Snow, Glass, Apples
Hair as black as ebony, lips as red as blood, skin as white as snow. A description of a fairytale princess, or a monster?
The Facts
Text: Snow, Glass, Apples
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy, horror, retelling/adaptation
Year: 1994
Available: Smoke and Mirrors short fiction anthology by Neil Gaiman
Graphic Novel version illustrated by Colleen Doran
or read online here
Warnings: This story contains some disturbing sexual themes including pedophila, incest, rape, and necrophilia. please be aware of these content warnings and check in with yourself before deciding to read this story on your own. I do not go into any graphic detail in my post but these themes are mentioned and their purpose discussed below. Read responsibly.
The Fiction
There is a popular emerging genre in storytelling of the fairytale/myth/folklore retelling or adaptation. These retellings take familiar stories that are most ingrained in our culture and consciousness, and change something in the plot, character, setting, etc to make the classic story something new. Some examples of folktale adaptations/retellings in pop culture are the musical Wicked where the Wicked Witch of the West is framed as hero, the tv show Once Upon a Time where fairytale characters are imagined in our modern world, or albums like Once Upon a Time in Space by The Mechanisms, a concept album in which fairytale characters are reimagined as fighting a galactic dictator in a space opera . This week's story is an example of one of these kinds of folktale retellings. Popular fantasy author Neil Gaiman (and a personal favourite author of mine) puts his own spin on the folktale Snow White.
Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples does something you see a lot in retellings in that it switches the perspective the story is being told from. In this story the (Evil?) Queen and stepmother is the protagonist. The circumstances of this version make her into the good hero, while Snow White is imagined as a monstrous creature a kin to a vampire who terrorizes the kingdom and the surrounding forest. The Queen's attempts to hunt and kill Snow White are re-contextualized as heroic when Snow White is depicted as a monster.
Last week I wrote about the darker, but still fun elements of the original Grimm fairytale. Gaiman's retelling is DEFINITELY not for kids and much more disturbing. Most of the disturbing aspects of this version come from the sexual dimension he's added to this story. The fact that the story depicts not only sex, but deliberately alludes to or imagines our society's most taboo sexual acts (as stated above pedophilia, necrophila, etc) launches this story to a whole other level of fantasy and horror when compared to the original. Whereas last week I said the Evil Queen was so over top in her ghoulishness it looped back to being funny, this story DOES NOT take that loop but barrels right off the track at 100mph. Snow White's cruelty is not funny in hindsight, or an example of a "villain you love to hate," or anything other than monstrous.
Since the Queen is the protagonist the genre typical "happy ending" is flipped in this version. The story still ends with the Prince and Snow White killing the Queen (telling lies about her to the kingdom so the people think she's evil and putting her in a kiln to burn to death) but because the Queen is our hero her death is no longer the victorious triumph of the fairytale, but the more tragic "the bad guy wins" ending associated more often with the horror genre.
The Feeling
While I was reading this I was not sure how I felt about the sexual violence in this story. On the one hand I thought it was a little overtop/over done. On some levels, however, I can understand the logic behind Gaiman's choices. The depiction of the Prince as a necrophiliac...well makes sense to the context of the original where he FALLS IN LOVE WITH A CORPSE AND ASKS TO KEEP IT. Gaiman's decision makes a lot of inevitable sense in that choice considering the source materials implications. Other scenes, maybe, weren't as necessary in my opinion, but I also understand the atmosphere and tone Gaiman has created. If the Prince is the only creep in the story, and the only sexual part of it, the moment he "meets" Snow White would be even more jarring to the tone of the rest of the story. So, in order to get to the logical step depicting of the necrophiliac Prince, the rest of the story has to match that darkly sexualized tone, and oh boy, it does.
So, other then the sexual content how did I find this adaptation/retelling? Well I'm a big fan of this genre of folk/myth retelling. I particularly love retellings where villains are made heroes and the depiction of the (Evil?) Queen is the best part of this story. She is reimagined as a young witch and a caring queen to her people. One of my favourite parts of reading a Neil Gaiman story is always his depiction of magic/witchcraft. He doesn't disappoint in this story, actually showing the ritual the Queen uses to make the poisoned apples, instead of just handwaving it like the original folklore. There's also some cool horror stuff like the Queen stringing Snow White's still beating heart from her bedchamber rafters so she knows when the creature (Snow White) is alive and when she's dead. I also loved the general reimaging of Snow White as a cold, blood thirsty vampire, which is a cool reinterpretation of her original description (black hair, pale skin, red lips) into something darkly monstrous instead of something gently beautiful.
Ultimately, I love the concept of this story, with a vampire Snow White, and a (Good?) Queen as the protagonist even as I struggled with and continue to struggle with the more graphic sexual violence. Gaiman is an extremely talented author, a master of fantastical imagery, and it is a horror story not a children's fairytale. This one is supposed to disturb you.
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