Fairy tales... are the most vital connection we have with the imaginations of the ordinary men and women whose labor created our world. - Angela Carter
This was a fun and well-researched read. My son has a tiny projector that was given as a present from his godmother. It came with several classic fables/fairytales that we'll watch in a dark room once in a while in place of traditional storytime. I've become fascinated with the dark and cruel undercurrents these stories have that must have taken generations--if not cenuries--to syncretize. They are always pointing to some basic uncomfortable truth about human nature.
I do ask Elliot what he thinks. He's three. And, sometimes, he can see the signpost.
Thanks for the kind words!Appaently, many of them existed without a moral tacked onto the end in their earlier versions. As if the hearer was trusted to come to their own conclusions - or perhaps the idea of 'teaching' some point or other was quite different from what we regard as pedagogy today. The Grimm ones are especially curious, given Jakob Grimm's status as one of the pioneers of linguistics. I would trust Elliot more than a million professors, or myself, when it comes to these great stories. Kids seem to inhabit them in a way we cannot.
Thanks for this. I understand more now why I keep a very battered old Hans Christian Andersen collection. It is a relic of my childhood imaginings. Just remembered The Little Mermaid having to dance on knives as she impersonated a human...
Anderson was genius. Van Gogh deeply admired him and tought him a painter because of the great descriptive quality of his writiing. Look up Anderson's collages and shadow clipping art. Fantastic!
This was a fun and well-researched read. My son has a tiny projector that was given as a present from his godmother. It came with several classic fables/fairytales that we'll watch in a dark room once in a while in place of traditional storytime. I've become fascinated with the dark and cruel undercurrents these stories have that must have taken generations--if not cenuries--to syncretize. They are always pointing to some basic uncomfortable truth about human nature.
I do ask Elliot what he thinks. He's three. And, sometimes, he can see the signpost.
Thanks for the kind words!Appaently, many of them existed without a moral tacked onto the end in their earlier versions. As if the hearer was trusted to come to their own conclusions - or perhaps the idea of 'teaching' some point or other was quite different from what we regard as pedagogy today. The Grimm ones are especially curious, given Jakob Grimm's status as one of the pioneers of linguistics. I would trust Elliot more than a million professors, or myself, when it comes to these great stories. Kids seem to inhabit them in a way we cannot.
Thanks for this. I understand more now why I keep a very battered old Hans Christian Andersen collection. It is a relic of my childhood imaginings. Just remembered The Little Mermaid having to dance on knives as she impersonated a human...
Anderson was genius. Van Gogh deeply admired him and tought him a painter because of the great descriptive quality of his writiing. Look up Anderson's collages and shadow clipping art. Fantastic!
thanks martin. who in the present time is writing the truest fairy tales?
Great question. Maybe ChatGPT?