“Mythographer was suggested by the man who made my website, actually. I do write a lot about myth and I do feel it's a bit pompous to state it that way, but it does distinguish me from other writers. When it was first on the web, people began to use it in an ironical and satirical way. Now, however, people tend to use it straight.” PeopleMenWayFeelsWritingFirstsDoeMadeStatesUseBitsHe ManMythWebsiteSatiricalPompous Author:Marina Warner
“There are a range of women not represented in the Western fairy tale tradition. Husband-beaters are particularly interesting, as well as male pederasts. Children are often told in The Arabian Nights, "This man likes to abduct boys, be careful of him." These issues are explored through the medium of the stories, but actually the architecture of the book is such that there are many examples of women who are loyal, brave, devoted - especially to their lovers.” MenWellsChildrenBookStoriesNightInterestingBoysIssuesExampleLoversHusbandTraditionBraveWesternMalesCarefulArchitectureLikesTalesMediumsRangeFairyBe CarefulFairy TaleLoyalDevotedArabianArabian Nights Author:Marina Warner
“The technique of the book and the technique carried by the figure of Scheherazade is one of opening the Sultan's mind. He's emblematic of the ignorant person: the ignorant, lock-in, raging man who wants to kill all he doesn't understand. The model of the book is the extraordinary, very-large, Mirror of Princes.” MenWantMindPersonsBookFiguresModelsMirrorsExtraordinaryRageTechniqueIgnorantOpeningLocksIgnorant Person Author:Marina Warner
“An interesting example is that the worst woman in the book, who is so cruel and violent, is the sorceress in "The Prince of the Black Islands." She's a beautiful young woman, and she has turned her husband into stone from the waist down. A traveling sultan finds him, in his dreadful state, and the man petrified from the waist down tells his sad story...how his wife comes every afternoon and beats him until the blood runs down. She's just unwontedly, arbitrarily cruel.” MenBookStatesStoriesRunningBeautifulYoungBlackInterestingWifeBloodWorstExampleHe ManHusbandBeatsStonesViolentIslandsAfternoonYoung WomenSad StorySorceress Author:Marina Warner
“There is a theory, that I rather subscribe to. The frame story implies that if he doesn't change, she will kill him. It's all very complex and subtle. The story is about a woman who persuades a man in power to a different temper and attitude, and so it is about women's wiles, what women will get up to. She has a plan, she has a scheme.” IfsMenDifferentStoriesAttitudePlansTheoryComplexesGet UpSubtleTemperSchemes Author:Marina Warner
“I don't think that there's a target audience at all. These stories were in circulation. The stories were told by men, told in the marketplace by men, but also behind doors by women, but there's no real record of this. It's likely they were told by women to children in their interior rooms. The story could be a negative story, they could be presented as a, "Watch out! Women will get round you, do things to you, weave you in their toils." It could be buried in it an old cautionary story about women and their wiles.” ThinkingMenChildrenRealStoriesRoomsBehindsWatchesAudienceRecordsDoorsNegativeRoundsTargetBuriedToilInteriorsMarketplaceCirculationTarget Audience Author:Marina Warner
“Fairy tales are about money, marriage, and men. They are the maps and manuals that are passed down from mothers and grandmothers to help them survive.” MenHelpingMotherTalesFairyGrandmotherMapsFairy TaleManualsMother And Grandmother Author:Marina Warner
