   Your favorite fairy tale, myth, play, novel?
  I'm reading Levi-Strauss's _The Raw and the Cooked_, and I thought, analyzing these South American myths is cool, but I want to analyze some things which are important to me personally.  So I'm trying to come up with a list of stories to analyze.  They don't have to be specifically myths or folktales, any piece of fiction can be analyzed the same way, it's just easier for shorter pieces.  I'm trying to make a list of what my own favorite folktales, movies, novels, etc. are, and I thought it would be helpful to hear other people's favorites.  So, what are yours? [smile](My favorite folktale is _Beauty and the Beast_, but I haven't finished the rest of my favorites list yet.)   
  Personally, I love the short story "The Profession" by Isaac Asimov. I've heard others describe it as painting a dismal image of the future, but it sounds like a utopia to me.There is another short story of his that I like but I can't remeber the name. It's about a computer running the world but apparently getting certain numbers (predicting demand or the like) wrong all the sudden, which causes an investigation to be done. The end conclusion is basically that it's not wrong, it's just throwing the numbers off the cause certain anti-computer people to lose their positions of power (or something like that). Perhaps somebody else will recognize this outline =-)   ;  I really enjoyed "The wizzard of OZ" when kid. I should re-read it to see if I still like it.What kind of analysis are you performing?   ;  I don't really like manga and wholefully enjoy books more, but the Akira manga is absolutely my favorite "novel" ever. The Beach comes to a close second.   ;  Where the Wild Things Are.   ;Quote:Original post by owlWhat kind of analysis are you performing?Structural analysis.  Basically the idea is to remove all unnecessary details from the story, seeing it as a sequence of symbolic archetypes and transformations.  Then you compare several stories to see if the same archetypes or transformations appear in multiple ones.Like, here's my analysis of beauty and the beast (I left out the curse/rose/time limit part because I don't find that part interesting.):1. A conventionally beautiful girl whose major trait is kindness1a. In Disney version the girl does not fit into her society and resists marrying a member of that society.2. In payment for a crime, the girl is sacrificed by being given to a beast (see also dragons eating virgins, virgins trapping unicorns)3. The beast's castle represents an alternative society which rewards different traits and abilities.4. Here Beauty's kindness/openmindedness allow her to prosper where others would fail.  (Equates to the testing part of standard hero monomyth.)5. Having tested the girl, the beast accepts her into his alternative society by falling in love with her.6. Beauty must confront her old society so she can definitively choose the new one over it.7. Wedding, barren castle transformed to be domestic and fruitful.   ;Quote:Original post by ChokkiWhere the Wild Things Are.Oh I loved that one when I was little! [smile]   ;The Night Opus;  One of my favorite stories is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It's all about honor and keeping one's promises and it's had a much larger impact on me than I could have foreseen, back when I first read it as a kid.   ;  My favorite story would be Darkgate, by myself, which I still have to write sometime, but trust me it is a great story. (Actually I'm thinking of getting someone else to write the story with, as it is becoming too much work for me alone)As for one you can actually look at, I think Icelandic Sagas. They can be a bit of a drag at times, but if you can get yourself in the right mood to read them, they are pure gold.   