We’ve all had those nights where we’ve stayed up all night watching videos about nonsense for no reason. It doesn’t give us any true knowledge, but what if we could actually use that knowledge to teach others? My rabbit hole of knowledge revolves around fairytales, and has stayed in that realm for almost fifteen years.
It started when I read Chris Colfer’s book series, “The Land of Stories”, and has continued throughout my teens and probably will follow me to my twenties. The wee hours of the morning have been met with a tremendous amount of searching for real fairytales by The Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson. Beyond the chilling knowledge of what the real stories were, I also found the rabbit hole growing when I found retellings and extensions of the stories. From shows like “Once Upon a Time” to doll brands and cartoons like “Ever After High,” my fascination with fairytales only grew.
Nowadays I don’t get to speak about my love for fairytales very much, but whenever they are brought up, I am armed and ready to talk about the subject. That is why I believe if I were to teach any class, it would be about fairytales, and how they have shaped society and the stories we tell today. It would be a class where we read fairytales and retellings such as “The Lunar Chronicles” where they take place in the future, and see how fairytales of the past translate into life now. I would also love to see how fairytales integrate themselves into modern life, especially with how they change the way society sees women. They definitely were the beginning of the damsel-in-distress trope, and I wonder if that has influenced any part of the way society views women. Along with looking at how they influence society now, I would also want to look at how they could be interpreted like how we do with Shakespeare. This could let us see if past writers were trying to tell stories about LGBTQ+ or other minorities. Finally, I would have an assignment where, if you could name all the “Ever After High” characters’ parents or draw the family map of “Once Upon a Time”, you would get an immediate A in the class.
In the end, my true mission with this class would be to get Netflix to renew “Ever After High” for a final season. Apple White was meant to be in a relationship with Darling Charming and that totally got left on a cliffhanger.
Enroll (or at least try to with St. Olaf’s janky registration) in my class today!
Your favorite professor, Juliet Stouffer.
