Friday, April 5, 2013

Oh, we like the Disney versions of these much better

"We had a book of Grimm's fairy tales, but they were so dark and violent, as we read them we were like, 'Oh, we like the Disney versions of these much better!'"
Arthur Rackham-Rapunzel
 
From here-reference to Grimm's Cinderella
 
There's been much discussion of appropriateness of fairy tales for children in academia and in the blogging world, which I have somewhat contributed to in the past (click on the "children" tag if you're interested in further reading). The parent of two of my students said this the other day, which I found interesting. She has daughters ranging from four to eleven years.


Disney's Rapunzel and Cinderella

4 comments:

  1. Funny, when I read Grimm fairy tales it was the darkness and violence preceding the happy endings that made them such a wonderful stories.

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  2. I wasn't saying I agreed with this parent...but it is a common attitude among parents with young children. Personally, I think part of the draw of dark fairy tales for me when I was younger was simply because I sensed that in some way it was forbidden and that made it more exciting

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  3. Exactly! Sorry if my comment came out sounding more snarky than I meant it! From one look at your blog, it's clear you have no problem with fairytales.

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  4. No, you didn't sound snarky :)

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