World Wide Ideas

I wrote a couple of entries ago about how I revived written material from an idea about Olympian gods and a young kid who discovers he's related to them. If this concept seems familiar, it's because it is: Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Yesterday walking through the Kinokuniya bookstore in Bangkok waiting for Despicable Me to start at the cinema so I could take Alex there I discovered something nifty. Now, mind you, this happens on a regular base, so it shouldn't be anything special, but it is. Browsing through the latest releases (and some obscure low-print ones) of young adult novels I found (yet another) book about fairy tales. It was called the Grimm Legacy. I read the back and found it to be a crossing between a modern tip-of-the-hat to the Grimm fairy tales and a young teen romance.

Now there seems to be nothing new under the sun. In fact there seems to be a veritable avalanche of Grimm Brothers fairy tale adaptations out there lately. It may have started with Shrek and Hoodwinked (or even the Princess Bride and Labyrinth before that) and crystallized into the written word with the Sisters Grimm, Vertigo's Fables and the excellent FableHaven. But as I found myself staring off into the distance still holding the Grimm Legacy I thought of the Stepsister Scheme that I have been reading lately and the copy of the graphic novel Grimm Fairy Tales by Ralph Tedesco lying on top of my nightstand. Does everyone have the same idea or is it that the Grimm Brothers' material is just too tempting (and obvious) to leave untouched? The same thing recently happened with a wave of Alice in Wonderland stories. A movie and TV-mini series, several written adaptations and tons of quotes in TV-shows and articles.


Is it just my inflated imagination or is the world not only connected through the Internet. but also starting to show signs of creative interconnectedness? It's almost like one idea is found in more place than one and is published in one form or another at almost the same time. Now this is all good news for me, because this concept ties into the actual storyline of Simon & Sally, so if I'm not the only one noticing this then this concept of a World Wide Web of Ideas and Inspiration might resonate with the readers. The idea that we as a human race are becoming more connected on some deeper level that transcends culture, nationality and mythology is interesting to explore. Luckily with all this exposure no one has yet published a novel series about the actual connections between fairy tales and other mythologies. Sure, magic and vampires have been done to death and there is a fair smattering of famous characters Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Even ancient pantheons have been explored. But to create a meta-mythology that spans all of these is my territory.


Ironically you will see by the time I get published even this idea might have two or three explorations on its resume. But that only feeds into the strength of the idea itself: that we live in a world of ideas, too large to belong to any one person, institution or region.