Joan Crate is an English professor at Red Deer College and lives in Calgary with her family. Aside from teaching Joan Crate is also a writer and her works include her novel Breathing Water and two books of poetry entitled Pale as Real Ladies: Poems for Pauline Johnson and Foreign Homes. Her latest book of poetry is entitled SubUrban Legends.
Joan Crate Shows That Fairy Tales Cannot Be Trusted
SubUrban Legends is a book of poetry that suffuses famous childhood fairy tales with gritty real life scenarios and emotions. Here Snow White is a housewife getting on in years, no longer in her prime and no longer satisfied with her passive role in life. Prince Charming is not so charming and the seven dwarves are not innocent or childlike. Her wicked stepmother, while not being completely exonerated, is given some latitude for her behaviour.
Snow White is not the only middle aged dissatisfied woman characterised in the poems. The narrator of the poems, Snow White’s friend and confidante, also laments the cold winter weather, lonely beds and overgrown children who no longer wish to be cuddled. The narrator is the link between the fairy tale world and real life. She makes it possible for Snow White to really come alive in a fully developed manner.
The poems in SubUrban Legends are broken into three subsections starting with “Kiss Me, Poison Me Goodnight” which chronicles the seeds of unhappiness. “White Nights” marks the height of unhappiness and dissatisfaction for both the narrator and Snow White. The final section “neverEnding” eases the reader into back into the spring and summer season as well as some contentment though not into perfect happiness.
The Moral Of The Story
Overall the poems are a narration of the sinking depression that occurs during the winter months as well as the unhappiness and frustration that occurs in a stagnant lifestyle. Despite the lack of cheer throughout there is still a sense of humour to be found which managed to offer a reprieve from the negative feelings.
The poems within the anthology take a sharp and clever look at the at the hopes and dreams that many people wrap up in fairy tales like Snow White and contrast those dreams with the some times harsh reality of life. It manages to be both deeply personal to the narrator and yet easily relatable to anyone who knows the blues of winter and the unhappiness of a life not lived to the fullest.
Every fairy tale has a moral and the moral to this collection would seem to be that while one may dream of fairy tales life rarely turns out as happily ever after as we’d wish. The caveat to this dour tone would be that while life may not be what we want it is still worth living.
Each poem found within SubUrban Legends is quirky and enthralling. They are a mixture of everyday life, fairy tale, disappointment, defiance, and a pithy humour that saves it all from the depths of despair. It is the desire to go back to the simplicity of childhood combined with the knowledge of its impossibility.
Courtney Klein - Courtney is a recent graduate of the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Aside from the enduring love of literature, ...
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