Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Real Fairy Tales



There was always some point in time when I regretted that I gave away my old books. Especially those that can't be find in their original forms now.

Like this - before Jo, Bessie and Franny were themselves before having their names changed to be politically correct. Btw I am not even sure if golliwogs exist or even allowed to be mentioned now.

But recently I was thinking of the Little Mermaid book that I once had, no thanks for the upcoming Grimms' Tales by SRT . Nowadays, Little Ariel seemed to be the de-facto image of the Little Mermaid. But I remember the illustration in the book that I had was probably more gothic than cheery.

This was the exact version of the book that I've got!

Which was probably more befitting the tragedy ending of the little mermaid who finally dissolve to become foam in the sea, but eventually rising up in the air together with others who were like her (ok, this part never really did made sense when I was reading it then. Like who were these others??). I also remembered feeling angsty at the stupid prince who married the princess, who happened to pass by the shore and "saved"the prince, rather than the mermaid who actually saved him from the sunken ship and placed him on the shore.

Argh.

A lot of fairy tales didn't start out to please little kids and assure them that everything will have happy-endings, and which some I find to have very warped principles too. I wonder if kids nowadays would ever discover the real story of the little mermaid and other fairy tales, rather than the mass manufactured Disney ones. I grew up reading those disturbing warped ones, and didn't turn out any worse off, though I think the stories inculcated some form of cynicism that probably never go away.

Well, don't think it's going to be easy, but gotto try if anybody out there who can appreciate cynical dark humour just as well to go catch the show..


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