can identify that it is more modern day. 

Little Orphan Annie comic cover- pic from Amazon

In the poem by Anne Sexton, it seems completely timeless, until the first mention of a modern-day item- an Ace bandage. This struck me as so odd, as the poem portrayed a usual fairy tale, but the language almost felt out of place. Then, also brought up, is Orphan Annie. The original comic strip was published in 1924 (while the original poem was written in 1885). This still gives direction to a time, and perhaps a place (the comic was published in the New York Daily News). 

The final iteration I read in the compilation by Maria Tatar, and my personal favorite, was “Snow, Glass, Apples” by Neil Gaiman. In both this, and the ‘Sonne’ version, Snow White is portrayed as an evil character- well I should say that I personally find that the ‘Sonne’ version of her is evil. She is all about the sexual promiscuity, shown by her fixing her lace thigh-highs and having the dwarfs take care of her every need. There is even a shot of the dwarfs worshiping her body. Meanwhile in the short story, the Queen had sex with her future son-in-law, and was quite descriptive of so.

This version happened to be my favorite because it was just so unlike anything I had ever read and trust me when I say that I have read many, many different versions of fairy tales in my time…. But never have I ever read a version of ‘Snow White’ where the delicate heroine was actually a bloodthirsty monster that in the end, faced no true repercussions.