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

[PAT MATHEWS]

>From: "Kalina Varbanova" <kikibug13 at gmail.com>

>On 5/2/06, Margaret Dean <margdean at erols.com> wrote:
>>
>>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.
>
>
>I wonder how Tolkein fit in Anderson at all... Well, the Snow Queen ends
>happily (and other stories too), but... The little mermaid, the little
>matchbox-seller... so many of his fairy tales end up sadly. Tragically.
>Sigh.
>

Andersen was a Victorian, wasn't he? Same culture as Dickens? Tolkien, for 
all he endured two world wars, came from a world in which little match 
sellers did NOT die on the streets of cold and hunger - he was probably born 
about the time Andersen was growing old. Or is my timing wrong?