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Kate Bernheimer Quotes

When I first read Anne Frank’s ‘Diary of a Young Girl,’ I saw for the first time that a girl could be a writer and that it had something to do with survival and with ethics and fighting against evil. I admired her, though her diary remained terrifying and mysterious to me. She was a character in a real fairy tale - fairy tales are brutal Picture Quote #1

It wasn’t until I was an adult reader that I began to fathom the influence of fairy tales on writers I was in love with over the years, from Louisa May Alcott to Bernard Malamud to John Cheever to Anne Frank to Joy Williams Picture Quote #1

As I read more and more fairy tales as an adult, I found massive collusion between their ‘subjects’ and those in my fiction: childhood, nature, sexuality, transformation. I realized that it wasn’t by accident that I was drawn to their narrative structure and motifs Picture Quote #1

Well documented, the relationship of literature to myth in the Western world has undergone much change over the millennia, as first the age of gods fell away before the notion of a single God, and then, for many people, that single God slipped away, too Picture Quote #1

When I wrote the eight fairy tales that appear in ‘Horse, Flower, Bird’ I was working toward a completely new form of artistic expression, trying to create a new kind of tale that also felt vintage: innocent and childlike, but haunted. I tried to write a picture-less picture book Picture Quote #1

Beer bottles, whiskey bottles, brown glass, green. They fell to the lawn and I’d feel serene. Adam was king to my stilted queen Picture Quote #1

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I often visit Maria Tatar’s ‘The Grimm Reader’ for a cold dose of courage. Her translations come from the Brothers Grimm, whose now-famous collection of ‘Kinder- und Hausmarchen’ (‘Children’s and Household Tales’) was first published in 1812. The book was not intended for young readers Picture Quote #1

With our evolved busy hands and our evolved busy brains, in an extraordinarily short period of time we’ve managed to alter the earth with such geologic-forcing effects that we ourselves are forces of nature. Climate change, ocean acidification, the sixth mass extinction of species Picture Quote #1

Sometimes, violent details have been eliminated from fairy tales simply because they were deemed too graphic. So one does not, at the end of Disney’s version of ‘Cinderella,’ see the stepsisters’ eyes get pecked and pecked by doves, because Disney wanted to market the story for wholesome family viewing Picture Quote #1

Books are no different from goats! They enjoy an afternoon out on the lawn Picture Quote #1

From sentence to sentence, in fairy tales there is no reality that is subordinated to any other. Just as, outside the pages there is no reality Picture Quote #1

When humans become gods, when our wings grow so great as to beat about the very edges of the earth, no one can answer but us Picture Quote #1

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People tend to think of fairy tales as archetypal. They are also extremely sensual, something which translates well over the ages Picture Quote #1

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When I first read Anne Frank’s ‘Diary of a Young Girl,’ I saw for the first time that a girl could be a writer and that it had something to do with survival and with ethics and fighting against evil. I admired her, though her diary remained terrifying and mysterious to me. She was a character in a real fairy tale - fairy tales are brutal. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) It wasn’t until I was an adult reader that I began to fathom the influence of fairy tales on writers I was in love with over the years, from Louisa May Alcott to Bernard Malamud to John Cheever to Anne Frank to Joy Williams. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) As I read more and more fairy tales as an adult, I found massive collusion between their ‘subjects’ and those in my fiction: childhood, nature, sexuality, transformation. I realized that it wasn’t by accident that I was drawn to their narrative structure and motifs. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) Well documented, the relationship of literature to myth in the Western world has undergone much change over the millennia, as first the age of gods fell away before the notion of a single God, and then, for many people, that single God slipped away, too. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) When I wrote the eight fairy tales that appear in ‘Horse, Flower, Bird’ I was working toward a completely new form of artistic expression, trying to create a new kind of tale that also felt vintage: innocent and childlike, but haunted. I tried to write a picture-less picture book. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) Beer bottles, whiskey bottles, brown glass, green. They fell to the lawn and I’d feel serene. Adam was king to my stilted queen. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) I often visit Maria Tatar’s ‘The Grimm Reader’ for a cold dose of courage. Her translations come from the Brothers Grimm, whose now-famous collection of ‘Kinder- und Hausmarchen’ (‘Children’s and Household Tales’) was first published in 1812. The book was not intended for young readers. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) With our evolved busy hands and our evolved busy brains, in an extraordinarily short period of time we’ve managed to alter the earth with such geologic-forcing effects that we ourselves are forces of nature. Climate change, ocean acidification, the sixth mass extinction of species. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) Sometimes, violent details have been eliminated from fairy tales simply because they were deemed too graphic. So one does not, at the end of Disney’s version of ‘Cinderella,’ see the stepsisters’ eyes get pecked and pecked by doves, because Disney wanted to market the story for wholesome family viewing. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) Books are no different from goats! They enjoy an afternoon out on the lawn. (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) From sentence to sentence, in fairy tales there is no reality that is subordinated to any other. Just as, outside the pages there is no reality (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) When humans become gods, when our wings grow so great as to beat about the very edges of the earth, no one can answer but us (Kate Bernheimer Quotes) People tend to think of fairy tales as archetypal. They are also extremely sensual, something which translates well over the ages (Kate Bernheimer Quotes)