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Zun Huang
Writing 39B
RA Paper Final Draft
Lynda Haas
3/1/16
People always like fairy tale. Since this genre came out in 17th centurys Salon Era,
noblemen and women were addicted by this genre. Telling oral fairy tales were one very
cheap and entertain way for people in 17th century. In the 19th century, Grimm brother
collected many fairy tales since they believed those tales are Germanys cultural legacy. As
this genre evolves, everyone still grows up with reading many classic fairy tales such as
Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood. It can be say this genre is magical. The Sleeper and
the Spindle is a modern fairy tale originally published by Neil Gaiman in October 23, 2014.
This tale is a mash-up of Grimm brothers Little Snow-White and Little Brier-Rose.
According to publisher Kassia Krozser says, The target group for this story is mainly
children and adult through 11 to 18. Little Brier-Rose (Sleeping Beauty) is a fairy tale by
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812. Grimm says, Accordingly, parents should not offer the
collection to children. The main audiences for Little Brier-Rose are mainly scholars and
educate middle class. Now most readers are educated and have tough taste on picking the
right books. So Gaiman changed the conventions to fit the modern reader's taste; For example
the female characters in Sleeper and the Spindle are powerful, special and fascinating. In a
traditional fairy tale, there are villains who tried to harm the good people and there is magical
power with all the characters. In Grimms Sleeping Beauty, bad fairy cursed sleeping beauty
to touch a spindle and fall into a hundred-year long sleep. This is a common fairy tale setting
for people in 18th century Germany. For Sleeper and the Spindle, Gaiman uses a medieval

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setting with magical power to help modern readers like the story. The Sleeper and the Spindle
changed tradition fairy tale convention such as the villain and the magical power and reimagines them so that they will be entertaining and relevant for 21st century audiences.
Modernization of fairy tale convention such as villain and magic power can help story
become more entertain and understandable for modern audiences.
In a traditional fairy tale, there are usually one or several villain figures in the story. In
the classic tale, villains always try to harm the prince or princess, and not always with clear
reasons. In Little Brier-Rose, there is an evil fairy who curses princess to death since she was
not been invited to the celebration of princess birth. Readers now may consider this motive
as non-sense. In 19th century Germany, Grimm brother has their own thoughts about how
moral should display in fairy tales. According to folk and fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes, they
viewed the morality in the tales as nave and organic, and readers, young and old, could intuit
lessons from them spontaneously because of their essential poetry (12). Grimm do not think
a logical morality is necessary for fairy tales. So they simply write a bad fairy cursed a
princess by not getting an invitation. In many others Grimm tales, villains also harm good
people for many simple and nave reasons. In Little Red Riding Hood, the big wolf wants to
eat red hood for hunger. It is a common way for Grimm to write it that way because
audiences in that time care more about the education value of the story. In 18th century
Germany, the black forest is a dangerous place for children to go. Grimm writes this story as
a warning to children. For villain figure in The Sleeper and The Spindle, Gaiman does a huge
change from the original version of Little Brier Rose. During first time reading, most readers
might consider old lady as the villain figure since Gaiman describes her like an evil character.
Gaiman writes, She hobbled, angrily, through the castle, leaning on her stick, as if she were
driven only by hatred, slamming doors, talking to herself as she walked (Gaiman 10). For

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modern audiences view, she sounds like an evil witch who cursed all the people in the city.
However, readers will also concern the myth with her character. Because Gaiman also wrote,
She dusted them, absently, as she passed and made certain that the babys sleepy mouth
remained on the nipple. The action is a hint that makes readers ask Why is she doing that?.
Gaiman adds a suspense into the story which can attract modern readers interest since they
dont see that in a classic fairy tale. There is no suspense and twist in the story of classic fairy
tale. After a while of reading, readers will find out the real villain of the story. The real villain
is actually the sleeping princess. This is a huge twist for a fairy tale. Is hard to tell whether
she is good or bad from Gaimans description. She is beautiful and innocence from her
appearance. This setting can also help fitting modern readers tempo. According to publisher
Kassia Krozser says, What readers want really, really want is content that makes sense to
them. Readers want quality. What she is saying is modern readers do not want to read trash.

Technology forces people to become not as patient as people in 19th century Germany. People
now do not have enough time to read extra books. They will select carefully which book they
should read next. For readers to enjoy the story, Gaiman has to add more conflicts into tale
and make it become more entertain. So Gaiman wrote, The queen looked at the girl, and saw
what she was searching for: the same look that she had seen in her stepmothers eyes, and she
knew what manner of creature this girl was (Gaiman 13). In Gaimans description, readers
will notice the strange thing about her. She is beautiful but also with a bit of darkness.
Gaiman uses this foreshadow scene to indicate readers that sleeping beauty is actually a
villain. The real princess is the old lady. The princess on the bed is actually an evil witch who
forces people to sleep and absorb their vitality. Nowadays readers want to be entertain and
see character reverse thing like this. They dont want to read another fairy tale like Little
Brier-Rose which was written for children. Changing those role model characters become

