Lemme see if I can explain this... this is gonna be hard.

I was explaining this to my little sister last night when I finally finished telling her the story of Beauty and the Beast. (I sometimes tell her stories when we're supposed to be sleeping 'cause she says they help her go to sleep.)

Fairytales cannot count as being cliche'ed or steryotyped. And this is because they are supposed to be predictable. You never have to wonder if the knight will break the curse or if the giant will get his due.

That's part of the charm.

Here's the catch.

There's a difference between telling a story and storytelling.

No one ever reads a fairytale to find out what happens in the end. I can tell Leela storys she has heard a dozen times but it's how I personally tell them that makes it unique. It's in the voice and the ability to recall the story fast enough, to pick the right words on the fly. That's storytelling.

When you pick up a book of fairytales, it's probably to read to a kid you're babysitting, or you're thinking of when your mother read them to you.

That's what I think fairytales are for. And as funny or clever or witty those "twists" on fairytales are, you'll never find a mother simply telling them her children to get them to sleep.

As I said before, it depends on what your looking for in reading material. If you want something funny or clever or witty then new twists on fairytales might be just the thing for you.

I just prefer them they way they've always been.

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"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet