"Why fairy tales stick" by Jack Zipes

This scholarly essay on fairy tales seemed a little muddled. I was never quite sure why Zipes believed that fairy tales stuck. There are, he tells us, 50 to 75 fairy tales in the western literary canon that are told over and over again ... but he never lists them. There is a theory of memes that he mentions without ever espousing. A few fairy tales (Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, Blackbeard, and Hansel & Gretel) he goes into in detail and he discusses a huge number of versions in both literature and film. But there seems no coherent message. He suggests, from time to time, that these tales are "overtly patriarchal and politically conservative in structure and theme and reflect the dominant interests of social groups that control cultural forces of production and reproduction", and almost in the same breath he points out that "paradoxically, the fairy tale creates disorder to create order" (p 15) so that these tales can be subversive of established social order. If there is a message it is that these tales are "survival stories with hope" (p 27) and explore issues such as rape (RRH), step-relations (Cinders), the displacement of the young by the old and the old's reaction to that (Snow White), domestic abuse (Blackbeard) and child abuse (H&G)  and by so doing prepare children for these possibilities in the world, presumably on the ground that forewarned is forearmed. 

Along the way he told me many fascinating things. 

• Many early collections of stories were framed by a 'frame tale' such as Boccaccio's Decameron Sercambi's Novelle, Sarnelli's Posilicheata, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
• A successful meme must be: "capable of being copied in a faithful way", fecund so that "many copies can be made", "able to survive a long time" (p5); "a meme must be relevant to stick" (p 7); to be replicated a meme must be assimilated in a mind, retained in a memory, uttered, transmitted (p 8)
• Red Riding Hood has been around since at least the version of Egbert of Liege (1022 - 1024) in which  a 5 yo girl who wears a tunic of red wool given to her by her godfather "goes out at sunrise, footloose and heedless of her peril" and is attacked by a wolf
• Fairy tales "have sought to uncover truths about the pleasures and pains of existence" (p 42)
• "There is no evidence that a separate oral wonder-tale tradition or literary fairy-tale tradition existed in Europe before the medieval period." (p 44)
• "The plot generally involves a protagonist who is confronted with an interdiction or prohibition that he or she violates in some way. Therefore, there is generally a departure or banishment and the protagonist is either given a task or assumes a task related to the interdiction or prohibition." (p 49)
• "names are rarely used in a folk tale; characters function according to their status within a family, social class, or profession; and they often cross boundaries or transform themselves. It is the transgression that makes the tale exciting; it is the possibility of transformation that gives hope ... Inevitably in the course of the action there will be a significant or signifying encounter." (p 49)
• "The protagonist, endowed with gifts, is tested once more ... the success of the protagonist usually leads to marriage; the acquisition of money; survival and wisdom; or any combination of these three. ... At the centre of attraction is the survival of the protagonist under difficult conditions." (p 50)
• "In the oral wonder tale, we are to marvel about the workings of the universe where anything can happen at any time ... Nor do the characters demand an explanation - they are instinctively opportunistic and hopeful ... The tales seek to awaken our regard for the miraculous condition of life ... those who are naive and simple are able to succeed because they are untainted, naturally good, and can recognize the wondrous signs." (p 51)
• Perrault's tales 1694 - 1697 (and this is some output!) included:
• Puss in Boots
• Thumbelina
• Bluebeard
• Cinderella
• Sleeping Beauty
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Anatole France wrote a version of the Bluebeard legend in which the hero is always unfortunate in marriage: his wives are mad, strange or stupid, and each time the wife dies in an accident. The 7th wife marries him for his money and plots with her brothers to murder him.
• "The storyteller is ... a thief who robs treasures to give something substantive to the poor." (p 242)

An interesting book but I was confused as to its thesis. August 2017; 243 pages