Neon’s A Doll A Day… Again (2020)

[Lejays17]

Edit after your edit: yes, that's the book and Chris Riddell is indeed the illustrator, I love his work.

I have that one, it’s beautiful. He’s a great illustrator / artist.

Maybe that’s a photo idea I / Elfy could do in winter. Get out some of our illustrated books & taken dolly photos with them.
I’ve got a lovely illustrated Alice that I could use to start with.

[werepuppy]

RE: the relative tameness of fairy tales now compared to back then.

Well, that's the Victorian Era you have to thank for that, really. They turned fairy tales from lessons that might not necessarily be nice but were nonetheless important, to moral dictators. The irony of it all is that these tamer versions became more popular than some of their grimmer counterparts. (Though in the case of Cinderella at least, the softer version is older than the grimmer one.)

...This is really a topic for the Little Chit-Chat in the Library thread...

Also? Just wanna say again it's a lovely picture

[neon_jellyfish]

Love the pictures of the dolls with the book, especially Briar.
There are some fairly good retellings of the fairytales that don’t sanitise or sugar coat things. I’m currently rereading Jim Hines Princess series, where he mainly deals with what happened to Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (her name is Talia in the books) following the ‘happily ever after’. He also deals with the Little Mermaid, Red Riding Hood and the Snow Queen. Angela Carter’s Bloody Chamber was a fantastic quite visceral look at the old stories. Being from Eastern Europe you may also like Naomi Novik’s Uprooted and Spinning Silver, which take a new look at some of the old stories, but with an Eastern European slant.

Thank you!
Bloody Chamber sounds like something I should check out! I'm not sure about Eastern European slants by western authors, they tend to be kinda bad, but Naomi Novik is a big name, so I'll check them out. Someday. Mt Toberead is roughly the size of two Everests right now...

Edit after your edit: yes, that's the book and Chris Riddell is indeed the illustrator, I love his work.

I have that one, it’s beautiful.  He’s a great illustrator / artist.

Maybe that’s a photo idea I / Elfy could do in winter.  Get out some of our illustrated books & taken dolly photos with them.
I’ve got a lovely illustrated Alice that I could use to start with.

Do it!!! I like books and matching dolls, it would be great to see yours!

RE: the relative tameness of fairy tales now compared to back then.

Well, that's the Victorian Era you have to thank for that, really. They turned fairy tales from lessons that might not necessarily be nice but were nonetheless important, to moral dictators. The irony of it all is that these tamer versions became more popular than some of their grimmer counterparts. (Though in the case of Cinderella at least, the softer version is older than the grimmer one.)

...This is really a topic for the Little Chit-Chat in the Library thread...

Also? Just wanna say again it's a lovely picture

Victorians were crazy in more way than one. Victorian era was definitely the biggest case, but it was happening before and also after 19th century. Sadly, there's little actual evidence, because the old Slavs flippin' never wrote anything down (I'm very angry with my ancestors for this), but some later chroniclers wrote some of the stories down, and each newer version was more and more deformed to fit Christian worldview, demonizing the original religion. Another example would be communism.

And thank you!


Day 58

One more suitably dark fairytale!

[davidd]

Your edited versions are becoming spookier and moodier each day! Marvelous photo!

Her cape, collar, and headdress are superb!

[Lejays17]

Raven is suitably moody as always - she seems more so in the fancy dress than her Sig dress.

I take your point about the Western writers not doing justice to Eastern European stories. I did have a vague recollection about her background informing the 2 fairytale books, so I quickly looked her up. She said they were based on stores her mother told her, and her mum was Polish.
Your Mt TBR sounds very similar to ours - the photo I took for this rounds challenge was on top of 4 of the 6 piles of books in the corner of the loungeroom. We are never going to get to the bottom of the piles....

[werepuppy]

The filtered version really does help to play up the feeling that Raven is not exactly good...

(Though weirdly lyrics from Into The Woods came to mind:
You're so nice
You're not good
You're not bad
You're just nice.
I'm not good
I'm not bad
I'm just right)

[neon_jellyfish]

Thank you guys!


Day 59

I'm working on more lore for Oddwickshire, and one of the things I want to share (eventhough it's not really done) are Oddwickshire holidays.

Today is the start of The Fairytale Festival, which technically lasts for three days, but posters appear a month before the actual date and the celebrations usually take place for a whole week. Fairytales (which are often more like ghost stories with a lot of fairytale imagery) are very important part of Oddwickshire culture, so the Festival is a big deal.

The Oddwick Library publishes a special fairytale book every year (there are usually only three or four tales, but there are beautiful full-color illustrations for practically every paragraph, and also a set of bookmarks, one for each tale), in regular (softcover) and collector editions (those are gilded hardbacks, each includes a high-quality print of one of the illustrations to frame and put up).

Toymakers offer new toys based on fairytales featured in the book, there are numerous masquerade balls, theaters present fairytales adapted into plays, cafés have special menus, bookshops host readings... You get the idea. 

I was hoping to come up with an Oddwickshire fairytale and make a book cover or illustration, but I've been having too many migraines and low-pressure spells, plus I still can't write (although I do have a rough idea what it would be about), so it's just Iselle, the head day-librarian of the Oddwick Library.