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evil characters is just cool and fun for people who used to read the old edition of those fairy
tales. No one wants to see one thing over and over. Gaiman knows this well so he arranges
new material into those old classic characters.
Another important convention is the magical power. In Grimms Little Brier-Rose,
there supposed to be many traps which avoid people going through the hedge. However, the
prince comes and all those traps fade away into many beautiful flowers. Prince is an innocent
good figure in Little Brier-Rose. Grimm writes this way to demonstrate the magic power of
true love. They wants to give readers a hint that prince is a good character. Love selects
prince to come across the bridge. Women in 19th century Germany do not have right. As
professor Katharina Kentinich says, The role of a woman was described by the German
slogan, kinder, Kuche, Kirche which means, Children, Kitchen, Church. Basically a
female has no right to choose who she is going to love. Grimm brother writes under this rule
since they want to follow the rhetorical situation. The certain prince comes to save the
princess. She has no right to choose her lovers. After prince comes, Grimm brother arrange
the prince to kiss the princess. Little Brier Rose looks at prince kindly soon after she wakes
up. This magical power is designed to comfort readers of 19th century Germany. His kiss
symbolizes his selection. According to professor Katharina Kentinich, Women were to be
inferior to the male in 19th century Germany. At that time, there is no Germany. Instead there
is Kingdom of Prussia. Royalty king and prince have supreme right at the time. As a royal
prince, he can selects any girls and therefore she wakes up. This makes sense for normal
Germany at that time. Since women dont have right at that time, they do not know they have
right to choose their true lovers. So Grimm brother arrange her fall in love with him instantly.
Now is 21st century, peoples view changed a lot from 19th century. In The Sleeper and the
Spindle, situation is really different. There are still true love kiss and sleep spell in this story.

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But the usage of both change. Gaiman writes, I shall, said the queen, gently. She lowered
her face to the sleeping womans. She touched the pink lips to her own carmine lips and she
kissed the sleeping girl long and hard (Gaiman 66). Gaiman adds homosexual element into
the story. Now in modern America, Gay right is a trending topic in society. Feminism
becomes more and more powerful and now females can talk out loud for their own sexuality
and right. Since all these movements happened, Gaiman changes the prince into a brave
queen. Gaiman says in one interview, there are things that people who like a genre are
looking for in their fiction: the things that titillate, the things that satisfy. Therefore adds
different things than what readers expect can even impress readers more. So Gaiman adds
his own value into the story. He uses homesexual element to shock readers. Readers will
never expect see homosexual element in a fairy tale. It is a good thing for readers to read
some new ideas for this genre. So Gaiman writes queen kissed the princess and wakes her up
by her magic. Now people dont really want to see thing like true love kiss anymore. They
want to see some twists and actions. Since this part of story is new, this twist can entertain
readers and they will be curious about what is going to happen that whether princess will
wake up or something else will happen. Gaiman writes princess is actually an evil witch who
absorb peoples energy. This never happened in Grimm version. Gaiman writes this way to
make witch seems more evil. Now she has a clear motive to curse the real princess, the witch
wants to live forever. With this clear motive, readers will be easier to understand the story. As
story goes on, not like in Grimm version, Gaiman writes the old lady (the real princess) stabs
the witch with her spindle. He wrote, The old woman, who had once been a princess, held
the yarn tightly in her hand, and she thrust the point of the spindle into the golden-haired
girls breast (Gaiman 14). Before read this part, readers might think queen will kill the
witch. However, Gaiman does not want to let his readers come up the true ending. As Gaiman

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says in one interview, the most interesting thing about writing is never letting readers figure
out how the true ending goes.So Gaiman writes old princess to kill the witch with witchs
own magical spindle. This ironic setting has a dark sense of humor which can also entertain
modern readers. Gaiman writes her spindle as a metaphor. Evil witch will destroy itself with
it own power. The theme of the story is still the justice can defeat the evil. The value of this
story is still very optimistic so children can read it. But these multiple twists can also
entertain modern readers.
Little Brier-Rose and The Sleeper and the Spindle are two masterpieces in fairy tale
history. Grimm brother and Neil Gaiman are all good writers who know how to entertain and
keep their readers reading their stories. They both use two classic fairy tale conventions
which are villain and magical power under different rhetorical situation. Gaiman successfully
modernize two tales and change it into a modern novel. His modernization of convention
helps readers to get into the story and receive their own values. The change he makes bring
the fairy tale into 21st century. People still get addict to it and this genre will have a bright and
wonderful future.

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Works Cited
Gaiman, Neil. The Sleeper and the Spindle. London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc , 2014.
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. "Dornrschen," Kinder- und Hausmrchen.
Gttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1812.
Zipes, Jack. Introduction: Rediscovering the Original Tales of the Brothers
Grimm. New Jersery: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Gaiman, Neil & Ishiguro, Kazuo. Let's talk about genre: Neil Gaiman and
Kazuo
Ishiguro in conversation
Gaiman, Neil: "Fragile Things" Talks at Google
Kentinich, Katharina. "The Role of Women in Germany/Gymnich Around
1900." The Role of Women in Germany/Gymnich Around 1900.
Schoenstatt, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012.
Lee, Cheryl, "Fantasy Versus Fairy Tale: How Modern Fairy Tale Variants
Measure up to One of the Greatest Literary Traditions of All Time."
(2013). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Series. Paper 87.
http://dc.etsu.edu/honors/87
Krozser, Kassia . Understanding What Readers Want. 2013
http://www.thewritingplatform.com/2013/02/understanding-whatreaders-want/