Reviews for The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World

The average rating for The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-10-29 00:00:00 Christie Sposeto I'm currently beginning the research for my senior thesis, which centers on fairy tales in Europe during the nineteenth century. Obviously, the Grimm brothers are a sizable presence in my topic, so I chose this book to get a biographical background on the brothers. (Finding good biographies of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is not an easy task!) What I didn't realize is that only about 1/5 of this book is actually biography; the rest is a collection of essays by the author. Unfortunately, I vehemently disagreed with upwards of 90% of Zipes's opinions, which made for a very unpleasant reading experience. I almost didn't write a review for this book, as I know readers can get quite heated about their beloved fairy tales, and I didn't want to pick a fight in the comment section, but... I do rather want to at least touch on a few things that I really found maddening. This is going to be rather longish, and more irritated a review than I've done in a while, so I apologize. First of all, I completely admit bias when it comes to Disney. I grew up on Disney, and in many cases, those movies were my first exposure to fairy tales and ultimately what opened the door to a lifelong love of them. Personally, I find them completely valid interpretations and retellings of fairy tales, tailored for a specific audience not unlike the manner in which Zipes elsewhere defends the Grimm brothers for doing. Also, I have a personal pet peeve because it think a lot of scholars rip into Disney simply for being too lowbrow, popular, or accessible; scholars can really be academic elitists sometimes. You don't have to like Disney, but you don't have to be snobbish about it, either. That being said, if you are going to completely diss and drag Disney through the mud as Zipes does, you should probably at least make sure you have your facts straight. Zipes not only over-generalizes Disney films, but in some cases completely misrepresents them to make his points (and in his eagerness to criticize them, often contradicts himself in the process) He mixes up the incidental happenings of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty; in his list of harmful "subliminal messages" that Disney's Sleeping Beauty teaches children, he declares that the film implies that womanly curiosity is dangerous. I can only assume this is because Aurora touches the spindle, as many versions of the story have the princess do so out of curiosity. Anyone who has watched the Disney movie will know, however, that Aurora is obviously put into a trance by Maleficent and manipulated into touching it, while Zipes's other specifics (women are helpless without men, men can restore anything to life, etc) are certainly not something Disney invented, nor even particularly apply to Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty (I would argue that they, in fact, do not- for instance, Zipes neglects to mention that the prince is only able to rescue the princess after he receives female help in the form of the fairies). Zipes does this sort of thing several times, twisting Disney movies so that they support his point of view. This leads into my next problem: Zipes's tendency to blame "the patriarchy" for everything. While I won't deny that there are certain harmful patriarchal-based themes in many fairy tales, Zipes tears down nearly every instance of male authority or heroism. But a woman being saved by a man is not problematic in and of itself. I don't think that it should be the only fairy tale plot that children consume, of course, but women being told that to be "strong" they always have to save themselves and that they have to be their own hero can also be as harmful. We can't do everything alone, and I've seen a lot of issues come from this mindset (in both men and women). Sometimes we can't save ourselves, and knowing that we are important and treasured enough by someone else for them to risk their lives to rescue us can be just as empowering as knowing we have the skills and intelligence to help others. Of course, the modern feminist hatred of male rescuers is one of my pet peeves, so I get rather heated about it, but it also just grows tiring when Zipes just...won't stop talking about it. The repetitive bashing of the patriarchy just got tired and old after the first several times; we get the point. It was like he was overcompensating because he was a man himself and wanted to make sure everyone knew he was a feminist. Finally, I gave up on ever liking Zipes when he began ripping into specific children's picture and story books, several of which I've read and enjoyed. Apparently, Zipes has something against storybooks that portray fairy tale characters in stereotypical medieval or "fairytale" clothing, even if the art is beautiful; in his words, they "reveal nothing new" about the stories. Then, after complaining about these traditional retellings, he praises this...hackneyed, poorly written modern retelling of Snow White that was retold entirely in cringe-worthy slang. It honestly sounded like something I might have written to be funny when I was like, thirteen. That's a common theme in my experience with this particular essay: he criticizes stories I enjoy, and praises one I think are honestly pretty awful. I could write an entire essay myself on how I disagree with him on this topic, but I'm running out of steam and I think you get the main idea. The only reason this book gets two stars out of me is for the biographical info on the Grimms, much of which I was having trouble finding elsewhere. If I'd just stuck with that, I'd probably would have a much more positive impression of Mr. Zipes than I do now. (The worst is that, judging by his Goodreads profile picture, Mr. Zipes looks like a rather friendly sort. Unfortunately, now if I should ever perchance meet the man, I'll have to challenge him to a duel.)

Review # 2 was written on 2017-04-08 00:00:00 Victor Manchiso 3.5. Needed more shade thrown at Disney.