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Over in Taylor B last week, we went exploring along many of the same lanes, into many of the same domains...A number of us were drawn to/fascinated by the horror of Sexton's 'transformations,' unsettled by them, intrigued about the degree to which that 'ickiness' was inherent in the Grimm versions, inherent in the psyche of us all...We talked about Briar Rose as a story about not wanting to grow up, about the need for long periods of quiet growth, about the mistaken idea of parents that they can halt this process. And we talked about Cinderella as a story about sibling rivalry, the tale of the youngest child who feels neglected. We also tried to imagine alternative stories, from the points of view of the "evil" characters; many of us are first children, and we wondered how the stepsisters would tell that tale. We realized that having an attentive mother (as they did) wasn't necessarily a good thing--Cinderella got further, having to deal with life's stresses without a mother's care!

The interesting foil to these stories was that of Buddha, which several of us also felt strongly drawn to. This lead us to talk about the cultural universality--and cultural limits--of fairy tales, and about the sense shared, in the stories of Briar Rose and Buddha, that none of us can be protected (or protect others) from the inevitability of encounters with life's suffering...

We also wondered aloud about the limits of psychological interpretations of these stories; couldn't we read them through other critical lenses and interests, such as those of class and economics? Of social rather than (or along with) psychic determinants? In frames larger than those dictated by the needs and wants of "immediate families"? Some of us thought that we might find better food beyond such boundaries...