[LMB] OT: Stereotypes was DOS Attack, Iraq Style...

[Margaret Dean]

Rachel Ganz wrote:
> 
> > > I really liked the way they rewrote the ending to the Little Mermaid
> > > (how I *detested* the original)---
> 
> > i've read several versions, which 'original' are you referring too?  the one
> > where she doesn't get the kiss, loses the deal with the sea hag and turns to
> > foam?
> I think the first recorded version was the one by Hans Christian Andersen -
> hence the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. And that is the sea-foam one.
> Much more realistic than the Disney version. Prince's don't marry dumb
> unknowns.

But fairy tales are not supposed to be realistic, and in other
traditional fairy tales, princes (and princesses) end up with far
more unlikely partners.  Caveat:  I haven't seen the Disney
"Little Mermaid."  But I have read Tolkien's essay "On Fairy
Stories," where he argues that the happy ending -- or
"eucatastrophe", to use his coined term for it -- is as
intrinsically necessary to the form as it is for a classic
tragedy to end with a death.  So when I heard about Disney's
"Little Mermaid," I couldn't help thinking that (whatever else
they did with the story) they were remolding it truer to the
classic form.


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>