Kimberly J. Lau – Specters Of The Marvelous: Race and the Development Of The European Fairy Tale
“Picture yourself in a fairy-tale world. There you are, among the princes and princesses, peasants and paupers, among the wizened old ladies and roaming peddlers, the vile stepmothers and capricious fairies, among the dwarves and gnomes, witches and ogres, magical animals and enchanted beasts. You might share your last scrap of bread with a downtrodden fellow begging a bite to eat, ignore the arrogant and entitled firstborn making a hash of things, converse with a nearby cat. You might come across an entire village in deep slumber, a wolf charming a girl in the woods, a traveler about to pick a rose from a winter garden.” – this is from the introduction to an exceptional book, Specters Of The Marvelous: Race and the Development Of The European Fairy Tale by Kimberly J. Lau. In stories retold for generations, wondrous worlds and magnificent characters have defined the genre of European fairy tales with little recognition of yet another defining aspect—racism and racialized thinking. Engaging four classic fairy-tale collections, professor Kimberly J. Lau connects close readings of the tales to the cultural discourses, scholarly debates, and imperial geopolitics that established and perpetuated ideas about racial difference and white superiority. Within the tales of Giambattista Basile, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, the Grimms, and Andrew and Nora Lang, Lau teases apart and historicizes the racialized themes and ideologies embedded within fairy tales spanning the early seventeenth to early twentieth centuries. She contends that the European fairy tale is definitively marked, whether implicitly or explicitly, by whiteness, and given the genre’s documented colonization of diverse narrative traditions over time, this specter of race is all the more haunting. This trailblazing work demonstrates the continuous evolution of radicalized thinking that has informed the publication and dissemination of fairy tales. We are so pleased to share with you Ms. Lau’s passion for exploring the darker side of fairy tales. Plus, Kimberly has made a music playlist for Specters Of The Marvelous. “As a literary scholar, I live in a world of texts, so thinking about my work through music has been a wonderfully provocative experience. As soon as I started to consider the idea of a soundtrack for my book, I couldn’t stop thinking in songs. Specters of the Marvelous addresses the striking absence of race in critical studies of the European fairy tale and highlights the principal role of race in the development of the European fairy tale as well as the naturalized role of the fairy tale in the development of western racisms and racial formations. I hope my playlist evokes some of these ideas in allusive and affective ways.”
https://www.kimberlyjlau.com/Kimberly J Lau’s playlist
Bill Eddy – Why We Elect Narcissists And Sociopaths – And How We Can Stop
Six years ago it did seem that every other week another book was published to explain how Donald J Trump had become President. Then along came Why We Elect Narcissists And Sociopaths – And How We Can Stop by bestselling author, therapist, lawyer, and mediator Bill Eddy describing how dangerous, high-conflict personalities have gained power in governments worldwide – and what citizens can do to keep these people out of office. Drawing on historical examples from Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Nixon to Trump, Maduro, and Putin, Eddy shows how highly conflicted people invent enemies and manufacture phony crises so they can portray themselves as the sole heroic figure who can deal with them, despite their inability to actually solve problems. Bill Eddy suggests democracy is under siege. He says the reason isn’t politics but personalities: too many countries have come under the sway of high-conflict people (HCPs) who have become politicians. Most of these high-conflict politicians have traits of narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial (i.e., sociopathic) personality disorder, or both. HCPs don’t avoid conflict, they thrive on it, widening social divisions.Who knew at the time we would be asking the same question again, six years later?
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