Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Still Grimm

I am not sure where we developed the notion of a "fairy-tale" ending. I imagine Disney may have had a hand in it. In any event I am captivated by reading the Grimm's Fairy Tales. I am never sure what the ending will be. I recently read The Strange Musician. In this story a talented musician who entered the forest and ran out of things to think about. He decided to find himself a companion (the Grimm's tales are often about companions as opposed to [or in addition to] love interests). He began play so that it echoed through the trees. First a wolf approached him but he did not want to be friends with the wolf and so he tricked the wolf and trapped him in a tree. Then a fox and later a rabbit come along and offer to join the young man but he tricks them all. At this point I am wondering if the young man will be the 'bad guy' for the way he treated these animals. And it looked like this would be the case when the animals freed themselves and hunted down the young man. Then the musician came across a poor wood-cutter and said, "At last comes the right companion . . . I was seeking a human and no wild beast." The musician played and soothed the heart of the man. Just then the animals came and prepared to attack the musician. The wood-cutter raised his ax in defense of the young man and scarred them away. Thinking that now the two would be friends the story ends, "The musician, however, played once more for the man out of gratitude, and then went onwards."

!?!?!

I still want the "moral of the story" and sometimes the tales offer one specifically but more often they just end. Good for them.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Até mais.

Unknown said...

hmmmm, yes is see but did you consider that perhaps the chiastic structure was not intended to evoke that sort of existential angst? did you think of that? well, did you!?