Reading Notes: Week 2 Reading Anthology

 The Story: "The Three Roses" from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis

Notes

• The versions of this story that include two other daughters always feel unnecessary. I get that the purpose is to demonstrate that the daughter is humble and kind or something, but I think that could be accomplished by maybe cutting those two out and actually writing more with one of the story's key players.
• It is sort of hilarious that the basilisk is relying on the mother to not be the type to sacrifice herself for her daughter. For all she knows, this monster wants to enslave her daughter and she's just like "well if I don't he will kill me so I guess I can just make another daughter."
• Speaking of the daughter, for a main character we know nothing about her. I get that it is a fairytale and the characters usually just have traits to either get them into or out of trouble, but she doesn't. She just passively goes along with whatever her mother or the basilisk tell her to do. You could replace her with a robot and get the same outcome. 
• Even if I kept everything else in the story, I would remove the nursing scene. That is disturbingly Freudian and I do not enjoy it at all. The end pairing should not have anything resembling a parent-child relationship and I will die on that hill.
• It is remarkable that this story goes through the effort of specifying that the beast is a basilisk, then does not threaten to use its killing gaze or breathe fire.
• There's an idea: make the gaze something like a Medusa gaze instead. It does not kill, just turns the person to stone.
• The mother goes to pick the roses and the basilisk turns her to stone.
• Then, the girl goes looking for her and finds her statue holding three roses. 
• The basilisk agrees to reverse the gaze (somehow) if she agrees to stay with him.
• Again, the nursing thing never happens.
• Maybe the girl is brave, and she cuts off the basilisk's head for imprisoning her. I'm not sure how to work the romantic angle yet, but this at least gives her some agency.
• He becomes a serpent, like in the story, and asks her to do it again, but she's conflicted now. Now that she knows he is not a monster she does not want to hurt him. I'm just spitballing ideas here. Anything besides "you delivered me so we must be married" (because gross and Freudian and I hate it).
• Like, I feel like they need time to connect. At the very least, he should say he is a nobleman and she should decide to decapitate him out of a desire to help him (with the second beheading perhaps serving as an act of trust while the first one was an act of bravery).
• You know, something to make her feel like a fairytale hero. I think I read a story like that, with a lindworm and a young maiden telling him to remove his skin. 

(Three Roses: Pixabay)

-A.