Presenting a new column here in 2012, I give you the Fairy Tale Mavens’ Cocktail Hour conducted entirely in conversation.
Deborah: Welcome to the Fairy Tale Mavens’ Cocktail Hour! I’m here with fellow maven and longtime bestie Jamelle Shannon, sitting in a completely fictional but folklorically-charged bar that exists somewhere between Atlanta and Las Vegas. I’m sorry, I said folklorically-charged, didn’t I? So I meant that it exists between Terminus and Sin City.
Anyway. The fact that it’s fictional really won’t stop us from ordering drinks. What’ll you have, Jamelle?
Jamelle: My favorite mixer, cold H2O.
Deborah: A bold and entirely appropriate choice, given the little hunter on the way. And I’ll have the house brew – yes, das Blut von Großmutter, thanks. While we wait for those, I think you need a bit of an introduction, Jamelle! Give us the once upon a time of you.
Jamelle: Haha. Once upon a time I was born and it was awesome.
Deborah: Best. Bio blurb. Ever. I’ll take pity on our readers and supply a few details, though! With your permission?
Jamelle: Sure. You know I hate talking about myself.
Deborah: Born in sunny and fecund California, you traveled far and wide at the whims of the US military and your father’s career. You spent a number of years living in Japan, leading to your lifelong interest and passion for the culture. Your family ultimately settled in Alabama, where you found a bestie (moi!) and eventually escaped back west to Sin City. Now you serve the public, married a Maverick, and give in to your professed obsession with fairy tales at the slightest provocation, viz. this conversation.
Jamelle: That is most excellent.
Deborah: So, where did your interest in fairy tales come from?
Jamelle: That’s hard to say. It’s one of those things that you can’t really pinpoint because fairy tales are so ingrained in our culture, especially when you’re young. I grew up watching the Disney movies for sure, but I was also an avid reader at a young age and had consumed the Grimm versions at about the same time.
Deborah: That is always the way – regardless of whether we grow up to identify ourselves as Fairy Tale Mavens, there’s probably not a child untouched by fairy tales in some form or other.
Jamelle: Well, sure. Our pop culture is riddled with references. It’s almost like the Bible in that sense.
Deborah: Oh, I like that! I’m suddenly struck by the concept of seeing fairy tales as the Bible of the Secular. There are so many practical and pragmatic lessons embedded in these stories.
Jamelle: Exactly. Fairy/folktales are teaching tools as much as Biblical parables are.
Deborah: Much like you, I don’t remember the precise origin of my interest in fairytales – I just can’t remember a time before I was. One of my earliest prized possessions was a doll that could turn into Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother, or the Wolf depending on which way you turned its clothing, and I have a handmade book I made when I was six or seven that retells the original Rapunzel with eyes gouged out and twins and barren wasteland all.
Read the rest of the Fairy Tale Mavens’ conversation behind the jump!
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