Culture

(by Bob Consedine)

One of our kids gave a blood-curdling scream in the middle of the night. Dear Mother rushed into the child's room and found him sitting up in bed.

"Can't sleep," said the young man. "It's my fairy tales."

This seemed somewhat strange to me. I thought of Mary and her Litttle Lamb* and Hickory Dickory Doc**, or whatever that rat's name was, and the other gentle tales of my early youth.

The next day, however, I got down to reading some of my little boy's fairy tales. I must have missed them as a kid. Either that or a merciful forgetfulness wafted over me. Because, ever since I started reading our kid's books, I've been sleeping with the lights on and the bedroom door locked.

Goodness Gracious!*** What frightening stuff when read in retrospect!

Let's take "Hansel and Gretel" by the Grim brothers, for instance. It opens with a charming little scene between the father and mother of the kids. They are starving during famine.

"What's to become of us?" the father asks. "How are we to feed our poor children when we have nothing for ourselves?"

"I'll tell you what, husband," answers the fond mother. "Tomorrow morning we shall take the children out quite early into the thickest part of the forest. We shall light a fire and give each of them a piece of bread. Then we shall go to our work and leave them alone. They won't be able to find their way back."

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* "Little Lamb"– a sentimental nursery rhyme

** Hickory Dickory Doc – начало детского стиха

*** Goodness Gracious! – Господи, помилуй!

For some reason or other the father thinks that's an unkind thing to do, so he says, "Wild animals would soon tear them to pieces."

In the face of this weakness* the wife grows furious and snarls. "What a fool you are! Then we must all four die of hunger. You may as well plane the boards for our coffins at once."

And so they take the kids off and lose them.

Then there is that charming little tale called "The. Wolf and the Seven Kids" in a book named "The Bedtime Nursery Book."

There's an old goat, and she's got seven little kids. She goes out to get home food for her kids and says: "Look out for that bad old wolf. If you let him inside, he will eat you up – hair, skin, and all. Sometimes he disguises himself**, but you will know him by his hoarse voice and big black paws."

The wolf shows up in various disguises, which the kids see through but finally he's too smart for them and they let him in... The frightened little kids tried to hide. But the wolf found them all, except the youngest, who had hidden in the clockcase. One after another he swallows the six little kids.

Later the old lady comes home, sees the deserted house and wanders outside in her grief. There she finds a wolf snoring under a tree and "noticed that something was moving and struggling inside his body."

"She sent the youngest kid back to the house to get her scissors and a needle and thread. Then she cut open the wolfs stomach..."

Let us dismiss the utter terror contained in Little Red Riding Hood,*** because some passing woodcutters heard her scream and she was about to be consumed for her tender faith in human nature.**** The trouble is, my kid doesn't know any woodcutters. He's convinced, too, that none want to know him, or rescue him from the ominous things that take shape in his room after the twilight session with Beddy-Bye Tales.*****

Now you probably remember Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Little Match Girl" – just the thing to read to a child who has been warned through most of his life never, never to play with matches.

This tale opens with a little girl, limping barefooted through a New Year's blizzard. She has lost her slippers and as a result her feet are red and blue. The kid can't go home because she hasn't sold her matches yet, and that means her old man will beat her black and blue.

So she begins lighting her matches and sees one vision after another. Finally she lights the whole box and sees her grandmother, who passed away in 1709.

"In the cold morning light the poor little girl sat there with rosy cheeks and a smile on her face – dead," the story reads. "Frozen to death on the last night of the year. New Year's day broke on the little body still sitting with the ends of the burnt -out matches in her hand."

I'm going to make my kid read something light and frivolous, like Poo, or "Arsenic and Old Lace."

In the meantime, if the kid lets loose another shriek in the middle of some moonless night, he's better move out. For Dear Father will be under the covers with him.

Assignments:

1. Formulate the author's views on fairy tales.

2. Tell a fairy tale thatyou like best.

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* in the face of this weakness – видя его слабость

** to disguise oneself - маскироваться

*** Little Red Riding Hood – Красная Шапочка

**** she was about to be consumed for her tender faith – ее чуть не съел волк за ее доверчивость

***** Beddy-Bye Tales = bedside fairy tales