Storytelling and Fairytales Through Time (CHeldenbrand)

and information storage because only then is the wisdom truly yours.  Anyone who knows nothing can play parrot and read
or say what someone else has recorded; that wisdom is not truly theirs.  In other words, writing is “pretending to
establish outside the mind what in reality can only be in the mind.”  That loyalty to the spoken word worked fine
when each individual group of people barely interacted with anyone other than
themselves on a regular basis, but that is not the world we live in anymore.  Since our social lives are so much more wide
spread, it is only fitting we have a communication style which can cover
greater distances and wider relations as well.
So writing was invented and then the printing press made its appearance
in 1440; many papyrus sheets and trimmed forests later, our world is even
smaller and they figured out how to harness lightning and charge the public, so
we now immediately send pixelated characters across ones, zeros, and Wi-Fi.  One genre so immensely affected and altered
with each development of styles of communication is storytelling.

The
progression basically went something like this: once upon a time, all fables,
tales, legends, myths, parables, and stories had no other way to be passed down
or survive except orally – meaning *The Little Mermaid* may have begun as someone’s bedtime story.  When written language became accessible to commoners, Ariel and Flounder crowded up someone’s desk drawer.  Later, as a printed and published item (under
the credit of Hans Christian Andersen), more and more people were able to
experience the adventure of the fish princess out of water.  The next development is arguable the most
influential and iconic adjustment for storytelling as an art: the silver screen
of television.  Moving pictures visually
laid out the entire story allowing a perspective as if the audience could walk
right along the beach as well!  Now a
television is just a thin frame of an on-demand magic portal.  When someone wants to get told a story, they
click a few buttons, make some sort of digital currency transaction, and watch
King Triton get mad at his red-headed daughter for falling in love with a human
all day long!

These new medias and new
technologies allow all those previously oral traditions to become digital
literary factors.  Stephen King’s “Word
Processor of the Gods,” a metaphor for how new technology can transform the
world we live in, makes a perfect statement about all that has come to be
accomplished and how the world of storytelling has been transformed by a wired
world.

### Preexisting Fairytale? Disney Can Remediate That!

Stephanie
Burt’s “The Promise and Potential of Fan Fiction” says “In portraying characters
that other people already recognize, characters whose further adventures people
already want to read, nonprofessional creators can find a wholly voluntary,
non-paying audience of people whom they will never meet.  No clearer path from new writers to potentially
interested readers has existed in the history of civilization.”  Walt Disney built an entire empire off of
that very principle.  *Snow White and the Seven Dwarves* was a popular
German fairytale published by the Brothers Grimm in the 1800s.  *Peter*
Pan *was a preexisting play owned by the Great Ormond Street Hospital in*
London.  *Alice in Wonderland* was written by Lewis Carroll.  Even the brand new stuff such as *Frozen* is preexisting in nature –
another Hans Christian Andersen story.
Disney remediates!

Then
comes along Once Upon A Time, a show that builds on every single fairytale
character’s stories, intertwines them, makes presumptions and answers questions
originally unconsidered, and puts them all in the same town of magical
havoc.  It is the remediated fan fiction
of a bunch of many times over remediated characters.  Once Upon A Time in itself is an ultimate
success of fan fiction and remediation and the exploitation of technology as a
literary device and storytelling agent.
In this project, several sites are explored to analyze the web presence
of Once Upon A Time with its fanbase.
Remediation, fan fictions, interpretational disputes, and disapprovals will
be contemplated going forward.

## Remediation

Remediation
occurs when new and better technologies replace old ones and texts are presented
in the new forms of mediation, therefore “re-mediated”.  Fairy tales are the perfect example of a genre
that has been told through so many vehicles as discussed above; these texts
have been mediated and remediated over and over and over again and continue to
be retold and bestowed upon adoring audiences and “readers” because newer,
better styles of storytelling continually arise.  First orality and word of mouth was replaced
with literary fixed text and a published form, then Walt and Mickey animated
them for television, and now Hollywood cannot get enough of remediating them
all again into a live action format with their computer generated images.  Another fantastic form of remediation now available
thanks to all those ones and zeros and our

wired world is “readers” reliving
and responding to the text online then other readers responding still to that
text.  The internet allows these
communities to arise and gives the ability to cyber-assembly to all who love or
hate or just want to discuss the same topics.
Cyber space is that forum where those enthusiasts, haters, and fans of
all kinds can discuss, analyze, criticize, and even manipulate the text.

