I Love Turning Stories On Their Heads

We’re all familiar with the Brothers Grimm and their stories. Usually they involve a helpless princess being rescued by a dashing prince from some sort of evil, and then the evil is defeated and the prince and princess live happily ever after. They’re good tales, but once we get past a certain point we realize that the classic fairy tales are simple, slightly sexist, and don’t show much beyond the surface.Recently we’ve been getting some updated versions of the old classics: NBC has the supernatural crime thriller Grimm, where a Portland cop interacts with monsters in human form that inspired our myths of werewolves and dragons and ugly old hags. We’ve seen some reworkings of the Snow White myth with two movies this past year, plus Oz, The Great and Powerful rebooting the old Oz mythos this March. And who can forget Once Upon a Time, the ABC series that’s taking all the old tales and working them into a single, kick-ass narrative with a warrior Snow White, a Beauty dating a monstrous Rumplestiltskin, and a not-so-little Red Riding Hood with lycanthropy, told through flashbacks that relate to today’s events (of the story).

I was thinking of these sorts of stories and I realized something: I love those kinds of stories. I love how they take preconcieved notions that were before unbreakable and break them before building the stories into a new form. In fact, I’ve got four of those ideas for books or book series, though nothing involving Grimm. That’s probably best though: I can get a whole lot more fans by messing with 19th century children’s literature, Arthurian legend, Hans Christen Andersen, and Judeo-Christian mythology (that last one might offend a few people though. Oh well).

Why do we like these sorts of stories? Why are they so popular? Maybe we like seeing something we all grew up with in a new light, or perhaps we enjoy seeing something familiar without all the politically incorrect quirks we weren’t aware of when we were young. Or maybe we like seeing a new side of something familiar. Who’s to say? We’re all different, with different tastes, beliefs, and psychologies. Even identical twins aren’t always perfect mirrors of each other.

Whatever the reason, I can’t wait to tackle my own stories and turn them inside out. Just got to get some other stuff out before that. But I have a feeling I’ll do that soon.

Review: Jennifer Laurence on Saturday Night Live

Can I just say, I think I have a crush on that woman? I’m not kidding, I’m going to say it right now: I love Jennifer Laurence! Can I treat you to dinner, provided you come out to meet me here at OSU and any place we go is within walking distance of campus?

Anyway, I think this was one of my favorite SNL episodes ever, and not just because I fell in love again. Nope, the writers were just hilarious, and the actors were top-notch! My favorite skit was the Top Dog Chef bit, where every character looked positively adorable as they ate stuff out of a garbage bag! At the end of it all, I was laughing for two whole minutes, right as the commercials came on. In addition, there was a Hunger Games sketch that I couldn’t help but giggle about. And Taram Killan as an abnormally short Peeta Mellark was a hoot! Kudos to the make-up and costume artists as well, you made the actors really look like they came right out of the book. Plus, Laurence can rap and rhyme…sort of. It’s still hilarious. And check out the foreign film sketch Danielle: A Free European Woman, which catches all the cliches of old foreign films that are attempting to be the film equivalent of artsy, elite literary novels.

My one complaint was that Weekend Update was a little too short for my tastes, though I was happy to see Bobby Moynihan reprise his role as Anthony Crispino, who never seems to get the news right. Also, I expected some more coverage of the gun control debate, but instead they decided to make fun of Manti Te’o and his unfortunate hoodwinking by a conwoman. I’m not sure I would’ve gone that way myself, personally. I mean, the guy found out a girl he loved and whom he thought had died was all a hoax. Cut the guy a little slack.

Still, gotta say, I found the show hysterical.

Can’t say I enjoyed the Lumineers, but I’m not familiar with their music. Now if Lorne Michaels got Disturbed or Marilyn Manson, then maybe we could talk.

For this show, I give SNL a 4.5 out of 5, for bringing in the new year with an awesome episode that’ll definitely be remembered as a highlight for the season. Look forward to next week, when Adam Levine hosts and Kendrick Lamar sings. By the way, my sister is obsessed with Lamar, so is he any good? We’ll find out next week.

My Next Creative Work: Old Sid

As I sit watching Saturday Night Live, I’m also working on my next short story, Old Sid, a short story about a fictional urban legend at Ohio State University. I plan on narrating this story in the fashion of The Virgin Suicides (which means my narrator is a bunch of people talking as one without naming themselves), and I plan for the story to get progressively darker and twisted while keeping the short story within twenty pages, or five-thousand words, as we prefer to think.

I told my Creative Writing teacher about the idea behind me story, and he really enjoyed it. I hope to have it done within a week, even though it’s not due till mid-February. Still, I think I might enjoy this one. At the very least, it’ll be a challenge to write. After all, I’m not used to first person, and this is a very unique form of first person. Well, let’s see what I come up with, okay? I’ll let you know what happens when I finish the short story.

Oh, and guess what? I’ll be doing my famous SNL reviews later tonight. Can’t stop it, there’s Jennifer Laurence, Adam Levine, and Beiber. That last one I probably won’t like, but it’ll be a boost in my stats, no matter what I think of Beib’s performance.