5 ms·

A literary prank that ‘Hansel and Gretel’ was based on a real story

46 points by samclemens 7y ago

wongarsu 7y ago
Not so much "real" as "based on a real story". It's not like Hansel and Gretel is about adult baker siblings stealing the recipe for Lebkuchen and burning the inventor, it's about young siblings held captive by a carnivorous witch breaking out by burning her alive. Still an interesting story, the headline is just too click-baity for my taste.
- smitty1e 7y ago
  The headline is an accurate summary of the article.
  - wongarsu 7y ago
    At the point I wrote the comment the headline was "A literary prank that led Germany to believe ‘Hansel and Gretel’ was a real story" which is not an accurate summary.
- dang 7y ago
  Ok, we'll add that qualifier above.
jamesrcole 7y ago
This makes me think of the Australian novel (and film based on it) "Picnic at Hanging Rock", which is entirely fictional yet is widely believed to be based on true events. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock_(novel)#Basis_in_reality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock_(novel)...
- itronitron 7y ago
  You might be interested then in the horror movie Darkness Falls [1] ... the DVD has an additional short 'documentary' in which people in a small Australian town are interviewed about the historical figure that inspired the film. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_Falls_(2003_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_Falls_(2003_film)
svat 7y ago
Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Hansel_and_Gretel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Hansel_and_Gre... The book is still available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Die-Wahrheit-über-Hänsel-Gretel/dp/3499150921 https://www.amazon.com/Die-Wahrheit-über-Hänsel-Gretel/dp/34... (and the movie listed on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093684/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093684/) Wish I could read German; seems fun!
SilasX 7y ago
Semi-OT: I really don't like HN being used for quirky historical curiosities (like those found in every atlasobscura.com submission). I want to downvote these, but can't, and I don't think they rise to the level of deserving being flagged. What should I do?
- lstamour 7y ago
  Upvote or submit other stories you’d prefer to see rise to the top, then. It might be possible to filter out submissions from certain domains yourself using a browser extension, similar to how you can filter Google by domain in search results using a personal blacklist extension.
- itronitron 7y ago
  The irony here is that the literary prank described is in some ways a parody of the quirky historical articles you don't like. So you might actually like this article. I found it quite interesting and it wouldn't surprise me if Thomas Pynchon had some exposure to it before he wrote his major works.
  - SilasX 7y ago
    I like articles about Dance Dance Revolution too, but I don't want HN to become a DDR site.
    - wolfi1 7y ago
      this is in no way a piece about the GDR
- cryptoz 7y ago
  I think these posts are the #1 encouraged kind of item to submit to HN when you read the newsguidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html So I think it is your expectation with HN that may need to change, as I would be shocked to see this content disappear. It's exactly "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups.", the first sentence of the guidelines.

46 points by samclemens 7y ago

Not so much "real" as "based on a real story". It's not like Hansel and Gretel is about adult baker siblings stealing the recipe for Lebkuchen and burning the inventor, it's about young siblings held captive by a carnivorous witch breaking out by burning her alive. Still an interesting story, the headline is just too click-baity for my taste.

smitty1e 7y ago
The headline is an accurate summary of the article.
- wongarsu 7y ago
  At the point I wrote the comment the headline was "A literary prank that led Germany to believe ‘Hansel and Gretel’ was a real story" which is not an accurate summary.
dang 7y ago
Ok, we'll add that qualifier above.

jamesrcole 7y ago

This makes me think of the Australian novel (and film based on it) "Picnic at Hanging Rock", which is entirely fictional yet is widely believed to be based on true events. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock_(novel)#Basis_in_reality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock_(novel)...

itronitron 7y ago
You might be interested then in the horror movie Darkness Falls [1] ... the DVD has an additional short 'documentary' in which people in a small Australian town are interviewed about the historical figure that inspired the film. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_Falls_(2003_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_Falls_(2003_film)

svat 7y ago

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Hansel_and_Gretel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Hansel_and_Gre... The book is still available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Die-Wahrheit-über-Hänsel-Gretel/dp/3499150921 https://www.amazon.com/Die-Wahrheit-über-Hänsel-Gretel/dp/34... (and the movie listed on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093684/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093684/) Wish I could read German; seems fun!

SilasX 7y ago

Semi-OT: I really don't like HN being used for quirky historical curiosities (like those found in every atlasobscura.com submission). I want to downvote these, but can't, and I don't think they rise to the level of deserving being flagged. What should I do?

lstamour 7y ago
Upvote or submit other stories you’d prefer to see rise to the top, then. It might be possible to filter out submissions from certain domains yourself using a browser extension, similar to how you can filter Google by domain in search results using a personal blacklist extension.
itronitron 7y ago
The irony here is that the literary prank described is in some ways a parody of the quirky historical articles you don't like. So you might actually like this article. I found it quite interesting and it wouldn't surprise me if Thomas Pynchon had some exposure to it before he wrote his major works.
- SilasX 7y ago
  I like articles about Dance Dance Revolution too, but I don't want HN to become a DDR site.
  - wolfi1 7y ago
    this is in no way a piece about the GDR
cryptoz 7y ago
I think these posts are the #1 encouraged kind of item to submit to HN when you read the newsguidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html So I think it is your expectation with HN that may need to change, as I would be shocked to see this content disappear. It's exactly "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups.", the first sentence of the guidelines.