the story of little red riding hood inspires fear, imagination and awe...a flinch, a shudder, a flutter, an ache. the story writhes with terror and innocence, duplicity and corruption, savagery and simplicity. there are shadows of sex and violence, bloodlust and carnality. and guess what?—it's a kids story... the story has many tellings and re-tellings, but the tension between a chaste little girl, lamb-like in her pale winter skin, and a big sly bristling wolf is always at the core. soft little girl and grisly big wolf...round and round they go... there are so many stories in the story of little red riding hood.
angela carter reworks the story of little red riding hood in her short story "the werewolf"... she makes little red riding hood a different sort of little girl and she plays around with what that means for the story...
it is a northern country; they have cold weather, they have cold hearts... winter and cold weather. go and visit your grandmother, who has been sick. take her the oatcakes i've baked for her... the good child does as her mother bids—five miles' trudge through the forest; do not leave the path because of the bears, the wild boar, the starving wolves. here, take your father's hunting knife; you know how to use it... when she heard that freezing howl of a wolf, she dropped her gifts, seized her knife and turned on the beast. it was a huge one, with red eyes and running grizzled chops; any but a mountaineer's child would have died of fright at the sight of it. it went for her throat, as wolves do, but she made a great swipe at it with her father's knife... the wolf let out a gulp, almost a sob... the child wiped the blade of her knife clean on her apron...
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