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> learned a bit about how difficult life can be and the consequences of moral failings or lack of hard work I don't remember anything about consequences of mor

> learned a bit about how difficult life can be and the consequences of moral failings or lack of hard work I don't remember anything about consequences of moral failings in the old fairy tales, just random violence and chaos. In Sleeping Beauty the prince's mother turns out to be an ogre who tries to eat Beauty's children, but luckily the prince returns in time and kills her. Where's the moral lesson there? Don't move in with your mother-in-law?

kstenerud 4y ago
The same thing most poor kids learn growing up: Just because someone looks and speaks nicely or is nice to you doesn't tell you anything meaningful about them. And it can be a fatal mistake to not be careful. The old stories were designed to help prepare children for the hostile world they lived in.
dijit 4y ago
> Where's the moral lesson there? The moral of the story is that monsters live deep inside even the people we trust most.
ineedasername 4y ago
Well, off the top of my head from Grimm: --Cinderella: mean deceptive people might get their feat chopped off & eyes pecked out. (In short, Karma. though unfortunately the world doesn't quite work that way, but there's still a bit of "the world can be ugly" too) --Cat & The Mouse: Never forget that the nature of a predator is predation --Hansel & Gretel: Don't take candy from strangers. Also, if something looks to good to be true, it probably is. And also that maybe little children are delicious? I mean, the witch had to have her reasons. --Rumpelstiltskin: Okay, there's some mixed messages here. Lying father, malicious greedy king, deceptive girl... Rumpelstiltskin comes out looking like a hero, saving the girl's life 3 times but then get's cheated out of his last payment & kills himself. But he also wanted her baby. She agreed, but still... anyway no one really comes off smelling of roses but Rumpelstiltskin is the only one dead. --The Peasant in Heaven: Truly good rich people are very rare --Snow White: Alright, maybe this one shouldn't on the list. Could be there's a lesson about jealousy in there, and also that maybe you should try the Heimlich maneuver on someone that keels over while eating, but in the end it kind of boils down to some fairly creepy borderline necrophilia.
- anthk 4y ago
  >Hansel & Gretel: Beware from the child rapists as an analogy. Kinda similar to The Little Red Hood.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
klik99 4y ago
I forget who said it, but one theory I've heard is that kids are naturally afraid of their parents and haven't built the ability to hold opposing views at the same time, so they have trouble reconciling these loving god-like figures they depend on 100% for survival and the total fear they have when the same figures are angry or disappointed in them. Stories like Sleeping Beauty or ones with monsters allow kids to transfer those feelings of all encompassing fear to these bad guys, until they outgrow it and they're able to handle ambiguity. That doesn't explain why the stories were originally told, but could explain their stickiness.
- circlefavshape 4y ago
  > the total fear they have when the same figures are angry or disappointed in them Hmm. This sounds like a hypothesis from someone who doesn't remember being a child very well. I never lived in total fear of my parents' anger or disappointment, and I'm pretty sure my kids never did either

kstenerud 4y ago

The same thing most poor kids learn growing up: Just because someone looks and speaks nicely or is nice to you doesn't tell you anything meaningful about them. And it can be a fatal mistake to not be careful. The old stories were designed to help prepare children for the hostile world they lived in.

dijit 4y ago

> Where's the moral lesson there? The moral of the story is that monsters live deep inside even the people we trust most.

ineedasername 4y ago

Well, off the top of my head from Grimm: --Cinderella: mean deceptive people might get their feat chopped off & eyes pecked out. (In short, Karma. though unfortunately the world doesn't quite work that way, but there's still a bit of "the world can be ugly" too) --Cat & The Mouse: Never forget that the nature of a predator is predation --Hansel & Gretel: Don't take candy from strangers. Also, if something looks to good to be true, it probably is. And also that maybe little children are delicious? I mean, the witch had to have her reasons. --Rumpelstiltskin: Okay, there's some mixed messages here. Lying father, malicious greedy king, deceptive girl... Rumpelstiltskin comes out looking like a hero, saving the girl's life 3 times but then get's cheated out of his last payment & kills himself. But he also wanted her baby. She agreed, but still... anyway no one really comes off smelling of roses but Rumpelstiltskin is the only one dead. --The Peasant in Heaven: Truly good rich people are very rare --Snow White: Alright, maybe this one shouldn't on the list. Could be there's a lesson about jealousy in there, and also that maybe you should try the Heimlich maneuver on someone that keels over while eating, but in the end it kind of boils down to some fairly creepy borderline necrophilia.

anthk 4y ago
>Hansel & Gretel: Beware from the child rapists as an analogy. Kinda similar to The Little Red Hood.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

klik99 4y ago

I forget who said it, but one theory I've heard is that kids are naturally afraid of their parents and haven't built the ability to hold opposing views at the same time, so they have trouble reconciling these loving god-like figures they depend on 100% for survival and the total fear they have when the same figures are angry or disappointed in them. Stories like Sleeping Beauty or ones with monsters allow kids to transfer those feelings of all encompassing fear to these bad guys, until they outgrow it and they're able to handle ambiguity. That doesn't explain why the stories were originally told, but could explain their stickiness.

circlefavshape 4y ago
> the total fear they have when the same figures are angry or disappointed in them Hmm. This sounds like a hypothesis from someone who doesn't remember being a child very well. I never lived in total fear of my parents' anger or disappointment, and I'm pretty sure my kids never did either