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Compiled from the column entitled 'A Yarn with Alan Marshall', published in Permewan's Review, and the column entitled 'Let's sit on a sliprail', published in The Australasian Post.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
The Red Frog Prince : A Fairytale About the Shifting Social Status of SugarToni Risson,
2010single work criticism — Appears in:
TEXT : Special Issue Website Series,October
no.
92010;'Once upon a time, sugar was a magical substance in an ordinary world. When it
became cheap and readily available in the mid-nineteenth century, sugar and sugar
confectionery became part of the ordinary diet, and have since fallen to the status of
junk food, and, more recently, poison. But children relate to lollies at the level of
imagination, so lollies are a vital part of the wonder of childhood and retain for
children the magical cultural status once attributed to them. Allen’s red jelly frogs
are banned from school tuckshops, but they play a noble role in opening doors for
youth chaplains during the notorious Schoolies Week. Furthermore, the humble
lolly descends from the elaborate sugarwork that once featured in royal banquets; it
was noble all along. Lollies are no longer on the menu, and they do not even fit into
food categories, but judgements based on food value alone fail to take into account
the magical role they play in children’s lives and ignore the ways in which health
authorities, artists, and advertisers use confectionery. Lollies have more in common
with fairytales than food. The Frog Prince—a fairytale about a royal son who is
turned into an ugly frog by a wicked enchantress and then rescued through his
relationship with a child—is a metaphor for red frog lollies. This paper examines
red frogs as sites of transformation, thereby repositioning sugar confectionery as
magic and challenging dominant narratives that reduce the complexity of lollies and
their cultural significance.' (Author's abstract)
The Red Frog Prince : A Fairytale About the Shifting Social Status of SugarToni Risson,
2010single work criticism — Appears in:
TEXT : Special Issue Website Series,October
no.
92010;'Once upon a time, sugar was a magical substance in an ordinary world. When it
became cheap and readily available in the mid-nineteenth century, sugar and sugar
confectionery became part of the ordinary diet, and have since fallen to the status of
junk food, and, more recently, poison. But children relate to lollies at the level of
imagination, so lollies are a vital part of the wonder of childhood and retain for
children the magical cultural status once attributed to them. Allen’s red jelly frogs
are banned from school tuckshops, but they play a noble role in opening doors for
youth chaplains during the notorious Schoolies Week. Furthermore, the humble
lolly descends from the elaborate sugarwork that once featured in royal banquets; it
was noble all along. Lollies are no longer on the menu, and they do not even fit into
food categories, but judgements based on food value alone fail to take into account
the magical role they play in children’s lives and ignore the ways in which health
authorities, artists, and advertisers use confectionery. Lollies have more in common
with fairytales than food. The Frog Prince—a fairytale about a royal son who is
turned into an ugly frog by a wicked enchantress and then rescued through his
relationship with a child—is a metaphor for red frog lollies. This paper examines
red frogs as sites of transformation, thereby repositioning sugar confectionery as
magic and challenging dominant narratives that reduce the complexity of lollies and
their cultural significance.' (Author's abstract)
