Classic fairytales - soooo unfair

[Seeking]

I have always thought fairy tales are kind of painful in some of the truths (as well as false stereotypes they reveal). When I became aware of child predation I realized that is the archetypal troll under the bridge, cannibal witch etc etc. The villains are not really cartoonish IMO, but all too real. They were perhaps cautionary tales to children before the good touch/bad touch lecture. I was particularly moved by Hans Christen Anderson's The Little Mermaid, and it has stuck in my mind for decades. It is so viscerally painful to think that in exchange for being with her prince, she must literally become a fish out of water, so to speak, and that walking on her human legs will stab her with each step like knives. How much we all compromise in life, how much we give up for those we love. We all long to swim back somewhere, but something/someone keeps us grounded, no matter how much it hurts and takes from us.

Beautifully said

 

[invisible]

Just in case anyone is interested, the bookstore I used to work in stocks 10 - 15 different editions of Grimm, and people always want them.

 

[invisible]

The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics)

 

[PintoBean]

"The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics)"

Thanks for this, had never heard of it! Little article in The Guardian about it:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/05/five-hundred-fairytales-discovered-germany

 

[Gaze]

Thanks for this, had never heard of it! Little article in The Guardian about it:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/05/five-hundred-fairytales-discovered-germany

so cool. Man, to study those would be such an amazing opportunity.

 

[invisible]

so cool. Man, to study those would be such an amazing opportunity.

Totally, it's at times like these that I regret throwing away my literary scholarship. *shrug*