My Actual Friend in Real Life has a BLARG. She is super-talented and makes wonderful things that make me think better of the world than I am wont to on average.
She used this ribbon to make a wrist pincushion:
See? She even teaches you how to make the things that make me think better of the world &c.
I think that the Charles Perrault version of "Little Red Riding Hood" is far more interesting than the sanitized versions. The chick gets MUNCHED by the wolf. Here's what Perrault says is the moral:
"From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition — neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!"
See? MEN ARE BAD! SEX CAN KILL!!!
The Perrault version has all the reassurance and loveliness of Der Struwwelpeter. Der Struwwelpeter is scary, and my friend Manuel (who was born in Germany) actually was given it to read as a child. So he got to read stories such as the title story, in which, according to wikipedia (which tells no lies) "a boy who does not groom himself properly...is consequently unpopular."
BRUSH YOUR TEETH! CUT YOUR NAILS! OR RISK SOCIAL OBLOQUY!
I saw a theatre production called Shockheaded Peter when some friends of mine (who are excellent) took me to NEW YORK CITY. Because they are nice and like me. The theatre production was very great, especially the version of "Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher" (The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb), in which "a mother warns her son not to suck his thumbs. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb sucking, until a roving tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors."
BLOOD! BLOOD! AWFUL! OBEY YOUR PARENTS! BE GERMAN! WHATEVER! ICKY!
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4 comments:
I got to see Shockhead Peter in SF. So wonderful!!
Yeah, I pretty much agree with the whole grooming thing. Does it make me German? Or evil? Oh, wait, I AM PART GERMAN!!!
That still doesn't explain everything.
Your link yesterday (awesome) and your comment today on my blog: heretofore hidden aspects that should be encouraged. Keep it up, despite the fact that it makes me feel out of my depth.
We had this book when I was a kid. It had been my mother's when she was small, and her parents (German immigrants) read it to her as a Lesson she should Take To Heart. She showed it to me and my sister in more of an "isn't this kind of awful" spirit, and yes, I certainly agree. My main memory of it is the boy who dies because he won't eat his soup, going from on the plump side to ashes in an urn in three--yes, three!--days. Amazing how quickly old-time German kids could starve to death! And then there's the stranger in black with an enormous pair of scissors who cuts off a kid's thumbs because the kid sucks them. Remember, people, as long as you have total control over what your children do, it doesn't matter how many nightmares you give them!
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