The Good Bargain
“What,” cried the peasant, quite angry, “since you are determined to know better than I, count it yourselves,” and threw all the money into the water to them. He stood still and wanted to wait until they were done and had brought him his own again, but the frogs maintained their opinion and cried continually, “aik, aik, aik, aik,” and besides that, did not throw the money out again. He still waited a long while until evening came and he was forced to go home. Then he abused the frogs and cried, “You water-splashers, you thick-eads, you google-eyes, you have great mouths and can screech till you hurt one’s ears, but you cannot count seven talers! Do you think I’m going to stand here till you get done?” And with that he went away, but the frogs still cried, “aik, aik, aik, aik,” after him till he went home quite angry.
~Brothers Grimm
In my previous post for Project Grimm (Faithful John), I discussed the potential mistake I made by starting this project. Based on my notes, I had originally planned on discussing The Good Bargain from the perspective of the Peasant being a villain and no one being a good guy. This is pretty easy to run with because the Peasant constantly blames everyone else for his failures, ignorance helps him stumble through countless obstacles, and those around him are punished for his foolishness. At the root of this piece is a dude who is not very bright, believes animals can talk (gives them his food and money), insults a king, gets tricked into giving a two people his reward (which isn’t a reward, but rather 250 lashings, gets the king to laugh, and then gets some real gold. He is a bubbling boob who ends up earning a treasure through sheer stupidity. 1/7 not recommended. [Click “Read More” for more of my rant]
Read MoreHow I Go On…
I realize that someone looked at the Emoji Movie script and said: “How much do you need? This will be brilliant.” Then, somehow, a bunch of actors – T.J. Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, Patrick Stewart, Sean Hayes – looked at the script, read it, and said: “I’m in!” So… if the Emoji Movie can be birthed into this world and be marketed, I think I will be just fine.
But that ignorance is obliterated when, being an idiot and curious, I searched and learned that the movie had an estimated budget of ~50 million dollars… and made over 200 million in gross revenue. At which point, I begin to doubt the universe and my future.
Read MoreInundated by Media – Podcast
It may come as a surprise, but I talk to myself a lot. Over time, I’ve noticed that I’m not designing things in my head nor focusing on world building or testing dialogue with the mirror in my bathroom. Normally, it would be healthy, or at least considered healthy, that I have ceased speaking to myself. Except, I leverage these moments to figure out things for my writing. A ton of ideas have poured from me when I just let the train run off the rails.
Therefore, it is a problem that I am not doing these crazy things anymore. At first, I thought it was because I had become self-conscious about appearing insane. Then I realized what it really was… podcasts. Instead of letting my brain do its own thinking, I was blocking it out by playing a podcast. I had lost the ability to sit by myself in silence and just think. Now, I listen to history podcasts and learn from them, but I stopped just having ideas flow from me.
As such, I have ceased my podcast consumption at home and I’ve immediately benefited from having my mind do its own thing. It’s a shame, I truly love learning and podcasts are a very easy way to do that, but I also like letting my mind think instead of be squawked at.
Read MoreFaithful John
The King was terrified when he heard that he himself must kill his dearest children, but he thought of faithful John’s great fidelity, and how he had died for him, drew his sword, and with his own hand cut off the children’s heads. And when he had smeared the stone with their blood, life returned to it, and Faithful John stood once more safe and healthy before him. He said to the king, “Your fidelity shall not go unrewarded,” and took the heads of the children, put them on again, and rubbed the wounds with their blood, at which they became whole again immediately, and jumped about, and went on playing as if nothing had happened.
~Brothers Grimm
When I began this project (check out: Project Grimm for the basis/project charter), I made an assumption that these would be grim stories with a wide variance in content. Boy oh boy, this idea may have gotten away from me. I read Faithful John and immediately had a moment of clarity. This is like boiled down version of the story Job (from the bible) – which made it very upsetting. Based on my initial impression of these short stories, I am afraid they are all going to be in the same vein and won’t be as brutal as I wanted. Everyone always says that the Grimm Brothers are not meant for children, but if the current methodology continues, I will buy this collection of short stories for my new nephews and nieces as their first books.
Now, these stories have harder themes than what can be found in The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, but they really aren’t much more brutal than an action movie’s trailer. And since children walk around their home while parents watch adult channels (not porn), it is expected that they would be introduced to some violent images. As such, I would argue that the Brothers Grimm aren’t something that could scar children. Now, you are getting my analysis as I read through pieces (right now I have read four short stories), and therefore, my ideas on the Brothers Grimm are limited at best. So, without further ado let’s begin the analysis of Faithful John. [Click “Read More” for spoilers and my breakdown]
Read MoreHaiku – Seaweed
My hull cuts the water
pillars of green sway – current
fish swim the forest