Something Totally Cool Happened In My Children's Lit Class Today!

[slinkerwink]

The professor was giving a lecture about how fairy tales changed into palatable children's literature, and the influence of Christianity through the Grimm brothers fairy tale versions. She suddenly went off-topic and said, "I think it's scary that there's actually someone in the White House who believes in a devil with horns and a tail!"

We all cheered her for saying that. That was so cool! We went back to the topic of puritanism and education in children's early literature.

[aden_nak]

1. Oh! And cloven hooves.

[slinkerwink]

2. ha, it was just a totally unexpected outburst in today's class

the prof is definitely cool in my book ;-)

[Cybergata]

17. These are outstanding photos!

Can Kerry get any cooler, and Bush any lamer!!

:hippie:

[redqueen]

3. So *that's* where that comes from!

Thanks for sharing. :)

[slinkerwink]

4. the original fairy tales really weren't written for children

and it was intended for an adult audience. The concept of children's literature really didn't flourish until the 17th century. It's very fascinating to read those original fairy tales, and see the differences in them.

[cedahlia]

15. fairy tales

I work in the children's department of a public library, and we often have to give a gentle warning to parents who want to see the fairy tale section for books to read to their preschoolers. We sometimes have to explain things such as "well, you know, the little mermaid actually dies in this original version" or "these are actually much darker than what you may think." Most people don't realize just how Disney-fied most of the fairy tales they're familiar with really are. I wonder how the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson would feel about their work being so sanitized and even dumbed-down in many cases like they are today.

[Shakespeare]

5. I believe that description of Satan originally comes from Milton....

...courtesy of Paradise Lost. Actually, you'd probably be surprised just how much of what we think of as bible lore comes not from the bible, but from that epic poem.

[slinkerwink]

6. yeah....the bible itself originally was cobbled together from hebrew

folk tales.

[Interrobang]

10. In Hebrew...

The word "satan" (no cap) means "adversary."

Lewis Glinert (Hebraic studies, UofLondon) calls the personified "satan" "a projection of our yetser ha-ra <evil impulse>."

(On edit: Those angle-brackets should be square brackets. When, oh when, oh *when* is DU going to go to STANDARD HTML ALREADY?!?!)

[slinkerwink]

7. kick

[PragMantisT]

8. And it seems that much Catholic dogma

comes from Dante's Divine Comedy.

[slinkerwink]

9. which is also interesting

;-)

[MrMonk]

13. I think it was the other way around.

Dante's work reflected the Catholic dogma of his time.
A lot of those ideas have since been dropped, but they survive as a sort of folk knowledge.

[Aristus]

11. Wish I coulda been there, slink.

Sounds like it was fun.

[slinkerwink]

12. it was! the prof is cool!

I hope she's registered to vote!

[cedahlia]

14. By any chance...

...are you in library school? Just curious, because my friend is taking a children's lit class this semester and she's pursuing her MLS. I'm also curious because I'm an aspiring librarian, too (still working on my B.A. though!)

Sounds like your class is filled with some very cool people...that's definitely a class I'd really look forward to going to!

[slinkerwink]

16. no, I'm not in library school....just taking a summer class at a college