Cabinet Des Fées » Archive
Alice’s Place
Alice’s Place
By Bruce Woods
It is a shelf, a bench, a level space roughly the size of a single bed, a bit more than halfway up the side of a hill. The mound upon which it appears is not by any means a mountain, being gentle-sloped and rounded and covered by greenery to its very peak, but it is quite the largest hill visible in any direction upon what is otherwise a region of lowlands, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Issue 10 (May 2010)
Chinese Rapunzel
Chinese Rapunzel
by Rachel Lim
lowers her pinky fingernail,
curvaceously lavender, delicate
as a shell carrying the whispers
of the ocean within its depths.
there is no tower but her body,
and isn’t that worse, anyway,
to be trapped within strips of
silk—
coda
grab ahold of the extended nail,
my prince, and climb me to
freedom. Perhaps the
summit will offer more than
my walled eyes can see, a
glimpse of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Issue 10 (May 2010)
The Other Road
The Other Road
by Alexandra Seidel
Little Blue Ribbon chose the other road.
Her twin, whom all call Red Riding Hood, was distracted by a wolf
and went off, plucking flowers, hunting butterflies,
but Blue Ribbon, the girl who was petite as her sister and had her wheat-golden hair,
stayed on the road that led into the woods where their grandmother lived.
Blue Ribbon carried a basket of wicker in the crook of her arm with … Read entire article »
Filed under: Issue 10 (May 2010)
The Heroic Journey in Shirley Lim’s Princess Shawl
The Heroic Journey in Shirley Lim’s Princess Shawl
by Nurul Huda
This article will be discussing a work of an author that is no stranger to the Malaysian literary scene. Or, as a matter of fact, to the Singaporean, Hong Kong and American literary scene. Many Malaysian students knows her from studying her poem “Monsoon History” in our secondary school English syllabus, and most university students study her short story “Mr. Tang’s Girls” for … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles & Essays, Featured
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
By Julie Phillips, 2006
Reviewed by Tanya B. Avakian
Before she died, James Tiptree, Jr. was a secret shared between a few obsessed readers. Many of us were pointed in her direction—she was a woman by then—after reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s introduction to Tiptree’s short story collection, Star Songs of an Old Primate. Those who went on to read Tiptree’s stories may also have learned … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book Reviews
Neverland: J.M. Barrie, The Du Mauriers, and the Dark Side of Peter Pan
Neverland: J.M. Barrie, The Du Mauriers, and the Dark Side of Peter Pan
By Piers Dudgeon, 2009
Reviewed by Tanya B. Avakian
Fairies are found the world over, but the fairy folk we think of when we hear the word are quintessentially British. Several things are true of the British fairies in particular, and are worth remembering in case one should happen to encounter them. The fairies have trouble reproducing: their greatest delight is in stealing … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book Reviews
The Fairy Tale Tarot
The Fairy Tale Tarot
by Lisa Hunt, Llewellyn, 2009.
Reviewed by Erzebet YellowBoy
The Fairy Tale Tarot by Lisa Hunt comes neatly packaged with the book Once Upon a Time in which Hunt briefly touches on the history of the fairy tale before expansively describing the major and minor arcana, each of which comes with a fairy tale of its own. Tarot such as this aren’t so much divinatory tools as they are guideposts through … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book Reviews
From Folklore to Literature: The Märchen and the German Romantic Movement
From Folklore to Literature: The Märchen and the German Romantic Movement
Charles Haddox
When the early German Romantic writers and critics, a group that included Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich von Hardenberg (known by the pen name Novalis), and Ludwig Tieck, began taking stock of the new literary approach they were creating, it is little wonder that they saw themselves at the forefront of a movement which had the potential to change not only literature, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles & Essays
The Handless Maiden (revisited)
The Handless Maiden (revisited)
By Olivia V. Ambrogio
Once there was a woman whose father cut off her hands.
He said there were reasons for cutting off her hands; he said he was coerced. The devil made him do it; he needed her to marry, and apparently with hands she put up too much of a fight. We don’t know what her mother was doing during all of this.
But no one wanted her … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Issue 10 (May 2010)
Gingerbread Man
Gingerbread Man
By Eric Marin
My cousins’ cousin stopped by my house for tea today, and I said, “Hi, Gretel. It’s great to see you, but I don’t have any tea.” She shrugged her narrow shoulders and said, “That’s okay, I really just came to steal a kiss and make some gingerbread.” I started to tell her we didn’t have any gingerbread, but she just laughed and said, “Not a problem” and then leaned over the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Issue 10 (May 2010)
CdF in Print
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making began as a book-within-a-book in Catherynne M. Valente's adult novel, Palimpsest, a part of the protagonist’s childhood, a strange novel for children written in the 1920s, about a young girl spirited away to Fairyland by the Green Wind, and her adventures there, battling the wicked Marquess, befriending outlandish creatures, and growing up. Available to read online with donations requested.
CdF Out & About