Monday 12 April 2010

Review: Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale

Brief summary: It's interesting to see all the different versions of LRRH stories. Fairy tales are not for little kiddies.

Middling summary: It is a very good collection of the variations on the LRRH theme ranging from old wives tales, Louis IV's court, the Brothers Grimm, Roald Dahl, to "The Company of Wolves" movie (1984) (notable actors: Angela Lansbury, David Warner) (incidentally this video is available in The University of Auckland Library: Audio Visual Library) and "Freeway" movie (1996) (starring Reese Witherspoon, Bokeem Woodbine, Kiefer Sutherland and Brooke Shields) . The images included in the book is also quite fascinating. There's quite a lot of write up about sex.

Upshot: I found this collection of LRRH stories a very interesting read. All the analysis about the sexuality of the tale throughout the ages was tedious to me. However, humanity is all about sex so I guess it is the only natural conclusion.


Book:
Orenstein, C. (2002). Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked. NY: Basic Books.

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