7 ms·

>Fairy tales can often be brutal and cruel – people and animals die – and yet, despite everything, the positive powers always win. There can be no other ending.

>Fairy tales can often be brutal and cruel – people and animals die – and yet, despite everything, the positive powers always win. There can be no other ending. That is a very 21st century view of fairy tales, no less sanitized than what Disney does.

6510 2y ago
A wise man one day created a standard formula for fairy tales: They should involve the 3 evils in the world, your employer, your government and your god. Then the protagonist worships them and works hard only to be punished by all 3 for not working hard enough and not bowing deep enough. In each story the protagonist should embrace a logic fallacy that justifies the punishment. The writers he hired struggled hard implementing the formula but ultimately couldn't write any part of it into any story. The children worked a shit job, paid many fines and burned in hell for ever, until the end of times.
hifromwork 2y ago
I wonder if the author has read Hans Christian Andersen. I still remember reading The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf as a kid. A story about a girl who used a loaf of bread as a stepping stone to go over a pool of mud. And then sank into an evil underworld where she was tortured by scary creatures, starved, and paralysed for many dozens of years (enough for everyone she knew to die), while a few visions of people on surface recollecting her sins. She never returned back to earth. The positive powers have won because I think the prideful girl regretted her action in the end, but even as a kid this struck me as extremely over the top punishment.
- llm_trw 2y ago
  Keep in mind that in the 19th century a loaf of bread was the difference between life and death many a time. It's difficult to understand why people took food so seriously until you've gone through some amount of starvation yourself.
  - JoeAltmaier 2y ago
    Nah. It was just a Mom trying to terrorize a child into being careful with the bread she baked. Probably because it was inconvenient to Mom. Folks beat kids back then for talking back, for spilling milk, for looking at them wrong. No need to justify the over-the-top punishment - it was par for the course for kids.
m463 2y ago
> no less sanitized than what Disney does. I think most movies have a happy ending. To do it otherwise is usually to give up the mass market. ...except some genres that have to go too far the other way to get your attention.
- llm_trw 2y ago
  Most fairy tales were told by overworked grandmothers with arthritis and less teeth than fingers. And then everyone died because they didn't shut up is a story I remember from my childhood. I imagine the further back you go the more often everyone died because the story teller had enough of talking.
croes 2y ago
I remember lots of fairy tales without a happy ending. I think she hasn't read enough of them

6510 2y ago

A wise man one day created a standard formula for fairy tales: They should involve the 3 evils in the world, your employer, your government and your god. Then the protagonist worships them and works hard only to be punished by all 3 for not working hard enough and not bowing deep enough. In each story the protagonist should embrace a logic fallacy that justifies the punishment. The writers he hired struggled hard implementing the formula but ultimately couldn't write any part of it into any story. The children worked a shit job, paid many fines and burned in hell for ever, until the end of times.

hifromwork 2y ago

I wonder if the author has read Hans Christian Andersen. I still remember reading The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf as a kid. A story about a girl who used a loaf of bread as a stepping stone to go over a pool of mud. And then sank into an evil underworld where she was tortured by scary creatures, starved, and paralysed for many dozens of years (enough for everyone she knew to die), while a few visions of people on surface recollecting her sins. She never returned back to earth. The positive powers have won because I think the prideful girl regretted her action in the end, but even as a kid this struck me as extremely over the top punishment.

llm_trw 2y ago
Keep in mind that in the 19th century a loaf of bread was the difference between life and death many a time. It's difficult to understand why people took food so seriously until you've gone through some amount of starvation yourself.
- JoeAltmaier 2y ago
  Nah. It was just a Mom trying to terrorize a child into being careful with the bread she baked. Probably because it was inconvenient to Mom. Folks beat kids back then for talking back, for spilling milk, for looking at them wrong. No need to justify the over-the-top punishment - it was par for the course for kids.

m463 2y ago

> no less sanitized than what Disney does. I think most movies have a happy ending. To do it otherwise is usually to give up the mass market. ...except some genres that have to go too far the other way to get your attention.

llm_trw 2y ago
Most fairy tales were told by overworked grandmothers with arthritis and less teeth than fingers. And then everyone died because they didn't shut up is a story I remember from my childhood. I imagine the further back you go the more often everyone died because the story teller had enough of talking.

croes 2y ago

I remember lots of fairy tales without a happy ending. I think she hasn't read enough of them