Brainstorming 2015

[crantz]

Brainstorming time!

What stories are you planning to nominate? What stories are you hoping someone will nominate? What are you on the fence about? What are you not sure is eligible?

Remember, you get 3 nominations, with 0-4 characters each!


NOMINATIONS OPEN ON THE 25TH


This post @LJ

Comments

[foxinthestars]

I've got my nominations planned:

Willie of Winsbury (ballad)
Willie of Winsbury
The King's Daughter
The King
Source: text, performed

The Forest Bride (Finnish Fairy Tale)
Veikko
The Mouse Princess
Source: Collected in "Mighty Mikko: A Book of Finnish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales" by Parker Fillmore, available at Archive.org, at Project Gutenberg

The Frog Prince
The Frog Prince
The Princess
Iron Henry
The Golden Ball
Source: Intending to request the Brothers Grimm version, as here. (Crucial point, I want a version where the frog gets flung, not kissed.)

[morbane]

I enjoyed the Forest Bride! I boggled a bit at the drowning part. That is oddly specific.

[foxinthestars]

I think somewhere I read or heard a variation where it was one of his brothers that did it, and the thing was that one brother had to love her and another brother had to kill her, or something.

I admit, I find her turning back into a princess about the least interesting part. (That narrative kink for interspecies romance...)

[moetushie]

Bluebeard, definitely. I've always loved East of the Sun and West of the Moon...

[crantz]

ah, I love Bluebeard! There's a great one on AO3 that has him and his wives as vampires.

[morbane]

Ooh. Do you mean fresne's Bloody, or who_la_hoop's Jam Tomorrow? I remember Jam Tomorrow from a previous Yuletide, that was great. (Bloody probably is too, but since I don't know Carmilla, I didn't read it.)

ETA: whoops, I did read it. And commented. I guess it's better to have that error of memory rather than the other way around!

[morbane]

Yay! East of the Sun and West of the Moon is my favourite fairy tale.

My problem, is, though: I don't know what I'd prompt for it, or what I'd do with it if someone else asked for it. So I hope it gets in, but I couldn't in good conscience tell someone else "do nominate it, I'll offer it" etc.

[redsnake05]

I would love to read something about Hodja Nasreddin (or Nasreddin Hodja, according to tradition). I was first introduced to him through Adventures in Bukhara, by Leonid Solovyev, a version of which you can find http://www.christiebooks.com/ChristieBooksWP/2014/05/adventures-in-bukhara-tales-of-khoja-nasreddin-by-leonid-solovyev-part1/. Solovyev's novel is problematic in many ways, but fascinating, so people might prefer the original proverbs and tales (many of which can be found here: http://www.readliterature.com/hodjastories.htm). I am equally enchanted by both.

Nasreddin is a great folk hero and trickster of Central Asia, and I love how he stands for freedom in a mess of shahs, emirs, and sultans and their wicked, grasping policies. He is clever, slippery and articulate. Solovyev's version comes out of the Soviet occupation, and is definitely set up as a novel, while the others have much more variable characterisation and are more like fables than anything else. Anyway, I would love to read or write fic from either source, or even other ones that I've not mentioned. Nasreddin would be heaps of fun.

This is the only nomination I've really settled on, but I'm kicking round a few others. I've been wondering about whether types of characters can be named. I don't know any specific stories involving, say, selkies, but I'd love to read some fanfic about selkies. Would it be possible to nominate 'selkie' as a fandom?

[crantz]

You have to have a story in mind (but it's okay to ask for broader interpretations in your letter) but to help you, I've found some selkie stories:

Here you go

[redsnake05]

Okay, that sounds like a good way of doing it (and thank you very much for the link, that is a very comprehensive background and set of resources).

[morbane]

I am definitely nominating a version of Rapunzel. I will probably nominate a version of The Firebird once scribblemyname and I agree on a version.

I am also toying with the idea of nominating The Emperor's New Clothes.

[lot]

Oooh, which version of Rapunzel?

[morbane]

I haven't decided! Do you have a preference?

[gehayi]

This is a tough one, because my favorite fairy tale is one no one has ever heard of.

It's this one:

The Prince and His Three Fates (Ancient Egypt)

I'm not sure what other ones to pick. I'm tempted to go with a Swahili story and a Japanese story, though. Would these be okay? I know that nothing I'm picking is traditional. And I'm not certain if the Japanese story was written by Lafcadio Hearn or recorded by him.

[crantz]

Initial answer: Your stories are fine! They sound neat.

Specific answer: As long as it's legal and online, I'll accept that Japanese story. I'm not advertising it, but I am allowing modern fairytales (which means someone could be using an Ursula Vernon story if they wanted) so even if he's the author, it's fine.

[morbane]

Thanks for the Prince and His Three Fates link - the text is a lot easier to read there than in the Project Gutenberg versions of the Andrew Lang books.

[makiyakinabe]

Here's what I'm planning to nominate:

The Boy Who Drew Cats (a Japanese fairy tale)
The Broken Pitcher (an English variation of Cinderella)
The Three Languages (a Grimms' fairy tale)

[xenomantid]

If I want a story about Atlantis, do I have to phrase the request as "The Fall of Atlantis" or something similar?

[crantz]

Yes. Also, please feel free to request that, that's an interesting idea!

[lot]

Ooh Atlantis, interesting! The Plato version, or like the general myth?

[slashmarks]

Nominated Persephone and Hades, Godmother by Ursula Vernon (...you did say it was allowed in the comments), and The Cat Who Became a Queen.

I'm hoping for some combination of Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and Robin Hood to be nominated by other people -- I love reading and writing retelling of all of those, but they're also all things it's rather easy to find, so I figured I'd pick obscure options for my last two.

[crantz]

Haha, I had a moment of thinking Persephone and Hades were part of the Ursula Vernon story and going 'oh no I can't find it on google!' but I found it and YES it is totally going to be accepted.

Robin Hood has been nominated, no word yet on the other two.

For those curious about Godmother reading this, it's here and a good tale.

[crantz]

Heya! Just a heads up - I found the source for the Hades and Persephone myth and renamed the tag to that story for you.

It's The Hymm to Demeter by Homer! If you need the link or anything, it's here and anyway just so you know what happened with your nomination.

[alexseanchai]

So The Girl Who Pretended To Be A Boy from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books collection. Title character, title character's two elder sisters, and title character's eventual wife.

And ctrl-f to '886-900' of Hesiod's Theogony but I have a question about that. I want to nominate Metis, Zeus, Athena, and the hypothetical son of Metis and Zeus. I figure the first three are okay, but I'm not sure a hypothetical character counts, even though the fact of his prophesied existence is a key bit of the myth.

And...question about the flying Africans. I get the impression it's an oral myth, not one written down until comparatively recently—that document is the best description of it I've found. Eligibility check? (And it doesn't have characters per se, either...) If this one doesn't fly—ehe—I'll do East of the Sun and West of the Moon to make morbane happy.

[crantz]

To the Metis and Zeus story, tag the character Prophesied Son and I'll take it.

As for the flying africans, I genuinely am torn. It fulfills online and free, but I'm not sure if it has enough story. But it still has some. I'm going to talk that one over with Morbane and get back to you, okay? But for now the first two are fine!