Forgotten Fairy Tales

There are so many fairy tales out there that I am afraid some are being forgotten - even by people of my own age, let alone those younger than myself. Okay it is one of the things that I occasionally dwell upon. I was chatting along with someone last week (I think it was on the carbon tax) and said something like "anyone would think it was a magic porridge pot" but was met with a blank look.

I blame Disney - they have taken fairy tales and made them into movies and now people kinda think that that is all the tales there is.

I know I am a book nut - I like to think it is one of my adorable quirks but I am just concerned that part of our culture is slipping away. Or maybe it is just changing.

I read with dread that they are making another version of The Great Gatsby. One 16 year old I know wasn't even aware it was a book - he just thought it was going to be a movie remake.

I know the world has gone all techno and I am not keeping up with all of that. And I hope that isn't what this is all about. And I don't expect everyone to have read Shakespeare or Tolstoy. I just think there is room for the older and the newer, and to ignore the rich and diverse world of stories, to use your imagination to conjure up characters rather than have them all presented on screen, is something that the world needs.

We get busy as we get older and there isn't necessarily time for reading the classics, but surely it is something we can do for our children while they are small, read them a story and bring them some magic before bedtime.

So long live Snow White and Rose Red, The Magic Porridge Pot, The Enormous Turnip, The Gingerbread Boy, Three Bill-Goats Gruff, The Elves and the Shoemaker and the rest of the stories that haven't been Disney-fied. May you live long and prosper (pun intended).