tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176732908069622424.post747978827218898788..comments2023-03-18T06:31:13.168-05:00Comments on Go Sit In The Corner: Fairy Tales and a Film FavoriteAGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11241567321225195878noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176732908069622424.post-67907561863879995702007-03-28T19:41:00.000-05:002007-03-28T19:41:00.000-05:00Poster pseudo-imablichus made a very solid follow-...Poster pseudo-imablichus made a very solid follow-up point here, especially where fairy tales are concerned:<BR/><BR/>"I suppose fairy tales can help form a healthy notion of life as a mixture of joy, unpredictability, and sorrow."<BR/><BR/>Exactly! This is <I> precisely </I> what got from such fairy tales in their original, pre-diluted form. Life was not something all one way or another, and the most unrealistic stories or tales are those that take that trajectory.<BR/><BR/>Further amplifying, was:<BR/><BR/>"Life is chaotic, beautiful, and cruel, all at the same time. There is no sense in hiding this completely from our young ones. With fairy tales and other stories, we can little by little introduce them to the idea of the Cross and Resurrection that is ever present throughout history and the cosmos."<BR/><BR/>Indeed. One of the most influential parts of the NT for me was the Book of Acts and we all know how that turned out for St. Peter and St.Paul, and many others. Yet in its narrative of a combination of the extremely fortuitous (Peter's escape, the irony of Saul's conversion) and the sometimes petty bickering (the debate about the dietary laws and letters to Corinth) they <I> lived </I> for me, and rang authentic.<BR/><BR/>A movie analogy of the problem today that many readers can probably identify with, is the absurd and craven decision by George Lucas to <I> retroactively edit the scene in "Star Wars" (A New Hope) </I> Han Solo's surprise shooting of the criminal Greedo so that it appeared Greedo fired first. This is a symptom of the current trend to "tidy" up and make unrealistically clear and clean any tale or story.<BR/><BR/>In the Bible, the faith comes out of seeing the <I> overall </I>, trying to "look at life from heaven's eyes" , and the turns of Providence; not from some assurance one will always win, or that the `good guy' doesn't have a streak of bad, etc.<BR/><BR/>- AurelianAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176732908069622424.post-67362944758827305422007-03-28T19:29:00.000-05:002007-03-28T19:29:00.000-05:00Very interesting post, and one of the main themes ...Very interesting post, and one of the main themes appears to the gradual `dilution' as I would identify it, of the more severe or cautionary sub-themes in classical fairy tales. Dilution, in favor of a more `safe' or `happily ever after' style ending or outcome.<BR/><BR/>A good example is how the tale of Little Red Riding Hood gradually changed from its obviously grim, and well remembered ending; which seemed to warn of excessive trust in youth. Hantzel and Gretl also had a grim nature.<BR/><BR/>Since today, movies are our `myths/fairy tales' to find analogy, look there. It is no coincidence that part of a post on fairy tales ended up discussing <I> movie </I> renditions in current time, "Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast".<BR/><BR/>Bearing this in mind, I can cite another example of such impulse to `change ending' of a fairy tale, with its tendency to more life-like and even not always smooth outcomes to a story-book ending. The 1982 futurist classic "Bladerunner" had an idyllic ending tacked on in its original release that was never originally intended. An almost ironic mock of this is found in the 1986 film "Brazil" which DID end on the less than happy note, though one realized the protagonist had found his own peace.<BR/><BR/>Reading this, I had only one real quibble, and more a point of order than anything else. AG writes:<BR/><BR/>"[Second rant: Even as a 10-year-old, I recognized that The Little Mermaid and other Disney fairy tale fare were overt attempts of indoctrination into white patriarchy and the notion of ‘love’ as female submission, and I wasn’t buying it."<BR/><BR/>That seems doubtful, as the idea of `female submission' runs throughout the world, and doesn't seem related directly to `white patriarchy'. If anything in the West it is a theme that results from reading too much into the biblical writings of Eve or the instructions of the husband/wife relationship which so often forgets to quote the part about husband's duty to their wives. Its also found in the other big monotheist religions, but less so in Hindu, though you still find the expectation in the marriages. Japan too, shows this theme.<BR/><BR/>" In the Hughes Brothers’ American Pimp (1999), while the pimps are talking about physically and emotionally abusing their prostitutes, the women are expressing hopes that the pimp will fall in love with them and be with them forever. This notion of female romantic love, torn asunder from the social constructs that once necessitated it, now work their seductive and oppressive powers on women in a society divorced from a male obligation to women that used to be compulsory. Men always want it both ways. Down with matrimony!]"<BR/><BR/>Apart from male obligation (and the female today has also abandon theirs) that paragraph doesn't seem to describe things not found in gender relations even before Christ. I guess I am saying yes, the image of matrimony, maybe even patriarchy, in fairy tales, rather than `white patriarchy' may be the issue here. It seemed to be straying off focus. <BR/><BR/>What IS new is the rampant way by which the notion of "romantic love" is exploited by the marketing and even economic machine to form an ongoing loop of pursuit [read: purchase] of certain images and look, pairing, and renewing the cycle.<BR/><BR/>But of course its only the scale and transmission style of that market machine that is new. The emotions and instincts are as old as humanity, maybe even older than race itself.<BR/><BR/>- AurelianAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176732908069622424.post-73535455369455984422007-03-28T18:36:00.000-05:002007-03-28T18:36:00.000-05:00AG, for my mental health I must stop reading your ...AG, for my mental health I must stop reading your blogs. It's depressing me how I was apparently so verbally abusive to you in your youth. I must take responsibility for the creation of the person you have become and for that I apologize to humanity.cghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02252265534509871706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176732908069622424.post-61220590651885303352007-03-28T14:43:00.000-05:002007-03-28T14:43:00.000-05:00"Down with matrimony!"Yikes!"Children like real (p..."Down with matrimony!"<BR/><BR/>Yikes!<BR/><BR/>"Children like real (play) terror; they like to be scared while in safe confines."<BR/><BR/>We tend to think children are more innocent than they really are. Even in the safest confines of the best households, children see and hear things that perhaps we think they shouldn't. I just think back to my own childhood, although that was far from typical. <BR/><BR/>I suppose fairy tales can help form a healthy notion of life as a mixture of joy, unpredictability, and sorrow. I once had to sit through a spirituality class in seminary where the professor / novice master condemned the reading of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and fairy tales, saying that over-stimulation of the imagination from youth is a bad thing. (Note to any devout Catholics reading this: if you want child-rearing advice, the priest is not the best source for it.) <BR/><BR/>I have always thought that if that were the case, we should hide all crucifixes, statues of martyrs, and other things that might "scare the children". (Gosh, I grew up looking at a life-sized statue of a half-naked man nailed to a tree.)<BR/><BR/>Life is chaotic, beautiful, and cruel, all at the same time. There is no sense in hiding this completely from our young ones. With fairy tales and other stories, we can little by little introduce them to the idea of the Cross and Resurrection that is ever present throughout history and the cosmos.Arturo Vasquezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09674281914540496859noreply@blogger.com