Faithful 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 MoreThe Wolf and the Seven Little Kids
Then the wolf ran to a baker and said, “I have hurt my feet, rub some dough over them for me.” And when the baker had rubbed his feet over, he ran to the miller and said, “Strew some white meal over my feet for me.” The miller thought to himself, “The wolf wants to deceive someone,” and refused; but the wolf said, “If you will not do it, I will devour you.” Then the miller was afraid, and made his paws white for him. Yes, that’s how people are.
~Brothers Grimm
Two things before I begin: 1) this project was launched based on the post: “Project Grimm” if you want to know more about the format go read that post, and 2) an update to that post: my friend doesn’t call satchels man purses, rather, he calls them purses. Now that the housekeeping is done, I will jump into the analysis, so click [Read More] only if you don’t care about spoilers.
Read MoreBlog Project – New Category: Project Grimm
Recently, I realized that I had too many backpacks; I only use two, but I have all of the ones from my childhood. Throughout time, I have slowly shifted them out of use and ended up with my current configuration (a messenger bag (man purse as my friend calls it) and a backpack that can carry two laptops (corporate work and writing work – I keep my functions completely separated for obvious reasons)). So, while cleaning, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my old college backpack held a treasure I had been missing for some time: Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales. I had looked for this leather bound volume for a year (picked it up for seven dollars on sale (I would never buy a leather bound book unless it was cheap as they are a pain in the ass to hold while reading), bought one for myself and the friend who calls messenger bags man purses but that isn’t relevant). While reading tonight, I realized that I love the morals of these stories and found a weird dichotomy playing out in my mind (there was the moral for the good characters, but also, a moral for the villain).
Because I am clearly not busy (as my hair turns white just writing this post), I have decided to create a new goal for myself. I will read these short stories and write blogs on each one. The format is simple:
- A quote will be pulled (something that hit me in the gut and I liked)
- An analysis of the good guy’s moral
- An analysis of the villain’s moral (if I find one)
- How I felt about it
- ??? – Something I haven’t thought about at the writing of this post
I am unsure if my initial format will hold true till the end of the project, but I believe projects are meant to shift and change. The outcome that matters: I will end up reading more of these short stories and thinking about them. As my old professor used to say and I am paraphrasing: “You must read everything and from different cultures, otherwise, you are only going to write in one tradition”. His advice has led me to my current writing style: the amalgam abomination. So, look forward to these new pieces on the website (I am still writing fiction and revising my manuscripts (Bohr’s Bathos is currently on the chopping block)).
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