Plunder the stage, but don't take it

The fairy tale is a peculiar thing. Based on folklore and the further reaches of the imagination from the dawn of humanity. Yet the most famous of them are by Charles Perrault, adapted by Brothers Grimm and finally put into multicolour glory by Disney. So we have three characters who have essentially produced books and films from ideas that other people had or that they found lying around at the bottom of a drawer somewhere. But where are the fairy tales of today? With so many ways to write and be heard, we don’t seem to have that many tales. We’re more tempted to ramblings, photos and celebrity gossip.

No doubt there is much head scratching and cod searching over why myths have now been lost. Although maybe Paris Hilton is our new Cinderella. A frightening thought I would agree, but no doubt there were many 17th century Amy Whitehouses. Wondering about whether young girls would be led astray and end up just lying on the ground for years waiting for their Prince. Now that leads us neatly to the thought of Prince or whatever he’s called now and Amy Winehouse. Is the coke snorting, yet clearly talented musician aware of her near namesake. It could make for a pretty good song. And Prince has never been averse to dipping into other people’s creativity to get there.

The line between plagiarism and creativity would seem to be a pretty thin one then. If you use other people’s ideas and regurgitate them with a different melody or adapted names like Prince or the Brothers Grimm then it all seems fine. If on the other hand, you don’t put quote marks in an essay it’s all over when you’re at college. So feel free to kidnap, but make sure you tell people you’re doing it. Or at least just take their feet.