Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry (Paperback)

~ (Author) "It is said that a man's best friend is his dog, but those of us who read fairy tales know better..." (more)
Key Phrases: artificial negativity, literary fairy tale, classical fairy tales, Snow White, Miss Piggy, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Zipes (German, Univ. of Minnesota), well known in storytelling and folklore circles for such works as Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (Routledge, 1985), confronts in this series of essays the question much discussed recently on listservs: How have the relatively new media of film and television affected traditional storytelling and stories, particularly fairy tales? Zipes is concerned with the "commodification" of fairy tales, a la Disney, where the films are designed more to sell a line of toys and other products than to present a story to an audience. Zipes traces the use of fairy tales in the acculturation process through various time periods, emphasizing the importance of being cognizant of the process itself. The beginning of an important discussion, his work is recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with substantial collections in either folklore or media studies.?Katherine K. Koenig, Ellis Sch., Pittsburgh, Pa.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

...[Zipes'] book does make us wonder whether we should be packing our children off to films that have more to do with mass merchandising than mystery and wonder.
–Teacher, June 1997

...[Zipes] book does make us wonder whether we should be packing our children off to films that have more to do with mass merchandising than mystery and wonder.
–Teacher, June 1997

An incisive study of fairy tales, ofhow they have been shaped by our culture, and how in turn, our culture has been shaped by them. [Zipes] suggests that the shift from oral to literary traditions helped to institutionalize and commodify fairy tales, and that the film industry has driven this trend to extremes ... it would certainly trigger some stirring classroom debates.
– Christian Library Journal, September 1997

This isn't recommended for kids, but parents and adults will want to consider this book's theme: it covers fairy tales and their impact on children and adults. Zipes' history of storytelling and its changes between cultures provides an unusual perspective of how the fairy tale has affected and changed cultures and societies from the 16th century to modern times. -- Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (April 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415918510
• ISBN-13: 978-0415918510
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #591,023 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful and Intriguing View of Tales and Culture, April 28, 2000

By	Julia Starkey (Medford, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry (Hardcover)

I really disagree with the previous review of this book. Zipes doesn't distort the tales meaning at all. Instead he avoids the facile, obvious surface reading, and goes deeper into the many varied meanings of what any one tale can mean. I especially enjoyed the sections on how tales were twisted and edited to reinforce our ideas of childhood and what is appropriate for children to read. For instance, the Grimms' tales were heavily edited over time making them less violent, adding in strict moral messages, and generally making the female characters more annoying (see Bottigheimer's Grimms Bold Boys and Bad Girls for a great analysis of this). I highly reccomend this book.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought, December 8, 2004

By	L. Lutz (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I definitely didn't agree with a lot of what Zipes had to say - he was much too pessimistic and bitter for my tastes. Additionally, the idea of Disney-as-embodiment-of-all-things-evil is a little tired.

However, what I enjoyed about the book was how much it got me thinking about my own views on the material. Quite a few times I wished Zipes was in front of me so we could discuss and debate. That is always a sign of a good book to me - something that gets me thinking about my own belief system, whether I agree with the author or not.

A very interesting read.

8 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Weak, March 29, 2000

By A Customer

The insights here are few and far between. Zipes labors much too hard twisting these tales to fit his own political agenda. In a typical chapter, Zipes tries to explain how fairy tales demonstrate that cats are better than people. Many better books have been written on the subject.