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| The Steadfast Tin Soldier Shigeru Hatsuyama for Thumbelina (and other tales) (Japan, 1925) |
Yes! This is one of my favorite things: when passionate discussions of lesser-known fairy tales appear in (seemingly unrelated) social media and pop culture/geek discussions!
If I were fancy and extra organized I'd start a whole series or regular feature on this topic. As it is, I will just add a new tag: #PopFTDiscussions (aka #GOLD!) Hopefully this new tag will have a lot of use in future...
So what incited this particular one, you ask? It was The Mary Sue's article "Anthropomorphizing the Mundane: Five Fictional Objects that Messed Us Up" by Sara Goodwin. Under the following picture of the Brave Little Toaster, the article begins:I was one of those kids who was absolutely convinced that my toys came to life when I was asleep and led full lives. Not only that, but I can remember getting out of bed to put a pair of shoes together so they wouldn’t have to spend the night alone. ... anthropomorphizing objects has been going on for many years in many cultures. Who doesn’t cry when they think about The Velveteen Rabbit and how badly he wanted to be real?
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"Tsukumo-gami, Spirits of Used Articles" by ITO Jakuchu (1716-1800), Japan |
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| Was Mary Poppins' Umbrella 100 yrs old? |
And I was REALLY pleased to see that Tsukumogami was mentioned (the Japanese ritual/celebration of an object's 100th birthday), something which I learned more about last year and am completely delighted by. Another Japanese festival not mentioned is Hari-kuyo: Festival of Broken Needles which "is a solemn rite of respect and thanksgiving in which the worn and broken sewing needles used in the previous year are retired to a sacred resting place."
Interesting note: the most popular image representing Tsukumogami in general is an animated umbrella... *turns to look at Mary Poppins suspiciously*In Japanese culture, there is a concept called Tsukumogami, which is popularly used to refer to an object that has reached its hundredth birthday and become alive. There seems to be a bit of a divide between the religious interpretations and the popular culture use of this word, but from what I can tell from some quick Google research is that it was commonly associated with religion in the past and has been adopted by modern cultures to describe a kind of anthropomorphism.
Using animals, objects, etc. to tell a story can have practical uses beyond making us cry when we see a lamp that looks like that adorable, hopping Pixar lamp lying in a dumpster.
It continues being a great read, complete with a list of Brave Little Toaster-like cousins we've all had tug at our heartstrings, so I suggest you hop on over there and read it in total. It succinctly looks at anthropomorphized objects on film we came to love, then cried for (hilarious), but then I began reading the comments and lo and behold, Hans Christian Anderson's name appeared, and not without a little rage attached! #painandtears
The comments number well over 100 so I'm posting the HCA portion of the discussionfor your perusal. You can always go to the original page and join in the discussion if you become so inclined!(Note: I have bleeped and asterix'd some of the language for gentler sensibilities and in an effort to redirect nastier versions of spam far, far away... and be warned that the spacing between comments is really, really weird. I don't have time to transcribe it all so it looks neat etc so please bear with the copy and paste results!) |
| by Kay Nielsen |
Hans Christian Andersen was the -bleeping- worst with this, I swear to God. The man could have written a story from the POV of a tongue scraper and it would have been full of pathos, tragedy, and an unbearably sad ending.^^ Edit FTNH: This sentence - now in bold, care of moi - is so true! ^^
F--- YOU HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, I AM NOT OVER THE FIR TREE OR THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER, AND I NEVER WILL BE
;A;
ETA: lmao I just checked his wikipedia page and look at this sh*t.
A very early fairy tale by Andersen called The Tallow Candle (Danish: Tællelyset) was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012. The story, written in the 1820s, was about a candle who did not feel appreciated.
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| Studio Soyuzmultfilm in 1976 |
Ah yes:
"..he fed on the tears of children...".
Thank you Ms. Goodwin. I will never forget that throwaway comment now. It's fits so very,very well.. (Sorry Mr. Andersen. It was bound to happen when you made us love your characters and then- *neck slicing motion with SFX*!)
Here is an evil IKEA commercial (brought to our attention by the same Ms. Goodwin) that will not help you at all:
Told you it was evil. (You had to look...)