Categories: existential-angst, humour
Tags: Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
Date: 18 October 2009 14:38:04
I must be the world's most naive Mum. ;) We were looking for one of Ms M's old books of fairytales last night, when offspring (aged 23 in less than a month), sophisticated graduate and budding graphic designer, reveals the trauma and sleepless nights caused by early exposure to "The Velveteen Rabbit," by Margery Williams. It's taken me til now to realise the horrid truth about Rabbit's ultimate fate - to be burned on a bonfire; I'd thought he'd been whisked off to to Bunnyland by the Nursery Magic Fairy! Shows how even the most innocent and least bloodthirsty of tales can alarm a sensitive child, I suppose. I remember being completely spooked out by the Caterpillar and hookah scene in Alice in Wonderland (film version) for example. And as for that picture in CS Lewis's "The Last Battle," when Tash - that ghastly half man, half bird montrosity appears, I always used to turn over several pages at a time in order to avoid looking at it.
That said, I'd forgotten that some of the older traditional fairy stories were so well... Grimm. I mean - have you read "The Red Shoes?" I hadn't til last week. (courtesy of The Guardian's freebie series). Shoes welded onto feet...Executioners in remote cottages...amputation...don't get me started on the sub-text to all that. Shudders!