### Fan Fiction

The internet
allows all intellectual material to be instantaneously available for the
discussion, analysis, criticism, and manipulation mentioned above by almost
anyone.  Now, anyone can become an author
utilizing characters and even plots they didn’t create themselves: this genre
is called fan fiction.  Because of this
possibility, stories don’t solely belong to their original authors anymore;
fans can decide the story doesn’t end there, add to and alter and manipulate the
text, and make different decisions for the characters.  In this light, the authors are more fittingly
called original creators – those who spawn subject matter for their
readers.  Readers and responders to the
text have become authors to their own versions of the stories.  Flexible rather than concrete, the texts
themselves are foundations for potential adventures beyond their original
stories instead of the capstone where it all ends.  There are almost 40,000 fan fictions written
about Once Upon A Time.  One in particular, For Once, Let Go explores a more romantic relationship between main characters Emma Swan and
Killian Jones (aka Captain Hook).  Other
fan fiction pieces explore relationships among other characters in both
romantic and antagonistic ways.  These
fan fictions bring to light the desires and imaginations of the Once Upon A Time
fanbase.

Fan
fiction addresses and foils one of Plato’s greatest complaints about the written
word addressed in Ong’s “Writing Restructures Consciousness”: that it is
unresponsive and cannot defend itself if questioned.  Plato said only the “natural spoken word” can
be backed up by “active thought.”  Ong
also discusses the deadness of written text – inhuman and unchanging and rigid.  He recognizes a paradox of that state saying “[the
fixed state of written text] assures its endurance and its potential for being
resurrected into limitless living contexts by a potentially infinite number of
living readers.”  Fan fiction, forums of
discussion, and the internet allow instantaneous connection and dialogue
between authors and responders.  In this
current world mostly linked through cyber space, we utilize text through pixels
to communicate just as much if not more primarily than speaking.  Speech is no longer the primary communicator.  It is the written word on the internet and it
is all but dead.  It is supported by
active thought because of how instantaneous all reactions and connections can
be; it does change and it can be questioned and it can respond and defend
itself.  Texts are
consistently resurrected into living contexts by living readers every day in
this genre of fan fiction.

## Interpretive Disputes and Disapprovals

Despite its wide acclaim and great reception among audiences,
the Once Upon a Time community still had its disgruntled dissidents. One woman, Krystal Blaze Dean, who used to be a fan, voiced her opinion of the show on her blog. She
finds much to be desired regarding characters being brought on for a few
episodes then being discarded as well as plot holes that Dean calls “too
confusing.” She also felt that characters development was rushed and characters
who could have added to the show were sent back to their realm after two or
three episodes. The show left such a poor taste in her mouth that she “can’t
think of a single thing that would bring [her] back to watching Once Upon a
Time.” Reddit commenter Geroots harkens its to Once Upon a TIme director's other large hit
LOST asserting that Once Upon a Time becomes “soapy and serialized” and neglects its minor
characters more than it should. What others like, viewers like these interpret
them to be sappy and unnecessarily dramatic.

The most grievous claim to be found was one that accuses Once Upon a Time
of normalizing rape . In two instances, a witch poses as a younger and more
beautiful lady in order to seduce a young handsome man with the intention to
get pregnant. Another outspoken viewer, Sarah Silva takes her claim to
twitter regarding Regina having sex with Graham, whom she controls, as he could
not consent. In the same thread with Sarah Silva, the director of the show
Adam Horowitz denies that Regina’s control over Graham was not used for sex
therefore there was no un-consensual behavior. The other instances mentioned
above go uncontested.

The problem that appears the most viewers is the poor writing
of the later seasons; they claim that the first few seasons were higher in
story quality but it tapers as the show continues. However, its storyline does
tend to be a matter of taste as commenter LadeeCrystal reports that “Providing a modern twist to many Disney/fairytale characters
has been a theme which never gets old.” There are also those who claim that if you love Disney, any semblance of poor story telling really does not get in the way. It is certainly a matter of interpretation.

## References List

1. ↑ Plato, "Phaedrus." Course Readings, HUM211
2. ↑ King, Stephen. "Word Processor Of the Gods." Class Readings
3. ↑ Burt, Stephanie, "The Promise and Potential of Fan Fiction." Course Readings, HUM211
4. ↑ Ong, Walter. "Writing Restructures Consciousness." Course Readings, HUM211
5. ↑ The Odyssey Online Article: https://tinyurl.com/y9z7dnh4
6. ↑ Reddit Thread Link: https://tinyurl.com/y85yoe25
7. ↑ Gizmodo Article: https://tinyurl.com/yah62qff
8. ↑ Mary Sue Article: https://tinyurl.com/ydxm7962
9. ↑ Horowitz Forum Link: https://tinyurl.com/ydh6hu8x
10. ↑ TV.Com Article: https://tinyurl.com/ycfgh6xp