Q: What do you get when you mix a broke dude, a uncannily clever cat and a pair of killer boots? A: Today’s Shoe Fairy Tale, “Puss-In-Boots.” This beloved tale has a marvelously modern, lighthearted moral: the boots make the man. Or the cat, apparently.
Deception is not invisible. It invariably leaves traces of evidence that will eventually be found out. On the other end of the spectrum, controlling situations can make treachery seem like the only path to freedom. Both of these morals can be gleaned from today’s Shoe Fairy Tale, “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” originally recorded by the Brothers Grimm.
Though we may long to escape our time and place, we would actually be unhappy in any other era or situation.
That seems to be the moral of today’s Shoe Fairy Tale, “The Shoes of Fortune,” a substantial fantasy by Hans Christian Andersen.
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes” is today’s Shoe Fairy Tale. What a dark departure from yesterday’s dreamy Cinderella story. In Cinderella, shoes represent untapped potential and happy endings. In today’s chilling tale, shoes represent vanity, greed, and early death.
