The discussion post for the episode telling the original story of Beauty and the Beast.
Episode description:
This is not the Beauty and the Beast you've heard. It's not even the story the one you've heard is based on. That one is a super-pared-down version of an 18th century French novella. The original contains way too much description about fairy politics and power structures, 18th century Pandora, and an idea for a "Downton Abbey" reboot...with monkeys.
The creature of the week is Papa Bois, from Trinidad and Tobago. He will show you why regular exercise and a balanced diet of strangers lost in the forest will keep you healthy well into old age.
Listen here
The pig one is from a later story, but he looks like such a dapper gentleman that I had to include him. The one of the beast on the ground with the elephant trunk is from the original.
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The source
Even though the general themes of this story can be up to 6000 years old, this particular story was put down to paper in the 1800s, and you can find that version here.
Music:
"March" by Kai Engel | "Train" by Sergey Cheremisinov | "Usless Confusion" by much, | "Comet Trails" by Moon | "She Does Her Best (feat. Small Colin)" by Six Umbrellas | "Falling into You" by Little Glass Men | "Captain Socrates" by Nihilore | "Everest" by Scott Holmes | "Stay 17" by Peter Rudenko | "Todas las promesas" by Gumbel | "Space(Outro)" by Andy G. Cohen | "Breeeze" by Jelsonic | "Dizzy Spells - Instrumental" by Josh Woodward | "Midnight Undercover" by Jelsonic | "Seasong" by Jelsonic
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There is an ad at 24 min on the subscriber edition of this episode on Apple Podcasts.
This is SO MUCH more interesting than the Disney version. I love the long con angle. I mean, I recognize that it is by no means a healthy basis for a relationship, but I love any story with a good gambit reveal at the end, and you can’t have a gambit reveal without first having a gambit. It was more interesting before that too, though.
Where can I find that description of the fairy politics and power dynamics that is mentioned in the podcast?
It’s in this version: https://books.google.com/books?id=f7ABAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=beauty+and+the+beast+Villeneuve&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIxoHCr6TPAhVh0oMKHfo8AFkQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false starting on page 284. It’s intermingled with a ton of explanation of the story you just read.
Thank you.
This is one of my favorite episodes! Where can I find the original book to read (in English pls)? Thank you
Anissa,
There is a book called “Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantments” which has been translated into English by Jack Zipes (one of the world’s leading authorities on fairy tales). It’s on Amazon. I received this book for Christmas a few years ago and it contains both the original novella and the paired down re-telling: https://www.amazon.com/Beauties-Beasts-Enchantments-Classic-French/dp/0453006930/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474560287&sr=1-1&keywords=beauties+beasts+and+enchantments
Here’s a free translation: https://books.google.com/books?id=f7ABAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=beauty+and+the+beast+Villeneuve&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIxoHCr6TPAhVh0oMKHfo8AFkQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
It starts on page 225.
I would like to suggest another reading of this story. If you interpret the story of Eros (Cupid) and Psyche as the achievement of immortality of the soul, in which humanity has to prove itself worthy to the gods, the connection to the story of Beauty and the Beast becomes a story of bringing the divine back to earth. Psyche takes the soul to the heavens so that we can access the spiritual and achieve the ethereal. Beauty does more or less the flip side of that, bringing the divine down to earth and infusing it into marriage and life on earth. The frightening and magical is transformed into the attractive and fulfilling, but very human, life. Why were Beauty and the prince noticeably attractive and why did Beauty have to be royalty to marry the prince? Because it is not people who are just living petty lives who can achieve this but people who are shining examples of mankind and who have been touched by the divine (fairies). Most interesting of all, both achieve this through love. Possible interpretation; love makes the soul divine and also improves our lives. Which circles around interestingly to De Villeneuve’s point, that marriage shouldn’t be just about an economic arrangement in which women are basically chattel and then housemaids and passive sexual partners, but in a true marriage there should be love and respect for the female’s role.
Really interesting reading – thanks for posting that!