Anti-fairy Tales

[May 11th, 2005] In medieval times, children gathered around the minstrel to hear tales of the frightful and fantastic. Today, we have Barry Yourgrau-a writer of South African descent with a Mephistophelean goatee and mischievous black eyes-and his NASTYbook, 43 short-short stories wherein children discover their parents don't want them and imaginary playmates run away, where a cuddly baby panda wields an ax and a boy finds himself compelled to trim the toenails of the old and decrepit.

Yourgrau is a master of fiction for adults (A Man Jumps Out of an Airplane and Wearing Dad's Head), as well as a spoken-word performer who has read on NPR and MTV. As he unreassuringly told WW, "Nothing [in NASTYbooks] is metaphorical-it's all literal."

WW: What was the impetus to create disturbing nano-stories for the wee set?

Barry Yourgrau: The idea suddenly hit me of writing stories that were anti-fairy tales; instead of everything having the imperative to turn out for the best, everything had the imperative to turn out for the worst-it just seemed like a terrific mechanism. I wanted to write children's versions of my adult stories.

But are these stories really aimed at kids?

I deliberately made them accessible to 10-year-olds. They've been cross-listed for adults, too, but I opened them up; there are a lot more straightforward narratives.

Have you road-tested the stories? How do kids respond?

Kids love mischief, and they love scary endings. As long as it's funny, they'll go along. In other words, maybe I retell "Hansel and Gretel" where kids get stuffed in the oven, and in my story maybe they remain in the oven, and they get eaten, but it's pushed ridiculously. Once you put laughter in, it changes the whole picture. It's the magic potion that protects.

You work in many forms-the story, spoken word, the novel. Why children's stories?

I think this whole boon in kids' literature, Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket-quite honestly, I've never read either of them, but you can't escape them-has really revolutionized the way children's literature has been approached, and it's brought a lot of talent into the field again. I've always used kids' literature in my adult stuff, so this really was a chance to broaden out.

Are you going to keep being Nasty?

Yes, it's a series, and the next one will be a novel, called Another Nasty Book: The Curse of the Tweeties. It's slightly demented-Alice in Wonderland meets Adam Sandler, that will actually turn into a manga comic for a brief bit. It will come out next spring.

Is there a fate worse than the boy who cuts toenails in "Snip Snip"?

I'll be honest with you-"Snip Snip" is inspired by autobiography. When I was a kid, my father used to have me cut his toenails for him. These stories took to monstrous extremes things that I felt myself.

So, the book is an exorcism of sorts?

I won't say an exorcism so much as just having fun with it. The whole source of comedy is so much about anxiety: What is Woody Allen but a long, long transformation of making a gag out of anxiety? Excruciation is where it all comes from.