Journal Entry #39: Fairy Tales

Date: December 7, 2007
Time: 23:41

I think I may have mentioned a few times, either on here or out in what is called "Real Life", that I read a great deal when I was growing up. As I was a child at one point, it was sort of expected of me to read fairy tales.

But I found out something a long time ago that people are only finding out about today, the Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen, and even Aesop, have a lot to answer for. I won't get on the case of Carlo Collodi, the creator of Pinocchio, he has enough problems.

But those other three, fairy tales were never meant to be told to children, or at least, should have come with a PG label on the book. Why, in one story alone, entitle "Great Claus and Little Claus" (no relation to Santa), you have moments of fraud, con artistry, blackmail, suicide, and even murder, all cleverly disguised. http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_claus.html

There were few, if any "happy endings" in any of Andersen's tales, people died, were transformed, or as in the case of "The Little Mermaid", well, I'll let you read that for yourself. http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html

Speaking of unhappy endings, I will give you one more link to "The Steadfast Tin Soldier". http://hca.gilead.org.il/tin_sold.html Okay, this site calls it "The Brave Tin Soldier", but the story's the same. There is really only one part of the entire story I happen to like, but as I don't want to ruin any of it for you, I will just say this "curbside stream", and maybe one day, I'll tell you more.