'Once upon a time...' is one of my favourite phrases. It sets a tone for magic and beauty and fear; a world is constructed before your very eyes, such is the power of these words.

I read a lot of myths and fairytales; they are essentially the fabric which holds my existence together. The whole culture of the fairytale has definitely had an influence on who I am. They fascinated me as a child and continue to fascinate me now. but there is something that really must be considered. Everybody knows the classics of the Western culture (even though we filched them off the other countries), but do we ever really question their nature?

In my collection I include: The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, anthologies adult reworkings, collections from around the world, novels, graphic novels...
One of my favourite books is 'The Bloody Chamber' by Angela Carter. If you haven't read it then I must insanely encourage you to (though I've found as a reader I tend to get put off books when people force them on me, *cough cough* 'The Davinci Code' *cough*). It's a compilation of short stories based on fairytales with a so-called feministic twist. If you've ever seen the excellent Neil Jordan film 'The Company of Wolves', which I quoted in my last blog, was birthed from the story of the same name. The book is wonderful and evocative, emphasised by Carter's beautiful writing. She is someone I look up to massively, and I think she was taken from us far too soon.

What it is about these stories is that they are incredibly dark and sinister. Children accept the horrifying elements without question (well, most of the time), but with they grow up they realise that these childhood tales are really not for children at all.

But of course they are morality tales wrapped in imagery. They were always intended for adults, in fact the Brothers Grimm began their collection with that demographic in mind, but they read them to their children to keep them quiet. Even watered down versions of well known fables like Snow White and Cinderella still hold a little darkness between the pages (that is excluding the Disney films, which up until the 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Beauty and the Beast' contained the weakest heroines known to man and the twee-est approaches to the stories).

It wasn't until I was older, about thirteen or so, that I realised the true extent of Snow White's suffering or what really happened to the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella (let's put it this way, ravenous and vengeful birds + eyes = unpleasant reading). It's all about sexuality (which Carter was very quick on the uptake with), development of the soul and human nature; so much packed into an apparently innocent five minute bed time story. When I am a mother, I will only read the ture fairytales to my children, not the namby pamby, PC ones of today. The fairytale is still significant to society and should be preserved as they are, not forced into something new. Snow White lived with seven dwarves, taking that out of the title doesn't change that.

My childish desire to be a princess never really did fade. The hope that you could be beautiful and revered by others, that your singing voice would charm whomever you so choose.

Princesses have the best adventures, if they don't want to be rescued that is.