Author's Notes: The Fairytale of Beauty and the Beast
Author's Notes Series
Beauty and the Beast is an old fairytale whose protostory can be dated back to Ancient Greece, and it has always been my favourite fairytale. I grew up with the Disney version, and the beauty of it - the rich colours, the fantastical yet very real and grounded designs, the cleverness of Belle and a Beast who grows to match her... all these things have always resonated with me. As I grew and learned different variations, I realised how changeable and adaptable fairytales are, especially in queer terms. The Beast is a creature transformed, a creature trying to find 'his' humanity again; the Beauty is Other, different, odd. Apart. They are a queer couple even when they are not. This new version mixes several traditional versions with a female Beast, a wise and clever heroine, and a few Disney references because, well, why not?
As mentioned above, this story features a female Beast, but our Beauty doesn't realise that until nearly the end, so pronouns shift and change, sometimes even within the same paragraph. I also am playing around with an almost storytelling cadence, so grammar is more thematic than accurate; I also dictated part of this story to help get the lyrical quality it has. All in all, I am really, really proud of this work.
Thematically, it complements my other Fairytales: Puss's Boots, and my high fantasy/scifi Sleeping Beauties and A Dance at Midnight, but they are not related, per say. (And look for an author's note about them being posted soon that will help to explain their universe)
I hope you enjoy this short, sweet, and lovely little story.
About the Creator
Dionearia Red
Fairytales and poems are some the first pieces of literature and have been reimagined countless times. Here they will be retold again, but our versions all have a queer identity at their heart and, of course, end with 'Happily Ever After'
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