I was going to wait on this one, but since I spent about
seven hours playing this game the other day, I might as well tackle it now.
Lately I’ve been hooked on a game called Stardew
Valley. Stardew Valley is a farming/life
simulator. The idea is that you play a
character that after getting tired of a life of corporate drudgery, inherits a
farm from his or her grandfather. The
farm is in a place called Stardew Valley right outside of Pelican Town. The farm is overgrown and it’s up to your
character to clear it out and plant crops.
You can also fish, chop down trees, work in the mines, make friends with
the locals (and eventually date and marry the single ones), cook, create
artisan goods and raise animals. All
that basic, domestic, agrarian goodness.
And did I mention that there’s a wizard’s tower on the edge
of the valley.? There are also little nature
spirits living in the broken down old Community Center. And there are monsters infesting the
mines. There are even rumors and evidence
of dwarfs living in the mines.
Yup. Magic and
fantasy exists in this game and no one seems too bothered by it. And that’s why this game reminds me of fairy
tales.
Fairy tales, like Stardew Valley involve magic but often
find themselves most concerned with everyday problems. The parents in “Tom Thumb” are concerned with
the possibility of having a child. Jack
and his mother in “Jack and the Beanstalk” are worried about poverty and where
their next meal is coming from. “SnowWhite” and “Cinderella” are concerned with abusive family situations. “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” and “Bearskin”
(among others) are both concerned with soldiers building some kind of life
after a war has ended. Don’t even get me
started on all the ones that hinge on the idea of marriage.
If anything, the goals in Stardew Valley are even more tame
than the ones in fairy tales. Other than
marriage, which is a common goal between both fairy tales and Stardew
Valley. Most of the goals in the game
are things like planting and harvesting in keeping with the seasons. Saving up enough materials and money to build
new farm building. Stuff like that. But even that isn’t so far off from how fairy
tales function. The seasons and growing
things are an issue. The Tale of Tales had a story built on
the changing of seasons called “The Twelve Months”. I once read a French folk tale titled “The
Wooden-Clog Maker and the King’s Daughter” in which one of the more miraculous,
magical elements was a peach tree that bore fruit even in the winter (doesn’t
seem like such a big deal today when we can get produce shipped from all over
the world, but it’s a big deal in the story and it would be a big deal in
Stardew Valley).
Fairy tales have kind of a strange double identity. On one hand, they’re widely considered the
hallmark of fanciful storytelling.
Someone saying “that’s just a fairy tale” usually means someone’s being
unrealistic. Yet, fairy tales are often
the most grounded and relatable of all fantasy stories. I mean, I’m sure there are relatable things
in other fantasy genres. Epic fantasy,
for example, is about things like war and politics and I’m sure someone can
relate to those things. But fairy tales
are about the things that happen between the war and the politics. Things like getting married and planting
crops and selling your cow and making sure you have enough food or money.
Fairy tales aren’t about the magic within the everyday or
magic replacing the everyday. They’re
about magic existing alongside the everyday, like some kind of unusual
neighbor. All the while, the question of
belief never even comes up. It’s just
not an issue.
I’m not quite sure I really managed to tease out a point
here, but I think I may have at least provided some food for thought in regards
to the unique qualities of fairy tales.
This relatability and groundedness might account for their continued
staying power. It might also be what
makes Stardew Valley so damn addictive.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to harvest the crops and tend
to the animals before the winter comes.
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