Is the future looking Grimm, brothers (and sisters)?

Image:
http://inkmonster.net/blog/why-ash-maiden-the-original-cinderella-kicks-ass

Our English class is in the process of writing an ebook about using the Kindle, Goodreads, and Amazon. I have chosen to use the 1812 version of Cinderella by Jacob Ludwig Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm to illustrate my ideas for my chapter. Please let me know what you think!

1. To expound on my last post (click here to read), I can discuss the necessity of a bridge between the isolation of the Kindle and the socialization of Goodreads. It is crucial to a reader’s online identity that they know how to review and discuss the books they read. In the Grimm version of Cinderella, the stepmother and stepsisters mock Cinderella for wanting to attend the festival because she cannot dance. Later, when she does attend the ball, she is able to dance with the Prince – three nights in a row. How was this possible? She went from being the dish-washing, floor-sweeping, bird-talking girl to the elegant woman at the festival that could dance the night away with a Prince. When readers enter the online social world without the proper training, it isn’t always charming. Posting a thought online can damage a person’s credibility as a reviewer and tarnish a person’s online identity.

2. When we search something in Google, we leave a cookie behind – a footprint. Google is then able to show us ads based on our preferences. Goodreads is similar with the recommendations feature that is based on the books readers had read and rated. It is important for a reader to be selective in their choices so that they make the best use of this feature – otherwise, books are recommended that they have no interest in. The first two nights that Cinderella runs from the ball, she leaves nothing behind to give a clue for the Prince to find her. On the third night, the Prince pours pitch on the stairs that causes Cinderella’s shoe to get stuck – thus forcing her to leave a “footprint” (Ha!) behind. The Prince is then able to find her so he can marry her. In order to fully utilize Goodreads and Amazon, users must tailor their visits to the site to better the recommendations provided. It is vital that we leave our footprint behind.

3. An aspect of Amazon that our class has not studied is self-publishing. I’m leaning more toward this one as the topic of my chapter. While doing my research on Cinderella, I typed in “Cinderella” on Goodreads to see what I’d find. My search showed 2,330 results. Which one is the original? Many people grow up watching Disney’s Cinderella and so they believe that is the original story. I found that one of the earliest “Cinderella” stories was actually about a Chinese girl named Yeh-Shen. She didn’t have a fairy godmother, but a magical fish! In the Grimm version, when Cinderella runs away she hides on the first two nights. The first night she hides in a pigeon coop and the second night in a pear tree. In both instances, her Father says, “It surely cannot be Cinderella.” He then uses an axe to cut down both hiding places, finding them empty. While I do believe that self-publishing is a great way to avoid the hassle that a publisher creates, is there any sort of proof-reading that is preventing people from publishing stories that are not their own? The story line of Cinderella is easy to pick out, but there are thousands of story lines that are not as well known. I wonder if self-publishing will lead to readers never knowing who wrote an original story – will we be like Cinderella’s Father who doesn’t know his own daughter?
a. I like this topic because I’ve already seen quite a bit of research on the benefits of self-publishing; I think it could be interesting to keep researching and find the issues with this topic.

Image:
http://www.artsdepot.co.uk/family/yeh-shen

4. Social media platforms are filled with phonies. As our class studied reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, we looked at what makes a reviewer credible. In the story of Cinderella, there are several instances that Cinderella is told to clean up grains out of the ashes in order to go to the ball. The birds perform this task for her multiple times and each time Cinderella claims to have done it herself. Then, she poses as someone that her stepmother and stepsisters think “must be a foreign Princess.” Of course, this plays on our sympathies since she is treated so unfairly in the story, but in the real world, critics with false credibility are not taken seriously.