Madame Tutli-Putli

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5917397149002641601y?

I'm not sure what to say about this but it must somehow be relevent.

Snow White and the Huntsman

New version of the Snow White story by Tim Burton....click the link below

Snow White and the Huntsman

Hard Candy

Little Red Riding Hood strikes back.

Errr...

Look at this...

...and now look at this.

I'm not sure what to make of this!

Schlitzie Surtees

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDK1BCOM138&feature=related

I've been looking at a performer who appeared in Tod Browning's Freaks , called Schlitzie Surtees, and particularly at the way he was costumed for his part in shows - mostly dressed as a little girl.  This clip is really relevant to they way his persona was portrayed.  Hope it works!

the "freakshow" - permissible titillation?

“Everyone's a freak. No two bodies are the same; we all have unpleasant, wonderful, shocking and extraordinary features; we are all unique. But for centuries the word 'freak' has been used cruelly to describe people born with 'abnormal' features, or those able to perform extraordinary physical acts by contorting or misshaping their bodies.” (www.bl.uk/learning)

What is the ongoing fascination of the freakshow?
Have we moved away from the exploitation of bodily difference that emerged in the sideshow circuses of the late 1800's, and are we still taking pleasure in looking, disguised as a medical (or academic) gaze?
Is Channel 4's BodyShock series an excuse for a televised version of this voyeurism? How is it disguised? Science? technology? progress? Or blatant spectacle? "You'll be shocked and amazed..."

“Mixed among the disgust, the fear, the horror, was the pleasure. For some, certainly, the pleasure came precisely from the horror, the sense of the forbidden, the unusual and unknown, the gothic intermixing of categories and kinds” (Sharrona Pearl)

What has your research led you to discover about the nature of the freakshow? How have you contextualised it? Please share it here...

The Philosophy of King Kong (1933)

“Well, Denham, the airplanes got him.”
“Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.” 
(Discuss)

**Fairytale Resources online**

Saw this and thought of you...
www.surlalunefairytales.com

Really excellent resource for all things fairytale. Includes original annotated texts, history and links to useful websites.

Little Red Riding Hood in Graphic Design

Here are the images I collected as examples of Little Red Riding Hood themed graphic design. Enjoy!

The Little Girl and the Wolf by James Thurber

One afternoon a big wolf waited in a dark forest for a little girl to come along carrying a basket of food to her grandmother. Finally a little girl did come along and she was carrying a basket of food. "Are you carrying that basket to your grandmother?" asked the wolf. The little girl said yes, she was. So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived and the little girl told him and he disappeared into the wood. 

When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house she saw that there was somebody in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on. She had approached no nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead. 

(Moral: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.)

Little Red Riding Hood [original version] by Charles Perrault

ONCE upon a time there lived in a certain village a little country girl, the prettiest creature who was ever seen. Her mother was excessively fond of her; and her grandmother doted on her still more. This good woman had a little red¹ riding hood made for her. It suited the girl so extremely well that everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood².

One day her mother, having made some cakes, said to her, "Go, my dear, and see how your grandmother is doing³, for I hear she has been very ill. Take her a cake, and this little pot of butter."⁴

Little Red Riding Hood set out immediately to go to her grandmother, who lived in another village.

As she was going through the wood, she met with a wolf,⁵ who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he dared not, because of some woodcutters working nearby in the forest. He asked her where she was going. The poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to stay and talk to a wolf, said to him, "I am going to see my grandmother and carry her a cake and a little pot of butter from my mother."

"Does she live far off?" said the wolf

"Oh I say," answered Little Red Riding Hood; "it is beyond that mill you see there, at the first house in the village."

"Well," said the wolf, "and I'll go and see her too. I'll go this way and go you that, and we shall see who will be there first."

The wolf ran as fast as he could, taking the shortest path, and the little girl took a roundabout way, entertaining herself by gathering nuts, running after butterflies, and gathering bouquets of little flowers. It was not long before the wolf arrived at the old woman's house. He knocked at the door: tap, tap.

"Who's there?"

"Your grandchild, Little Red Riding Hood," replied the wolf, counterfeiting her voice; "who has brought you a cake and a little pot of butter sent you by mother."

The good grandmother, who was in bed, because she was somewhat ill, cried out, "Pull the bobbin, and the latch will go up."

The wolf pulled the bobbin, and the door opened, and then he immediately fell upon the good woman and ate her up in a moment,⁶ for it been more than three days since he had eaten. He then shut the door and got into the grandmother's bed, expecting Little Red Riding Hood, who came some time afterwards and knocked at the door: tap, tap.

"Who's there?"

Little Red Riding Hood, hearing the big voice of the wolf, was at first afraid; but believing her grandmother had a cold and was hoarse, answered, "It is your grandchild Little Red Riding Hood, who has brought you a cake and a little pot of butter mother sends you."

The wolf cried out to her, softening his voice as much as he could, "Pull the bobbin, and the latch will go up."

Little Red Riding Hood pulled the bobbin, and the door opened.

The wolf, seeing her come in, said to her, hiding himself under the bedclothes, "Put the cake and the little pot of butter upon the stool, and come get into bed with me."⁷

Little Red Riding Hood took off her clothes and got into bed. She was greatly amazed to see how her grandmother looked in her nightclothes, and said to her, "Grandmother, what big arms you have!"⁸

"All the better to hug you with, my dear."

"Grandmother, what big legs you have!"

"All the better to run with, my child."

"Grandmother, what big ears you have!"

"All the better to hear with, my child."

"Grandmother, what big eyes you have!"

"All the better to see with, my child."

"Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!"

"All the better to eat you up with."

And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.⁹

Moral: Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say "wolf," but there are various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.

by Charles Perrault

taken from www.surlalunefairytales.com

...unsettling...

(thezulu = frederic btw)

This is the piece I was talking to you about.. 

http://www.adam-butcher.co.uk/internet-story

I can't decide wether Al1 is the monster or Fortress or even exactly what the moral of the story is ... I suppose the nameless faceless nature of the interent and the ability to become 'cyborgs' is partly what makes this scary. Could this be a modern day fairytale?...

I had to go check what the general formula for a fairy tale was and it turns out they do not require a good ending only a resolution of events tied around a central messege. In which case this stories moral, to me, is not to trust everything you read or see on the net? I'm not sure...



also this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La6T8Bq6CsU
scares the shit out of me o_o

Little Red Riding Hood Show and Tell

Thanks for your input this morning! It was an interesting session in which to learn more about each of you, your interests and your ideas.

As discussed we will be focusing on fairytales next week. Please bring to the session a cultural artefact that particularly relates to the story of Red Riding Hood. This could be a picture, a game, film clip, piece of ceramic, fashion piece etc. It would be extra interesting if your chosen item was linked to your own discipline.

Research your chosen item and be prepared to show and tell!
Feel free to bring your own games consoles, easels or other necessary props to aid your show 'n' tell. Thanks

It's Decision Time...

It's now time for you to make your choice...which lecture series will you sign up for?

Following reading week I will be in the LRC, with all the other contextual staff, ready and waiting for any queries, concerns, questions you may have about this research group.

Please do come along and talk to me! Look forward to seeing you.