Transformations

What do we learn? When do we learn it?

Monkey has finished Moon, her retelling of Davit, a Georgian fairy tale from Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters, by Kathleen Ragan. This book, a gift from a mother or grandmothers, has been in Monkey’s life for years.

Here is the story:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jLrKE874uo9p-Tp6Or7kKAMp58Si7VndJMbYUy5cKy4/edit?usp=sharing

Monkey and I had a great discussion about the difference between fairy tales and tropes. About the value of recasting a story from another perspective. How fairy tales are an interesting medium for writer for since the characters in a fairy tale rarely grow and change; this forces the author to really shine in their description of people and places.

Since she was young, Monkey has been a avid reader of fairy tales. With adult bias, we easily think of our children as consumers when it’s equally likely they are scholars of a form. (Buster, for example, has a doctorate in platforming games and breaks down and categorizes subtleties of gameplay).

Back to this story, Moon.

It is stylized; that is intentional. Characters have been morphed, merged and changed. It is a servant to the form–the dialog, particularly, bows down to fairytale formalism. But the descriptions are a phoenix taking flight. They will seize your heart with claws.

On this Father’s Day; this has been a beautiful gift.