Dissertation Prep Week 4/5

Today I finished Jane Yolen's novel Briar Rose. It is a retelling of the classic traditional fairy tale Sleeping Beauty where protagonist Becca goes on a journey to uncover her Grandmother's past. This novel also reveals an important part of the Holocaust about Chelmno - a concentration camp in Poland where 320,000 people died.

I'm so glad I read this book, although not the best I've read it gave me so much inspiration for my own story. What initially drew me to the book was a review by the Library Journal who said the novel "Showcases Yolen's skill at transforming the real world into a realm of fantasy". Mixing reality and fantasy interests me and from reading this book I have come up with an idea of choosing a fairy tale (at the moment I am thinking of Snow White) and intertwining this with real life events that are happening across the world today such as the all the awful terrorist attacks going on. 

I am not sure yet how I am going to do this but I think (I hope) once I start writing it will all fall into place and the idea will make sense. 

I liked the structure of the chapters as every other chapter was a flashback in Becca's life to when her Grandmother would tell her and her two sisters the story of Briar Rose. I thought this was clever as it allowed me to connect with the story as the flashbacks linked with what was happening in the present the chapter before. The story heavily focuses on the past and present but I'm not too sure if I want this to be an element of my own story. 

What I certainly will take from the book is the introduction. There were quotes from Jack Zipes and Ralph Harper that I found particularly interesting that I want to use in the critical essay following the creative piece. 

This week I hope to have started writing the intro to my story and having a good outline of what I want to do and also to continue reading adult fairy tales.

Sian. X