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juushikaNot too long ago I played the game The Path. The game is inspired by several old versions of the fairy tale Red Riding Hood; the user plays six sisters who are sent, one by one, to walk through the forest to visit their grandmother. If the girl stays on the path, a long walk down a golden-green forest road takes her directly to the comfort of Grandma's house. But if the girl leaves the path, she enters the darker depths of the forest where she can collect objects, explore landmarks, and perchance stumble upon a wolf.
Just a few minutes ago, I finished watching The Company of Wolves, a film directed by Neil Jordan and co-written by Angela Carter and Neil Jordan, inspired by Carter's short stories from The Bloody Chamber. The film takes place in the mind of a young girl who dreams that, after her sister is killed by wolves, she is sent to live with her grandmother who tells her stories and warns her of the dangers of men and wolves. It's a hard film to summarize, but is in essence a dreamlike retelling of Red Riding Hood myths, rich with imagery, with emphasis placed on wolves as a metaphor of adolescent sexuality.
I loved and recommend both. Neither is quite all that it could be—The Path's open exploration is hampered by poor controls, and the girls's stories could use more length and concrete detail to fill out their dreamy imagery and good intentions; The Company of Wolves gets a little too swept away by imagery and is hampered by outdated special effects. But both are...
And here's where I run into my problem.
Both are beautiful, thoughtful Red Riding Hood retellings. They grasp onto the sexual, pubescent aspects of the fairy tale, but refuse to limit themselves to simple, one-sided interpretations of the wolf as dangerous masculine influence and Red Riding Hood as a young woman tempted by, and in danger of, her newly-burgeoning sexual desires. In The Path, the wolf can be a man and can even be the huntsman, but it may also be another woman, a supernatural event, or an internal thought or desire. In The Company of Wolves, the wolf may be an outside male threat but it can also be imagined in, controlled by, or echoed in women. The rich visuals of each are layered with meaning of their own, the dreamlike format is seductive, and the themes are handled with unabashed complexity.
But I feel like there's more that I want to say than that: I want to build concrete commentary, explore with precision, and inspire thoughtful conversation. Some time ago, while thinking about the fairy tale Snow White, I asked, "Why does Snow White accept the poisoned apple?" It lead to a fascinating conversation about interpretations and retellings of that fairy tale. I only wish that I had so simple a question to ask about Red Riding Hood, because after watching The Company of Wolves (and rereading Caitlín R. Kiernan's The Red Tree, and having played The Path, and read other stories by Kiernan and Carter), my head is abuzz with thoughts on it. I've tried to force them into some sort of order and open the door to coherent conversation, but such logic escapes me—the best I can offer is the weak paragraph above.
Instead I ask: What's your favorite Red Riding Hood retelling? Or, more broadly, what are some of you favorite takes on, allusions to, interpretations of that fairy tale? Literature, film, fiction, non-fiction. If I can't speak on the subject, at least I can read on, view on, think on it. Can you recommend a place to begin?
Just a few minutes ago, I finished watching The Company of Wolves, a film directed by Neil Jordan and co-written by Angela Carter and Neil Jordan, inspired by Carter's short stories from The Bloody Chamber. The film takes place in the mind of a young girl who dreams that, after her sister is killed by wolves, she is sent to live with her grandmother who tells her stories and warns her of the dangers of men and wolves. It's a hard film to summarize, but is in essence a dreamlike retelling of Red Riding Hood myths, rich with imagery, with emphasis placed on wolves as a metaphor of adolescent sexuality.
I loved and recommend both. Neither is quite all that it could be—The Path's open exploration is hampered by poor controls, and the girls's stories could use more length and concrete detail to fill out their dreamy imagery and good intentions; The Company of Wolves gets a little too swept away by imagery and is hampered by outdated special effects. But both are...
And here's where I run into my problem.
Both are beautiful, thoughtful Red Riding Hood retellings. They grasp onto the sexual, pubescent aspects of the fairy tale, but refuse to limit themselves to simple, one-sided interpretations of the wolf as dangerous masculine influence and Red Riding Hood as a young woman tempted by, and in danger of, her newly-burgeoning sexual desires. In The Path, the wolf can be a man and can even be the huntsman, but it may also be another woman, a supernatural event, or an internal thought or desire. In The Company of Wolves, the wolf may be an outside male threat but it can also be imagined in, controlled by, or echoed in women. The rich visuals of each are layered with meaning of their own, the dreamlike format is seductive, and the themes are handled with unabashed complexity.
But I feel like there's more that I want to say than that: I want to build concrete commentary, explore with precision, and inspire thoughtful conversation. Some time ago, while thinking about the fairy tale Snow White, I asked, "Why does Snow White accept the poisoned apple?" It lead to a fascinating conversation about interpretations and retellings of that fairy tale. I only wish that I had so simple a question to ask about Red Riding Hood, because after watching The Company of Wolves (and rereading Caitlín R. Kiernan's The Red Tree, and having played The Path, and read other stories by Kiernan and Carter), my head is abuzz with thoughts on it. I've tried to force them into some sort of order and open the door to coherent conversation, but such logic escapes me—the best I can offer is the weak paragraph above.
Instead I ask: What's your favorite Red Riding Hood retelling? Or, more broadly, what are some of you favorite takes on, allusions to, interpretations of that fairy tale? Literature, film, fiction, non-fiction. If I can't speak on the subject, at least I can read on, view on, think on it. Can you recommend a place to begin?
If you stray from the path, know
That I strayed also. It is no great matter...
—"What Her Mother Said," Theodora Goss
