Oh, Huffington Post. HuffPo, HuffPo, HuffPo. I don’t mean to pick on you, even though it may seem like it lately. But what am I supposed to do when you give me such great material?
The other day, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a link with this title:
10 Couples Who Proved Fairy Tales Do Come True
Under the link is a picture of William and Kate. Romantic, right? Maybe a little bit early to constitute “proof,” but it seems churlish to begrudge what seem like a nice couple of kids some good wishes. Click through the slide show of couples, though, and you come across these two:
Maybe not so storybook?
Um. Well… no. No, unless they’ve bowed to realism in the fairy tale biz, and have changed “lived happily ever after” to “split with intense acrimony after mutual infidelity and humiliating scandal.” Also, probably not a great idea to include Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco, what with those pesky rumors that she’s miserable and tried to run off to her native South Africa before the wedding.
But include them they did! So, this week’s question is this — if Charles and Diana somehow prove that fairy tales come true, what other complete real-life disasters can be spun as fairy tales, so long as you leave out important bits?
There’s that great Horatio Alger story about how hard work leads to respectability, fame, and fortune. You know, the one about Enron.
The one about Jennifer and Brad … and Anglie and Vince.
All’s Well That Ends Well? Or Love’s Labor Lost?
Maybe they’re talking about the old school Grimm’s Fairy Tales and letting us know that *THEY* know something that we don’t with a couple of levels of plausible deniability.
Perhaps – and consider HC Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid” – to follow her Prince, she drinks a potion that causes her to feel as if a sword is passing through her. She develops beautiful legs and the ability to dance, but it feels to her as though she’s always walking on sharp swords and her feet bleed constantly. But the Prince marries another Princess. Heartbroken, she refuses an offer to become a mermaid again and throws herself into the ocean, where she dissolves.
That HuffPo – you gotta read between the lines, I think.
Seems to fit right in
I suspect that for HuffPo the “fairy tale” is having your romance become very, very famous, featured on the cover of People, and ending in a wedding that paparazzi clamor to record.
Occasional poking around their site suggests this might actually be the case.
Baltimore Ravens’s linebacker Ray Lewis putting his faith in God and coming back from false accusations of murder and a grueling trial to win Super Bowl XXXV MVP honors.
I kindof stopped reading at Huffpuff after I read slightly further to make certain you weren’t referring to Hufflepuff.
“You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil!”