Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales by Sheldon Cashdan ISBN: 0-465-00896-8 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: June, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Interesting
Comment: I read the book because of the interesting title and found it an excellent choice. It seems that it has been emphasized for it educational purpose, but I took it more entertaining and interesting. Something that just makes one think, sheds a new light on tales that are so familiar to so many of us. Whether or not the author is correct in all his theories (no one really ever is) I thoroughly enjoyed hearing them. I've read several other books on similar topics but none have held my interest like this one. Very well written in my opinion. Regardless of what the reviews say, pop into a bookstore to give it a peek for yourself. It's not necessarily what people are making it seem like.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good read, but I don't agree with all the theories
Comment: TWMD is an enjoyable read for one who wishes to look deeper into classic fairy tales. The suggestions for using these stories to teach morals to children seem practical and valid. I agree less though with Cashdan's theories on mythology. Viewing fairy tales only as a tool to teach morals discounts more scholarly works on mythology, such as those of Jung and Campbell which demonstrate the role of the subconscious and the ways similar myths are formed in different cultures of the world.
Rating: 3
Summary: Some good points, but really "educational theory"ish.
Comment: I just learned that the author is some sort of bigshot psychologist somewhere. I suppose that should not surprise me. This book is full of modern American "education theory" and all sorts of pop child-psychology tidbits, and it grated on me immensely.
Kirkus Reviews put it best, and to that review, I will add this: Fairy tales were not written for children originally. The oldest, the most beloved ones, were written by glittering, fashionable adults, for equally glittering and fashionable adults. They're gruesome, complex, complicated, and sometimes they just don't have morals, other than the beauty of a well-told story. Sometimes they have lots of morals. They're like life, which also can be gruesome, complex, complicated, morality-laden or morality-bankrupt. But one thing they weren't, and that was kid stuff.
It took the Victorian age to turn fairy tales into morality-laden warning stories, and the modern age to sanitize fairy tales into kid stuff, and Cashdan has taken that sanitization one step further, by insisting that parents can ego-search their kids using these tales as launching points.
He takes complex and beautiful stories like Snow White and reduces them to one-line Sailormoon-style morals, tacking them onto the story like fig leaves on Greek statues ("Don't be vain!"). Chapters explore each "sin", with suggestions for parents on how to use the suggested fairy tales to explore those "sins". (Apply X story to Y child for Z condition, and voila! Kid is fixed! What better way to illustrate the shortfalls of modern education theory?)
Cashdan does make some interesting points, in all that psychobabble -- I loved reading about his thoughts on why the bad guys have to die in these stories, why the stories *are* so violent. Honestly, that's why I bought the book, and I wasn't disappointed at all with it because he does explore those issues in detail. But there's a lot of New Agey stuff to wade through to get to it.
I'd consider it a useful and thought-provoking addition to a fairy-tale researcher's library, but not a must-have resource.
 |
Title: The Uses of Enchantment : The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim ISBN: 0679723935 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 April, 1989 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: From the Beast to the Blonde : On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers by Marina Warner ISBN: 0374524874 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 30 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
 |
Title: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall : Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales by Kate Bernheimer ISBN: 0385486812 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 13 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Fairy Tale As Myth Myth As Fairy Tale (The Thomas D. Clark Lectures: 1993) by Jack Zipes ISBN: 0813108349 Publisher: University Press of Kentucky Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
 |
Title: Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood by Maria Tatar ISBN: 0691000883 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 04 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
