Where are the Ones Like Me?

According to the design of this blog, this post should be focusing on a textual analysis of a YA fairytale retelling that exemplifies the theory I talked about in my last post. Last week I discussed Dorothy L. Hurley's thought-provoking study on the symbolic associations of good and evil with color. More generally, I discussed the #ownvoices movement. I thought it would be easy to find a YA fairytale retelling that I could talk about in relation to these ideas.

Unfortunately, there aren't as many diverse retellings as I thought there were. Once I sat down with the list of retellings that were potential books to feature in this post, none of them seemed like a good fit. I even thought of featuring a book I hadn't read myself if the reviews indicated it was appropriate. I still came up blank.

Because I don't have a single retelling that matches all of my criteria, I will instead talk about a handful of books that do something with representation. I also want to try to answer why YA fairytale retellings might be missing diversity. Although I am frustrated by the lack of diversity within this  subgenre, there are some reasons why it makes sense.

First and foremost, I am looking at a narrow age range of retold fairytales. In my research I found many diverse fairytale retellings which are marketed for adult audiences and a fair amount which are marketed for middle grade. Narrowing the selection to only the YA range excluded these retellings. In addition, I excluded any fairytale stories that weren't based on a specific older source, because I was looking for a fairytale retelling. The combination of these two factors limited my options severely.

These two factors are a statistical explanation, however, and don't get at the reason why these retellings aren't common in the first place. Although there may be other reasons, I think it's valuable to consider this issue from the author's perspective. Authors have basically two choices when writing a fairytale with a diverse protagonist.

• They can take a fairytale from the accepted canon (which are originally European, white, and heteronormative) and re-cast the protagonist. The risks to this technique are substantial, however. If they simply "re-skin" the fairytale, giving the new main character a different skin color but leaving everything else about the fairytale the same, the representation will feel forced because it's not based in anything. If they go a step further and include the new main character's cultural identity and heritage, they will have to substantially change the fairytale to weave those two cultures together. It's a tricky thing to pull this combination off well.
• They can also take a fairytale from a different culture and retell that fairytale. This technique has its own share of risks. Because these fairytales aren't as well known, and because the symbolism in them is different from the European fairytales, authors have to worry about connecting with their audience for these types of retellings. This kind of book might have trouble getting published because it's considered harder to sell.

There's also always the possibility that writing a POC protagonist will be only a way to flavor the retelling. As this scathing review of an adult fantasy novel points out, diverse protagonists can't be the only thing that makes the story fresh and interesting. That method of borrowing from other cultures is disgustingly colonialist and does more harm than good as far as #ownvoices goes.

On the positive side, however, these difficulties can be overcome. It's complicated, and takes a tremendous amount of commitment from authors, but culturally significant fairytale retellings are possible. Any small strides in that direction are also important to recognize.

In that spirit, I would like to feature some retellings that do have diverse protagonists. First on the list is The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. This series of fairytale retelling novels has several well-done fantasy settings and two POC protagonists.

Cinder by LauraHollingsworth on DeviantArt

The first book in the series is Cinder, a retelling of the Cinderella story. Cinder, the titular character, lives in New Beijing. The city and culture is loosely based off Beijing, but because Meyer makes it clear that this retelling happens in the far future and that the world has been rearranged, she doesn't use current Chinese culture so much as nod to it. Meyer makes a point to clearly describe Cinder and her love interest's appearance as of Asian descent.

Winter by LauraHollingsworth on DeviantArt

The final book in the series, Winter, is a retelling of "Snow White." Winter lives on Luna, a country that's built on the moon, so much of the culture she's part of is pure fantasy. However, Meyer tackles the colorism that so often surrounds the concept of beauty in this book. Winter's stepmother Levana creates an powerful illusion of white beauty with magic, yet Winter refuses to use magic and is more beautiful. The original fairytale is so obsessed with "skin as white as snow" that it's fitting that this tale is the one with which Meyer chose to highlight a black protagonist.

Another series that contains diversity is The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan. This particular series is a retelling of Greek and Roman mythology rather than fairytales proper, and they're silly and more invested in telling a fast-paced story than in tackling big issues. However, they are popular and four out of the seven main heroes that this series follows are not white. Piper McLean is Cherokee, Leo Valdez is Hispanic, Hazel Grace is black, and Frank Zhang is Asian. These characters all get moments to explore their heritages because they each must trace their demigod roots through their families. Although this representation isn't flawless, it's encouraging to find a popular fantasy series with this many people of color involved.

Outside the world of YA retellings, there are retellings that tackle diversity from all kinds of angles. Although I would love to talk about some of these in more detail, I will limit myself to one book from a younger age range and one from an older age range.

Middle Grade One way that middle-grade retellings get around the difficulty of saying outright that their protagonists aren't white, which can often feel weird inside the story, is with pictures. The Restless Girls is an illustrated retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" which shows a Middle Eastern setting with the pictures and lets the characters simply be what they are.

Adult Boy, Snow, Bird, an adult retelling of "Snow White" by Helen Oyeyemi, tackles the issue of color and beauty and whiteness. This depiction of the issue is more historical fiction than fantasy, and is much more complicated in its exploration of color than most YA novels.

Another way to approach diverse fairytales is to simply make up new ones, and although this blog is meant to talk about retellings, I've found several collections of new fairytales that have clearly put effort into representation. 

One of my favorites is The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo. This collection has six new fairytales and many of them have characters with different identities and cultures. These short stories also include folklore symbolism and themes from different cultures in the plots and language, not just the characters.

Although this short list of fairytale retellings is meant to showcase diversity, it also highlights the lack of representation. However, the fact that some diverse retellings do exist shows that it is possible to change the subgenre. There are significant challenges for authors who want to write stories with proper representation. Even with those challenges, it can be done. These books give me hope that one day fairytale retellings will break free from their origins and become as adaptable as they are in concept. In the meantime, it's important to be aware of the limited perspectives that YA fairytale retellings can provide.