Renee Lupica at The Hairpin has written a series of six short fairy tales for the modern woman.
Our favorite is the fifth, with its 65-year-old woman breaking her savings to take “her first ever solo vacation” and a week of surfing lessons. The tales have some deliciously low-stakes happy endings that make you see what you might be taking for granted. They defamiliarize our lives in a way that the most updated fairy tales can’t, won’t.
Here’s the first tale:
Once upon a time a woman never got married, but had many fulfilling relationships, a job that kept her comfortable, an apartment that she got to decorate just for her, and hobbies that stimulated her mind.
The End.
Renee is less Tarsem Singh and more Tatsuya Ishida:
If you sometimes feel alone in your head, and if you have thoughts in your head that you don’t share with anyone, we urge you into the blanket with Suniti Namjoshi and Angela Carter‘s fabulous fables.
In the Company of Wolves illustration credit: Caitlin Clarkson
Cartoon courtesy: Sinfest
The Hairpin link via Lets Talk