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6The Daily Tar Heel Thursday. TUiemblSI'I'dsr" - f atfrvye , Fairy tales: By KAREN HATTON Staff Writer After a hard week of midterms and papers, some uncomplicated and lighthearted entertainment is in order. Not a horror movie or an intense thriller, but maybe a fantasy like Rob Reiner's new movie. "The Princess Bride." The movie is centered around a fairy tale being read to a sick boy by his grandfather. A PG rating. A boy and his grandfather. Fairy tales. What could be more simple? Although both the movie and fairy tales in general are simple on the surface, they are subtly complicated by hidden depths. "The movie can be enjoyed on several different levels," said Dr. Betty Gordon, an assistant professor of clinical child psychiatry. "It is funny because there is a lot of double meanings, but children could enjoy it on a simple level." The movie itself is a fairy tale told in a modem context, complete with instant replays and fast-forward scenes. Entertainment is not the only purpose of fairy tales. Those in both the literary and psychological fields recognize other aspects of fairy tales. "Psychoanalysts always see a melodramatic pattern in fairy tales." said Dr. Charles Zug. associate pro fessor of English and folklore. "A classic psychological point of view particular to Bruno Bettelheim is that a child reads or hears a fairy tale about a hero that is usually very young. The child identifies with the hero." Because the story is always melo dramatic in its form, the hero or heroine must undergo various tests, combats and perils before winning PYEWACKET RESTAURANT MOtlOAY BLUES WEDNESDAY JAZZ THURSDAY CONTEMPORARY AND TRADITIONAL W. FRANKLIN 929-0297 THE COURTYARD CHAPEL HILL they're more than ordinary bedtime stories -the battle in the end. said Zug. This reassures the children that they can defeat even mysterious and over whelming odds. But fairy tales don't have the powerful quality that movies have, and this allows the child to come to terms with the nature of the world. Zug said. "Because fairytales are told in a less stylized, abstract manner, the child isn't as moved by the violence and hardships as he would be if he saw an actual movie of blood running or wretched, thin children running around a little house in the woods," Zug said. Gordon said all children have basic fears and needs. One fear children have is abandonment by divorce, death or some other means. "Fairy tales are just one vehicle children use to overcome these abstract fears." Gordon said. "Fairy tales are a type of play therapy." Fairy tales also have an educational role. They teach morals and roles. "A type of innate morality is built into the story." Zug said. "It's not overt. It's not something that hits the kid in the head." The moral is so well imbedded in the story that children learn morality without being aware of it. Zug said. Fairy tales are pure melodrama. In melodrama, good always defeats evil. "There are some tales that use helper figures with unusual powers." Zug said. "The hero only gets the helper figures if he deserves them." But some of the morals of the fairy tales no longer fit into modern society. The passive princess is traditional of fairy tales. Zug said. 'Some day my prince will come' is the moral of the story for young women, and it comes as a shock that it doesn't work in real life, he said. "The stories perpetuate the rela tionships between men and women Space-age jewelry By KATHY PETERS Staff Writer The same element shooting into the cosmos on tiles aboard the space shuttle is dangling from people's ears all over the country. And there's another element like it one that the June 1984 Metal Market magazine reported would form the core of a high-tech atom smasher. Introducing titanium and niobium. Chapel Hillians may have seen niobium before, especially about two btusjfrn CHINESE RESTAURANT Chinese Gourmet Dinner Buffet Dinner All the SHRIMP, BEEF, CHICKEN & ORIENTAL VEGETABLES You Can Eat Plus Fried Rice, Essrolls & Dumplinss 967-4101 VOUk NAI& I 12 I U y Twffem that the man is aggressive and does things." he said. "The woman is passive and things are done for her. She is the reward for the man's actions." Feminists criticize the "passive years ago, when the niobium craze "hit," as most jewelry sellers would sav. And folks have probably also seen titanium, because 80 percent of this extrordinarily strong metal is used in surgical implants, sports equipment and aircraft parts. But the two metals are not just for industry anymore. Because titanium is extremely lightweight, easily colored and U-V stable (resistant to fading), and because niobium is able to display $206 OFF Buffet! For 2 i with coupon only i expires 11787. princess" stories. Zug said women scholars and folklorists have inter viewed women who have heard these old stories, and they have found that the messages of the stories do have an impact. lands in Chapel Hill such a wide range of bright colors, jewelers and craftsmen have hit on these metals during the last 1 0 years, according to Don Johnson, owner of Creative Metalsmiths on Franklin Street. Johnson's store, along with nearby Light Years shop, carries titanium and niobium jewelry. In fact, the first dealer Johnson ever bought titanium from a fellow named Joe Kool got the metal from space shuttle scraps. Seven years later. Creative Metal smiths still carries titanium work by local craftswoman Lori Burek that ranges in price from $18 to $40. Its niobiumsterling items made by artist Jennifer Bourgeois are more expensive, though. According to Johnson, the shop has always had good luck selling titanium. Light Years, which generally gears its price range to the college budget, has kept in stock niobium and titanium earrings for the past two years, according to co-owner Phillis Maultsby. And though the Mautsbys have sold more of the space-age "They find out again and again that the woman took the passive princess as a role model and waited for her prince to come." he said. "The women saw that as their ultimate purpose in life. They saw no need to act or go to graduate school." Such women become depressed when they are divorced and aren't able to support themselves because they never learned how to do any thing in the working world, he said. Gordon said that fairy tales project the cultural values of the time in which they were written. Some of these values are no longer approp riate in the modem world. Fairy tales also offer ah opportunity for children to decide the difference between reality and fantasy. "Children love fairy tales because they are actively working out the differences between reality and fantasy," Gordon said. "There's a lot of fun and excitement in being able to pretend and fantasize about things that we know aren't real and can't happen." Sometimes fantasies can be scary for little children because they don't know where the boundaries of reality are, she said. But once they know the boundaries, fantasy becomes fun and play, she said. "There are stories where children with poor, terrible environments use stories to escape from the realities of their lives." Gordon said. "They become better people and can build confidence in themselves and a sense of importance that they might not otherwise have." It seems that neither fairy tales nor "The Princess Bride" are as simple as they appear on the surface. Instead, both provide something that only a good fantasy can: escape. So if you choose to indulge, you can forget for a little while about that exam or paper you bombed and pretend instead that you're going to live happily ever after. metals in the past, they are still having moderate success with them in their shop and more than moderate success with niobium at craft shows. But even though T'boli's owner and jewelry buyer Steve Kohn loves the niobium, he has never been able to find an audience for it. Since his last attempt about a year ago to rein troduce the metal, he has given up for a while. "It's not a question of price." Kohn continues. "There's something about the material that people want to look at but not buy." Titanium costs slightly more than copper, and with gold and silver prices on the rise, semi-precious metals such as titanium and niobium are compar atively more affordable to the com mon person, Johnson says. Before jewelers began using titanium and niobium, customers wanting color found that enamel was their only choice, and it was costly, Johnson See METALS page 8
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