“The Pot Child” Jane Yolen

From Tales of Wonder  Jane Yolen. Schocken. 1987.  Read on Kindle

This is the first story in this collection and I absolutely loved it. It is the kind of short story and writing that leaves you haunted by it long after you read it.  Years later I can imagine still thinking back, if not on the story specifics, than at least on the feeling that this story left.  I actually put the book away after reading this first story because, despite the fact that the library return date was approaching, I wanted to savor it.

Yolen is someone who has written extensively for both children and adults.  The collection that this story is in is supposedly a collection of her adult fairy tales, some retellings some not.  I have other the years been drawn to some of her work and less interested in picking up others that I have seen.  Her Briar Rose is easily one of the most fascinating and deeply disturbing and, again, haunting versions of the Sleeping Beauty story.  At some point I will have the right mind space to go back and reread it.

For such a short and simple story this packs a lot of punch.  It’s nominally related to the line of stories that bring us Gallatea, Pinocchio, etc.  A potter lacks a child and so paints a masterpiece of one on a pot that is brought to life.  Observers of the pot say the art lacks heart and soul, something that troubles the child as it comes to life.  I won’t reveal the end, but the way this makes you think about what it mean for art to have life is provoking.  And in the end, as Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George tells us you only leave “Children and Art.” Yolen explores for us which is perhaps the more important?

The Black Fairy’s Curse

“The Black Fairy’s Curse” Karen Joy Fowler

Found in Black Swan, White Ravenedited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Avon Books, 1997, also available via Kindle

This is a short story  that shows the particular age of this Datlow/Windling collection. It’s not a bad story by any means, but some of it feels a bit tired given today’s more feminine Sleeping Beauty adaptations.  It’s certainly a part of the heritage that has led to other more complex feminist renderings of the Sleeping Beauty story.  In this brief piece, the focus is on a dreaming princess’ dreams. And, as we learn in the twist in the end, dreams might be preferable to the actual reality of awakening.  There is some beautiful writing here in the way the dream sequence is laid out. I found myself reading it more than once because there’s very much a dream logic at work which I appreciate in the way that the action is written to keep shifting in the dream as it flits from one idea to another.  There were glimmers within the dreams of Sleeping Beauty and the setting the tower and the thorns that bring the story together into a very beautiful and compact package. And then the ultimate question, is the curse of the title the dreams or is it in the awakening?  The  feminist reader in me is super pleased by the way in which Fowler utilized both feminine desire and  fear of the prescribed rape scenario that Sleeping Beauty sets up. Having read so many stories that share some of this feeling of dissatisfaction with the waker, it can sometimes feel more than a bit of a cliche reading today.  What makes this particular version stand out is the mirroring of the curse in the story that it is well worth revisiting an earlier example of the idea.

Plot – 3/5 Character – 3/5 Thought – 5/5 Diction – 5/5 Music – 5/5 Spectacle – N/A

Overall 4/5

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The Flounder’s Kiss

“The Flounder’s Kiss” Michael Cadnum

Found in Black Swan, White Raven edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Avon Books, 1997, also available via Kindle.  

This is a short story that is clearly written by a man. Not to say that women can’t compose plenty of misogynistic type stories, but there was something about the tone of the interaction between the husband and the wife that was so enmeshed in gender norms.  This is something that many traditional fairy tales are, of course, filled with. None of which is to say that I disliked the story. I actually very much enjoyed it. The writing is beautifully descriptive and captivating. It’s quite the ode to various fish and fishing.

As with many short stories, this is all about the twist at the end, in this case on the trope of the magic wish giving fish.  I found the twist at the end, which I won’t spoil beyond to say it cries out to the Little Mermaid, a fantastic trickster element for such a short piece. The emotional distress the fisherman undergoes in a few shot pages from the stress that the magical situation has placed on him is well evoked and one can’t blame him for the choice that he makes, even if his wife is a totally undeveloped fairy tale trope of a greedy shrew of a wife. But, the language and the comeuppance make it totally worth while to read this particular story.

Plot – 5/5  Character – 3.5/5 Thought – 4.5/5 Diction – 5/5
Music – 4/5 Spectacle – n/a
Overall 4.5/5