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From: duckmaiden ducks, wolves and the watery unconscious
Date: 30 Jun 2004
Time: 04:48:25 -0500
Remote Name: 172.134.169.63
Hang it all, I hope not! Faerie tales help us deal with our dark side(s) through metaphor /archetype . "it ain't meant to be taken literally." Bruno Bettelheim discusses such ideas and more, rather compellingly in: The Uses of Enchantment. The "night poems" help us translate out the language of the unconscious. Woe to the child who has ne'er been allowed a walk along Baba Yagga's skull path. As I recall, the scariest tales were usually the best --even the cover of Albanian Wonder Tales was a colt wrapped in barbed wire --horrific to a child in love with horses. Fie on sweetness and expurgation. They weren't called the brothers Grimm for nothing. I seem to recall my lovely mother mellifluously singing "Here is a candle to light you to bed, here is a hatchet to chop off your head. " Ah, the joys of English parenting. And Bible stories are pretty darn gruesome too.. fiery furnaces, whale swallowings and such. But ?whatsa meta for?" More phantoms and wild ugly hats at the opera around!! Love those pop ups and so did the kids. They popped them up to death. We (adults and children) all take things at different l'evils and this correctness stuff going round like the measles might leave us a pretty staid lot of Pinocchios. I know my guys survived the tale treatment and now they scare me with magnificent stories. Yay, I say. Think about Little Red Riding Hood: not too different than walking home every day from the bus stop. Bring on the cliffwalk and the duende! Cheers!