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I read it several times as kid… as an adult it’s hard for me to ascribe any one single meaning to it, but I have always found it so achingly sad
by skrtskrt 4y ago
I read it several times as kid… as an adult it’s hard for me to ascribe any one single meaning to it, but I have always found it so achingly sad
- hprotagonist 4y agoin a similar vein, i find it basically impossible to listen to puff the magic dragon without breaking down a little.
- dano 4y agoThis song was played by my kindergarten teacher at nap time and thus when I hear it, I still want to take a nap!
- canadianfella 4y ago
- chasil 4y agoI haven't read it, but this fragment of the last paragraph of the article resonates with your sentiment... '...the greatest works of children’s literature have dealt in “the sadness which is inseparable from life, which has to do with growth and change and impermanence, and with the very essence of beauty.”'
- Konohamaru 4y agoWhy? It has a happy ending.
- jonathanlb 4y agoI'm not sure if you're trolling or if you genuinely don't understand reading fiction. In case of the latter consider this: Imagine traveling to a destination. The way is fraught and perilous, but you reach your goal- a blissful paradise. Would you say that the whole experience was happy? It's the same with literature: it's about the journey, not the destination.
- Konohamaru 4y agoAll's well that ends well - William Shakespeare. I'm not trolling. I literally believe that during a person's life, absolutely nothing matters except the final state at death. No matter what happens to him in the intervening time, if the end is good, it's all good. And I believe this with 100% no wiggle room.
- hutzlibu 4y agoThe end is always death. That is neither good nor bad, but simply final death. So to me what matters is all the life before and not just the moments before fading out.
- Shorel 4y agoI believe you believe what you wrote, and I believe you are not trolling. I also believe your ideas are 100% false. Life is far too valuable to be defined in a single moment. And for many people, this single moment is not even a conscious one, they could be sleeping, or in a hospital bed, or it would happen too fast for them to notice. So it is also something they never experience. Life is every moment we spent with our loved ones, and the experiences we leave behind. Every interaction matters, a single experience may matter more for some people than for others, and these experiences will stay in the memories of these others when we are gone. So we should strive to live the best of these experiences. I also believe in your 'no wiggle room' attitude. So this comment is not really for you. It is for anyone else who reads your comment in the future, so they can also see there's strong disagreement with your comment and all its ideas.
- Konohamaru 4y agoThank you!
- synu 4y agoTo look at an extreme example, lifetime spent under daily torture and imprisonment with a last minute redemption and freedom just before dying of old age would be a life well lived?
- chasil 4y agoThe subtlety of this happy ending says many things. Literally, it means that being sacrificed upon a pyre is a transcendence. Figuratively, it requires change, from one form to another. Change in life is never easy.
- rdtsc 4y agoI only read it as an adult and was also struck by its sadness. I appreciate how it touches on fundamental themes - sacrifice, love, growing up, dying, all in one short story. For me it is also the feeling of nostalgia, having a toy like the rabbit when I was little. It’s probably what helps many people connect with the story, having a favorite toy and then “abandoning” it growing up.