Part 3 — To love or not to love Shakespeare? Or, what do we do with a broken Bard, not to mention the cognitive dissonance?

To read Part 1, catch it here: Part 1 — To love or not to love Shakespeare? To read Part 2, go here: Part 2 — To love or not to love Shakespeare?

Photo by Taha on Unsplash

Side Note — This post is a lot shorter than the first two. And as I promised, there’s a special treat at the end for you. Yes, I’ve bribed you because I think there are some good points you’ll want to consider.

So, picking up from last time . . .

Besides banning Shakespeare or teaching it with a healthy dose of chauvinistic analysis, what else can we do? Is there a middle ground?

First we must understand that fairy tales are metaphors. They’re memes. The scholars say fairy tales are meant to separate us from the world we live in so we don’t feel emotionally charged when we see the problems before us that were exposed in the tale. This distance allows us to change our world for the better.

Supposedly.

But does it? How freaking long does it take?!

And yes, there’s been some change, but not nearly enough. And yes, it takes a very long time for big problems like misogyny, chauvinism, and racism to disappear, if they ever do. Sadly, and more than likely, we’ve lived with them in one form or another since humans have populated the planet.

It was once easier for me to read or hear a tale of horrible things (i.e., abuse and trauma of any sort) if they took place long ago and far away, not in my world or the world we live in now. But that’s just it.

Many of the horrible things that have happened in the old tales are problems we’re still wrestling with today.

STILL wrestling with today.

STILL.

My heart sinks. Not much has improved, considering the length of time we humans have had to right these issues.

Here I’ll turn to Jack Zipes once again for an answer, or at least a clue.

You may recall that Zipes is professor emeritus of German, comparative literature, and cultural studies, who has published and lectured on German literature, critical theory, German Jewish culture, children’s literature, and folklore. A fairy tale scholar.

Zipes says fairy tales “serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society.”

We can’t engage with a fairy tale without feeling emotionally charged. True? You betcha! Zipes also said that fairy tales won’t go away until we deal with the specific problems in them, that we need fairy tales to expose our human problems. Okay, I see that. And our problems are major, aren’t they? And they’re not going away. And fairy tales are here to stay until we clean up our act.

The fairy tales of old are steeped in warped points of view, injustice, abandonment, and other traumas. For those of us who want to do something about this, to nudge society in the direction to work this, what do we do?

The academics say we need to rewrite old fairy tales to keep up with the times. This is already being done, but give us more of that.

They say we need new tales that reveal new paths to justice and show us how to be more human, how to be in awe once again. We need new tales that point us toward uncharted territory where we can identify new paths that lead to justice. We need tales where women are assertive, where men also fight for the cause. We need more of women who save themselves and others, who support the underdog and squash the misogynists, the patriarchy, the chauvinists, the racists. And men who also fight for the cause.

Nothing of what I’ve written is news. It’s been discussed for a while now and is still under debate. But it’s clear we all need to stand up for a better future.

Write new fairy tales, minus the misogyny, chauvinism, racism? Rewrite the old fairy tales to reflect the world we’d like to live in? Rewrite Shakespeare? I’m all for all of it.

Finally as I’ve promised — not one, but two rewards for you.

A LIST OF SOME BOOKS THAT TURN THE FAIRY TALE ON ITS HEAD (THERE ARE A LOT MORE OUT THERE, BUT HERE’S A START)

Cinderella is Dead, by Kalynn Bayron (Young Adult)

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales, by Soman Chainani (Author), Julia Iredale (Illustrator) (Ages 9–12)

The Magic Fish: (A Graphic Novel), by Trun Le Nguyen

Baba Yaga Laid An Egg, by Dubravka Ugresic (Author), Ellen Elias-Bursac (Translator) (Adult)

A VIDEO OF THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

Watch it here. It’s an episode from the old television series Moonlighting (1985–1989), starring Bruce Willis as Petruchio and Cybill Shepherd as Kate. I still have a problem with the play, but this version is worth watching if only for its unusual approach to the same old problem.

I designed the cover, Donna Clement took the photo, and Luis H. Ruiz chose the font colors and sizes and placed the text where I told him to. I’m bossy that way.

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And if you really, really liked it, you might want to check out my ebook, The Grapes of Dementia: My Journey of Love, Loss, Surrender, and Gratitude, available worldwide through Amazon.