So we didn’t talk about all the stories in class on Tuesday, but I found that “The Snow Child” was so strange. At first you think that he wants a daughter, but in reality he is only seeking someone to whom he would be attracted physically. Therefore, the ending was very strange, since it seemed that the girl was a daughter figure. There seemed to be some sort of Oedipal connection and necrophiliac connection to the “snow child”. I just thought it was interesting and bizarre.
I got the same feeling in that story. It was a version of “Snow White” with an incestuous father, which reminds me of the variants of “Cinderella” where the fathers want to marry their daughter, except this tale is more explicit about the father’s physical attraction. I find it interesting/sometimes weird that all the stories are very sexual compared to the other tales we have read. It seems like it’s an important component in that group of stories.
I think one reason why the Snow White story stands out for me is that it is written rather concisely. So when the sexual necrophiliacal desires of the Count emerged, it was even more strange and disquieting than the other tales that have strange sexual understones. At least the other tales develop the character of the male, but every action in Cartar’s version of Snow White seems to lack logical sense.
I think it is interesting how the brief tale still retains a resemblance to the Snow White we’re more familiar with. If the title was not the Snow Child, the only motifs that recalls the other version, are the girl’s physical features and the jealous Countess.