Midterm brainstorming

[lucas.s.kunsman]

Here are my initial thoughts if we go off of the Candyland idea discussed after class today:

Limit the locations.  There are 9 locations on the game board, and I think that they can be grouped by buildings (Candy Castle, Licorice Castle, Peanut Brittle House), flora (Gingerbread Plum Trees, Lollipop Woods, Peppermint Forest), liquids (Molasses Swamp and Ice Cream Sea), and mountains (Gumdrop Mountains).

I think that if we get a general narrative outlined, we can decide which locations are crucial and must be in the story, and then pick two or three others to include as well based off of the characters that are associated with those locations.  When we have the overall narrative written, we can break it up and give each person a location or two to write the choose your own adventure options for.

My thought for an overall narrative:  the protagonist is bringing something to Gramma Nutt at Peanut Brittle House, gets sidetracked and ends up inside Licorice Castle (perhaps gets lost in the Gumdrop Mountains?).  Defeats Lord Licorice through some form of luck to emphasize the naive aspects of fairy tale heroes, continues and tells Gramma Nutt what happens.  Gramma Nutt is wise and knows that Lord Licorice is the villain, they embark on a quest to Candy Castle to tell the King.  On the way there, the hero meets Princess Lolly in the Lollipop Woods, is struck by her beauty but doesn't know she's a princess.  When they reach the castle (after maybe falling into the Molasses Swamp and needing to get out), they tell King Kandy that the hero has defeated Lord Licorice and the King promises Princess Lolly to the protagonist in marriage.

What do you guys think?

[shoaib.a.rashid]

This is a good plan if we stick to the Candyland theme. However, we would need to introduce elements of taboo and transformation into the plot to make the structure of the fairytale more typical.

A very different direction we could take for the fairytale is a modern version. Set in a big city, our Protagonist Puff is an intern at a large company. He stands out for wearing his green hat everyday to work. The wicked manager is cruel to Puff in addition to the chore like tasks he assigns Puff. One day Puff comes up with a great idea for the company and tries to find the good CEO to tell him. Puff travels up and down the city, looking in the companies many office buildings but only has success with the help of his pigeon guide. Eventually Puff finds the good CEO and explains his idea which greatly impresses the CEO. The good CEO not only implements the idea but promotes Puff and gives him an office, as well as instituting a more lax dress code allowing Puff to wear his hat freely. The kind secretary whom Puff loves is very impressed and begins dating Puff.

In this plot we have the unspecific location. The characters are simple, extreme, and contrasting. Puff has a simple quest and receives the reward of promotion. He also receives the secretary but unlike in the Grimm's Fairytales in modern times we obviously cannot have the secretary be promised to the protagonist. Puff is transformed in circumstance as well as character as he no longer doubts his ability as he did under the wicked manager. The animal to help him is the one most encountered in our urban environments, a pigeon. Selecting a taboo is difficult as we don't really want something as dark as cannibalism, bestiality, or incest in our story, so I thought violating a dress code was mild enough to satisfy that element of fairytales.

This is only one possible direction we could go down but I think it will be more interesting as the majority of the class will likely write more typical fairytales. We can also add the choose your own adventure elements with different locations that Puff visits. I am also interested in reading Madison's idea of turning Vandy culture into a fairytale.

[Clay Alspaugh]

I like the themes and premises in the responses below, although I think Shoaib's response is the a modern take on the fairy tale structure. As I take it, we need elements of luck, taboo and transformation. I also think that both of you want to have a happy ending rather than a grim one.  Since all fairy tales exhibit the motif of transformation, I believe that we should make the transformation of Puff more obvious- a physical transformation. For example, Puff could sprout wings to symbolize his transformation into a mature dragon. I think we should also make the element of taboo more obvious, as the hat idea might not be transparent. Maybe Puff could be tempted with insider trading, but does not fall to the whim of the evil CEO.

I also believe we should introduce/portray the naivete of the protagonist. In response to Shoaib's tale, we could have Puff lose his idea to a corporate mogul, and fight to get it back. He will be transformed when he receives what he initially lost, and transforms it himself, i.e. develops' the idea and founds his own company, gets an IPO and lives happily forever after or donates all his money to charity etc.  Or, in response to Lucas' tale, the protagonist would have to be tricked by Lord Licorice in order to end up in his castle. 

We also discussed making the website a more or less create your own fairy tale, wherein a protagonist could pick his own paths (click on different links) that would lead him to a particular ending. I don't see how this could feasibly be done, but if you guys can think of a way to manage it, I think it could be a cool feature. 

Also, I think incorporating a riddle for Puff to solve at the end of his journey would be a fun idea. Perhaps he will learn certain things along his way that will allow him to solve a puzzle at the end. 

Just some ideas. See yall in stevenson at 4. 

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