ID

"Alright, John, it's time."
"Time? Time for what?"
"Time to start."
"You're not making any sen-"
"Today is theme and variation; start listing fairy tales."
"...like Little Red Riding Hood?"
"Overdone, keep going."
"uh, Goldilocks."
"..."
"Okay, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, the Sword and the Stone, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, "
"Stop!"
"Hansel and Gretel?"
"Yes, that'll work. Summarize please."
"Okkayyyy.... Um, a brother and sister get lost in a forest... or maybe they were abandoned by an evil step-parent of some sort. They find an old...witch? -who lives alone in a house made of sweets. She takes them in with the lure of food and imprisons them, feeding them more and more until they get fat to the point where she intends to eat one or the other. One of the children escapes and cooks the witch instead in a twist of dramatic irony, and well, I'm not sure what happens after that but there's a happily ever after not too far off.
"Good. List the themes"
"Well.... abandonment of course."
"Go on."
"Gluttony. Trust and the failure of trust. Family, independence, the inherit "evilness" of a step-parent to a child? Maybe gender roles? I'm not really sure who does what.
"That's sufficient. What about stylistic themes?"
"You mean like the gingerbread house?"
"Yes, go on."
"Well, there's the forest too and... breadcrumbs? I think this was the one with breadcrumbs."
"We'll come back to that later I suppose... no need to dwell on it too much just right now."
"Where exactly are you going with this?"
"Twist it."
"I'm sorry?"
"Twist it."
"Uh... Hansel and Gretel are good friends instead of brother and sister?"
"I said twist it."
"Hansel and Gretel are orphans in pre-Katrina New Orleans. They may be brother and sister, they may not be, it doesn't matter; they're family. Their breadcrumbs are false promises or school systems they keep transferring between. They get lost, forgotten by the government, inside the city. Gingerbread is dirty money, gluttonly is the lust for more. The witch is a white-gypsy and a cackling madman says history only knows so many stories."
"Good. I'll see you tomorrow."
"...what?"