Monday, November 29, 2021

Is There Anything Written By the Brothers Grimm 'Safe' To Read?

 Well....first, if you count them up...the two German brothers went and assembled around 200-odd stories that they'd heard, and 'word-smithed' their way to a publication.  If you browse around today.....the complete works go up to around 600 pages.

So for a fragile person (teenager, juvenile, or college student)....I'd generally say that virtually all of the stories contain some element of lusty business, danger, death, bloodshed, animals being killed, and graphic violence.  I'm generally talking about their version....not the cleaned-up versions of the past hundred-odd years.

Example?  The 1812 version of Rapunzel....has a bit of chatter that relates to lusty sex and ending up pregnant after a couple of days.  

The Robber-Bridegroom?  The original version was full of direct violence and has a suggestive rape scene.

The original evil queen in Snow White?  Let's just say her demise is pretty harsh and involves some heated iron shoes.

The character Frau Trude?  It's best not to bring her up.

The kids around 1820.....being more capable of handling life than the kids of today?  No doubt.

Whether the literature professors even grasp this?  I doubt it.  

2 comments:

Claudio said...

Just pure hypocrisy, have a look at the kids videogames and you will likely find more violence than any Grimm brothers had ever imagined

Schnitzel_Republic said...

The video-game kids aren't the 'safe-freaks'. I will agree with you....gamers have a totally different prospective. In fact, the gamers will tell you they don't have time for the demonstrations or riots....they've got a schedule of sixty hours a week to game.