Zipes discusses the role of fairy tales and stories as the carriers of tradition and how those traditions are being passed on to present-day society. Throughout the passage, the discussion of cannibalism or violence of adults is brought up many times and is part of the tradition that Zipes believes to be passed through stories. Adults posing as monsters preying on children or other stories of the power relations between adults and children are the center of many tales. The tales of the past were often oral tales and which were passed down through generations until they were finally written down. However, because of the variability of such oral traditions, the stories that are written often compete with each other. Furthermore, those that wrote these tales were often people who were literate, usually of upper class, who were wealthy enough to receive an education and those who reigned victorious in conflict. Zipes also discusses the studies of memes (not the memes that I thought about) and how memes allow for traditions to be passed on from different times and cultures. These days, the stories we hear, read, tell, see, experience are often shared through mass media and have been mutated and altered for consumption by the populace. This is reflected through those like Disney who took many fairy tales and repurposed them maintain the domestication of women and also his status as an animator. Many times these stories can be refunctioned or reutilized in order to maintain the traditions that have been passed on through these stories, however, they can also be changed in order to draw new meanings or significance. It is our role as storytellers to change stories so that tradition must justify itself in a present-day setting.
- Lilian