Original:



The Festival is obviously inspired by the Tell A Fairy Tale Day. I'd love for it to be a big deal with new books and everything, so I decided to at least make it a big deal in Oddwickshire. I love fairytales, so Oddies do too, naturally.
Most Oddwickshire holidays - too long, imma call 'em Oddlidays - are inspired by our special days, but a lot of them have an Oddie twist.

[werepuppy]

I'm sure Iselle loves this Oddliday! She looks very ready to curl up and read.

The sound of the Oodliday as you present it make it something that ... well if there was a package trip to Oddwickshire around the time of The Fairytale Festival, I would be booking it.

[Alliecat]

Sounds fun, and Iselle is lovely. I hope to hear about more Oddlidays (great name).
I must admit to not having put that much thought into fairytales so I can’t contribute much there, but your sleeping beauties with their eyes open reminded me of a line from “Welcome to Marwen” where the hero is urged to close his eyes and get some sleep, and he says “I can’t close my eyes; I’m a doll!”

[davidd]

Oddlidays is a wonderful word! And Oddwickshire is a wonderful world!

And today's Head Librarian photo is especially wonderful! Truly mesmerizing!

[Lejays17]

The holiday sounds absolutely amazing, and the I adore the idea for new / reimagined fairytales being made into fancy books each year.

I’d definitely book a trip to attend the Festival if i was able too.

Is Iselle holding a book of fairytales?

[Elfy]

I live that the library puts out a special book every year. They’re a wonderful community in Oddwickshire. Do they have an anthem for the kingdom?

[neon_jellyfish]

I'm sure Iselle loves this Oddliday! She looks very ready to curl up and read.

The sound of the Oodliday as you present it make it something that ... well if there was a package trip to Oddwickshire around the time of The Fairytale Festival, I would be booking it.

She does! After all, she and the head night-librarian are the ones putting the annual fairytale book together, and she's Oddwickshire's most prominent fairytales collector, using her free days to travel around the kingdom and write down every version of every fairytale she can stumble upon.

If I could, I would move there. I'd love to have a house in Oddwick, either in the Old Town or in Cabbage Gardens (Graveyard might be too loud and lively for me). But I would also visit Quirkmore quite often.

Sounds fun, and Iselle is lovely. I hope to hear about more Oddlidays (great name).
I must admit to not having put that much thought into fairytales so I can’t contribute much there, but your sleeping beauties with their eyes open reminded me of a line from “Welcome to Marwen” where the hero is urged to close his eyes and get some sleep, and he says “I can’t close my eyes; I’m a doll!”

Oh, you'll definitely hear about more Oddlidays, I have a ton of them to shove down your throat

Ability to move and close their eyes is a big part of why I love Pullips & Co. As for my Sleeping Beauties, they're awake for various reasons. I don't have my own canon for EAH (although some ideas were trying to force their way into my brain), so Briar is, according to the original canon, still awake and has some time before the fateful spinning wheel encounter.
The little fake bisque one woke up from the cursed sleep not too long ago and as for the zombie one, I don't know the official canon, but I imagine that zombification kind of counts, so she's currently suffering from the curse, but she's undead instead of alseep. There is official book trilogy for Once Upon A Zombie, but only two books are out and things seem to get more and more delayed, and I don't want to start a trilogy before it's complete. I might just end up abandoning the official backstory and create my own for my zombie princesses.

Oddlidays is a wonderful word! And Oddwickshire is a wonderful world!

And today's Head Librarian photo is especially wonderful! Truly mesmerizing!

Thank you very much!!!

The holiday sounds absolutely amazing, and the I adore the idea for new / reimagined fairytales being made into fancy books each year.

I’d definitely book a trip to attend the Festival if i was able too.

Is Iselle holding a book of fairytales?

Thank you! The books have mostly old fairytales, Oddwickshire has a lot of them, plus, there are many fairytales that have species-specific variants - for example, when a fairytale involves humans, fairies and werewolves, each of those communities will have a slightly different variant of that tale, putting more emphasis on their species. Oddwickshire fairytales don't really get new retellings, because nobody feels the need to do so. The sanitization doesn't happen there, Oddies are the last ones to be interested in toning down the horror. However, new fairytales pop up from time to time, too. They're like urban legends, but they usually maintain the fairytale format and style of storytelling.

Yes, I wanted photo of Iselle with the new fairytale book. The actual prop is the little 'Fairy Bible' that comes with Lil' Fairy dolls, Iselle borrowed it from Monty (although in my WIP canon, he isn't a fairy).


Day 60


"So this is that ultra-special extra day, huh?"
"It is?! I didn't notice, haha. I guess that when you're 1600, you kinda don't care anymore..."
"I don't see what's so special about it. Doesn't really feel all that different. Doesn't give you extra full moon, either..."
"Well, it's usually not there, it only appears once every four years, but that's all there is to it..."
"Haha, you make it sound like it was a ghost..."
"Now that would be voltageous! Why isn't there a special ghost to appear only on February 29?"
"Wanna go kill someone?"
"...!!!"
"Just kidding, just kidding! Wouldn't want to get blood on my top. Animal prints and blood stains don't go together at all."

Unfiltered:

[davidd]

Oh! I love how Ulla D is hanging upside-down like a bat!

(Blood? What blood?)

[werepuppy]

Ahh, I love how this looks!