Day 393: No Class

Here in Wisconsin, it's so cold that our college actually CANCELED classes and closed campus. I'm not kidding..they did, and that alone should be amazing enough in itself, considering the fact that we like NEVER close here. Most of us live on campus, so it has to be cold enough for it to be dangerous for us to walk simply from one building to another...which is normally no more than a 5 minute walk.

So what did I do on my day off, you ask? Honestly, I really just did homework. I slept in and watched some HIMYM, and then got up, took a shower, ate some brunch I suppose, and then sat down to do my work. I did end up watching an episode of Once with my friend Jessica in the middle of the afternoon, but other than that I really just worked for about four hours straight.

And then, of course, since it warmed up enough by 5, we ended up having Wind Ensemble. I'm cool with that, except for I was really looking forward to spending an entire day inside the warmth of my dorm room, and that just did not happen, but that's alright. Heading to the music building for wind ensemble and then the caf for dinner meant that I got to watch another episode of Once with Jessica (we're catching her up so she can watch with us when it returns on March 9...she just watched Good Form). And then I headed back to my dorm for more homework: philosophy to be specific.

Luckily I finished my Fairytales reading on Monday, so I didn't have to worry about that. I have to say though, Sleeping Beauty HAS to be one of the most disturbing stories I think I've ever read. I mean, it's awful. In one version we read there were instances of rape, birth of twins while asleep, cannibalism, attempted murder, stripping, adultery and burning at the stake (twice). Yeah...not the best story if you ask me.

In other words, it has finally 100% occurred to me WHY the Disney versions are often so different from the original fairytales, and in many cases, I think it's ridiculous for critics to get on Disney's case about it. These are stories that have been passed down for generations, and there are multiple versions of each because they all end DIFFERENTLY. Therefore, the Disney version is just another version of the story. Either Walt's or the Company's take on the classic story that's written in print.

But if you think about it, it's basically impossible for Disney to accurately represent the story in it's original form. Go back a couple paragraphs to what was included in the one version (the earliest we have) of Sleeping Beauty. In no way could a film, live action OR animated, present all of that and not get some sort of terrible criticism. You can't just have all of that in one movie and have it be ok...especially when Walt's original goal was for his films to be viewed by adults and children alike (when he began it was really for adults...and now society has made it into "only for children." Although I'm pretty sure at least half of college students would argue otherwise. We love Disney here).

Tomorrow I'll read Cinderella...and if you know anything about THAT story you'll know that it's not exactly the cleanest story either. The whole chopping off the foot to fit it in the shoe thing might turn a few people off. But surprisingly, I'm really enjoying reading these fairytales. Let's just hope *knock on wood* that my "contract" to not watch Once Upon a Time unless I read everything for this class actually isn't all that hard.

I mean...with everything I know is coming, I really want to be sitting in front of my TV at 7 PM on March 9.

Have a magical day!