Fairy Tales in the Real World

One thing that I have really learned from this class is how fairy tales are everywhere, even in the police reports of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. I never really thought of fairy tales having a place outside of children's literature when in reality, children's literature is everywhere. You can't miss it. You can find a fairy tale anywhere, and most of the time you don't have to look very hard, you simply just have to look. I think most of the time it seems that fairy tales remain simply that is because of the misplaced concreteness that lies in most stories (ex. could a man really climb up a woman's braided hair?). That is why I like fairy tales, because anything can happen, which is why it is so interesting to be able to adapt fairy tales to real life as easily as they can be. So many impossible things happen in fairy tales, how is it even possible to find them in real life? Children's literature has realy opened my eyes to taking a deeper look at literature (something as a history major, i get to look at a lot).

My Group Project - All About Oz

When working on our group project, it is amazing at how many things you find behind a story that somehow seem to connect. Part of what I looked to for example was Bryan Talbot's Alice In Sunderland. You don't realize how much research it takes to find all that information, not to mention trying to fact check all the information that you do find to make sure that everything you are presenting is correct. It is so interesting to look into Baum's life as Talbot has done with Lewis Carroll. There are so many what if's when trying to find the answers for why Baum did the things that he did and the coincidences that follow his story and the times surrounding it. I really enjoyed trying to researc Baum and his career. I loved Talbot's book because of all the history and coincidences that manage to connect everything and enjoyed doing the same with Baum and the Wizard of Oz. If only I could have done more...

8 December 2008 Class Notes

Today we had more group presentations and wow, they did not dissapoint. Group #3 presentation was absolutely hysterical. I loved their take on a "modern" Wizard of Oz. They did a great job. Group #4 made their own comic book with four stories that all connect at the end and entering into a portal. The comic book that they put together was pretty sweet. It looked like they put a lot of work into making it, whic as we have learned from other presentations, it takes a lot of work to make the littlest thing work or look right. I can't wait to see the last two groups presentations on Wednesday.

PS - Class on Friday is mandatory. If you don't show, you will be docked! Finishing up individual presentations, closing the class, & talking about the test!

Final Thoughts...

This class has been quite an interesting experience.  I didn't really know what to expect coming into it.  I hadn't taken an english class in quite sometime.  I was just simply finishing out my curriculum for my minor and thought this would be an interesting class.  Who knew there could be so much information to children's literature, so many undercurrents of all sorts of different things.  There are so many things going on in children's stories, things you would never think to look at otherwise.  One of my favorites was Bryan Talbott's Alice In Sunderland because of all the history and speculation that it brings to light about Lewis Carroll and his story of a little blonde girl, Alice Pleasance Liddell.  There are so many versions of the fairy tales that we have read, versions I never knew.  It's been interesting learning what we have so far about children's literature and I am sure there is so much more to know...

"Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child."   -Unknown

5 December 2008 Class Notes

Today we began group presentations!

Group #1 (John, Brett, Brittani, Emily, Kyle, Stephanie, & Montana) - Truths, Speculations, & History Behind The Wizard of Oz - Be sure to check out the website of the storybook that they put together and used for their presentation!

Group #2 (Cassi, Hannah, Danielle, Lisa, Ronnie, Jessi, & Rebecca) - A Modern Day Tale of the Wizard of Oz: Dorothy Does Vegas...And Toto, Too! - Very Interesting!

Polling on Favorite Fairytales

So, last night at work, I thought it would be fun to do an icebreaker on what everybody's favorite fairytale is and why. I had to have an icebreaker, I couldn't think of anything and I had just come from english and Dustin's paper topic about researching with what people said their favorites were. Not one of them could really cmoe up with anything. It was really dissapointing. I think the two answers I got were Cinderella and Peter Pan (out of 9 people mind you). So, I proceeded to tell them about the Grimm version of the Cinderella story and Anderson's Little Mermaid. I ruined both of those Disney epics for them. For shame!

Dreams...I just can't remember them!

So, for the past few weeks, our blog is suppose to show evidence of a dream we have had. So, I have been on a mission trying to remember my dreams. I just can't do it. It's not because I'm under pressure or anything. I can never remember my dreams. I can't remember the last dream that I had that I can remember. I wake up every morning racking my brain trying to remember because I know that I need to blog about it but just can't remember. I would say that I don't even dream but, that's not true. Everyone dreams, just not everyone can remember it, and right now I am one of those people...