Beauties and the Beasts

Oh the manyt reasures one find in the local bookshop. Things I would never thought to look for, because I never suspected they existed. So last time I went to the local bookshop, I behaved and only bought two books, including this one. An anthology of tales and stories following the themes and plot of Beauty and the Beast. Which is truly a tale as old as time. I have already a lot of books on my reading list, so I have no idea when I will read this one. Be that as it may, my motto is buy now, read later. You don't want to miss buying a book when you see it available.

Disney: where are the male protagonists?

I took the picture you see from this book. It is not from a Disney movie, but it accompanies this topic very well. My wife recently went with little Wolfie to a special afternoon party for children, where songs from Disney movies were performed. Little girls far outnumbered little boys and they were all disguised as Disney princesses. And something struck her: there are no male characters that are the main protagonists anymore in Disney movies. From what we know, not since The Lion King. Even in Beauty and the Beast, when we'd think both male and female characters share equal billing, the story is told through the eyes of Belle. Maybe this is understandable: the tales they use as source material has female characters as leads, princesses mostly. And yes, I know in fiction, especially for children, too often women are passive and it's well and good that they have more active roles. Be that as it may, my wife finds it frustrating: she has a little boy, she loves Disney movies, she wished she could share this with him, but Disney movies now are made for a young female audience and their nostalgic mummies. And it didn't help that one of these precious little wannabe princesses pushed Wolfie repeatedly as she was dancing. My wife fears that, with so little male characters he can identify himself with, he'd end up bored seeing guys playing mostly second fiddles and will start watching Bond movies with his father instead.

La Bête en sanglier

J'ai blogué au début du mois sur le livre de l'année que nous avions chaque année dans le temps, ainsi que des contes que l'on y trouvait, dont La Belle et la Bête. Je lis pas mal de contes ces temps-ci, je ne sais pas trop pourquoi, mais je suis d'humeur à ça. Je n'ai pas encore revisité ce conte-ci en particulier, mais j'ai l'intention de le faire. L'illustration ici est un peu bonbon, avec un peu trop de rose, mais elle a le mérite d'avoir une bête vraiment bestiale. Les traits de sanglier lui donnent un air méchant et teigneux qu'on ne voit plus depuis la version disneyenne. C'est aussi en accord avec ses origines et la tradition de ses représentations. Tout ça pour dire que j'aime bien cette vilaine bête.

Beauty and the Boar

I blogged not long ago about the "book of the year" my dad used to buy every year, which I always loved, as it had plenty of stuff about fantastic creatures and fun stories. It also had sometimes short stories and fairy tales to read. I don't remember all of them, in fact I most likely forgot a lot of them, as my father recently sent me some pictures of one, which are obviously to accompany one version or another of Beauty and the Beast. And I thought it was quite interesting, as the Beast is pictured as an anthropoid boar. A rather benign and friendly looking one, although he is certainly ugly. If you think it looks like the Beast of the Disney movie, you are partially wrong: my bet is that it was inspired by the Cocteau version, which is a true masterpiece. I intend to put some fairy tales on my reading list in the upcoming weeks, I think I should try to re-read Beauty and the Beast.