Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you share some hopeful passages, or some recommendations on what to read? I could use a bit of positivity in my life this month.
Without your personal context, recommendations are difficult. If you like science fiction, check out "Stories of your Life" by Ted Chang; if you like historical strategies for success, check out "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene; if you like grand philosophical views of an entire life well lived and how to have one "The Glass Bead Game" by Hesse; if you're interested in extremely practical advice in how to be s…
The original “Bambi”
121–130 of 232 posts
Re: The original “Bambi”
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not commenting on whether you’re right or wrong, but that’s a bit of an apples and oranges comparison there - nearly to the point of arguing in bad faith. A more apt comparison might be a story about urban war where the main character looses many immediate family members (and explores the grieving process against the backdrop of the war) - and how that would help a kid process the loss of an immediate family member.
Don't be afraid, they're wrong.
Re: The original “Bambi”
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stories don't prepare kids for trauma, and I don't think there's any real evidence in support of that idea. I would wager a large sum that a child who has heard scary stories is not more likely to better handle, say, the loss of an immediate family member, than a child who has only heard happy stories about unicorns, rainbows, and friendly interactions.
Stories definitely do help kids and adults process trauma. I'm not going to go searching for it because you can cherry pick anything off the internet, but it's well documented that scary stories in a safe space assist children with processing traumatic events.
Re: The original “Bambi”
#124Yes, Bambi is an utterly depressing story. Most original material Disney adapted was bleakier and more grisly than the adaptation. Most of the tales collected by brothers Grimm would today be horror stories. (Did you know that Cinderella's evil stepsisters had their toes and heels cut off so they could fit in the slippers? Or that the ravens pecked their eyes as punishment? Or that Maleficent ends up in a boiling cau…
The Brothers Grimm already toned the horror down. Sleeping Beauty was based on a tale called Sun, Moon, and Talia [0] which has the prince having sex and impregnating her while she sleeps, and she only wakes up from her newborns sucking the splint out of her finger when she can’t find the breast. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun,_Moon,_and_Talia
"Early contributions to the tale include the medieval courtly romance Perceforest (published in 1528).[4] In this tale, a princess named Zellandine falls in love with a man named Troylus. Her father sends him to perform tasks to prove himself worthy of her, and while he is gone, Zellandine falls into an enchanted sleep. Troylus finds her and rapes her in her sleep; when their child is born, the child draws from her finger the flax that caused her sleep. She realizes from the ring Troylus left her that he was the father, and Troylus later returns to marry her.[5]"
Re: The original “Bambi”
#125For some reason I got my hands on George Orwell's "Animal Farm" at a very young age, as it looked like a kid's book. That's a fairly bleak book, for example when the pigs sell the draft horse to the glue factory, but only the goat (whose only friend is the horse) knows what's going on. Watership Down is another good one, the character of the Black Rabbit of Inle (the Grim Reaper of rabbitkind) was memorable. However…
> However I disagree with claims that these kind of works 'traumatize' young readers. Yes, the trauma occurs when you realise how misled you were about the nature of reality, that you were sold a lie.
Re: The original “Bambi”
#126This is the most insufferable thing I've ever read in my entire life. This reads like chocolate cake with chocolate icing drizzled in chocolate syrup for smug individuals to read from the backseat of a private car service. The amount of faux insights and pop politic buzzwords while ending this with questions of whether bambi is a parable for jewish existence is astonishing and I found myself wondering if this was a p…
"“Bambi” is not a parable about the plight of the Jews, but Salten sometimes regards the plight of the Jews as a parable about the human condition. The omnipresence and inevitability of danger, the need to act for oneself and seize control of one’s fate, the threat posed by intimates and strangers alike: this is Salten’s assessment of our existence."
That was the case the author was building up to the entire time. To each their own, but I thought it was an incredibly well written article.
Re: The original “Bambi”
#127I'm a huge One Piece fan (on of Japan's most popular manga and anime for the last 22 years). In the first season, one of the main characters has her adopted mother murdered right in front of her when she's like 7 years old.
And, if that's not bad enough, her town is taken over by thugs, she spends the next 10 years working on a plan to get rid of the thugs while basically being a slave to them. Only to have them discover and ruin her plan making all the sacrifies she made those 10 years in vain.
The show at a basic level is kind of silly and definitely for kids at some level but these heart wrenching moments are what made the show.
Unfortunately, 2-3 seasons later they started pulling their punches. Characters would sacrifice themselves (so heart strings tugged) and then a few episodes later they'd show up with a few bandages recovering.
Fortunately there's still been a few major un-pulled gut punches later in the series.
Re: The original “Bambi”
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Children's songs are also often cruel. "Il etait un petit navire" tells the story of a young sailor about to be eaten because the ship ran out of food. "Sur le pont du Nord" tells the story of a brother and a sister who ran off to a ball without their parents' approval and die when the bridge collapses. "Il etait une bergere" tells the story of a young shepherd who kills her mischievous cat in anger. These are exampl…
"London bridges falling down." "Ring around the Rosie... and we all fall down" (refers to the Great Plague of London in 1665) "Rockabye baby in the treetops" (eventually sent crashing to the ground by storm winds).
Re: The original “Bambi”
#129If we're talking about bleaker topics in older Disney works, I'll ask you to take a moment and consider the entire premise of _Dumbo_ (1939). Why are the other elephants scandalized by the baby elephant with the big ears, asking what Mr. Jumbo would think? Why did they mean, just a few moments earlier when they said elephants are "a proud race "? Why would they shun him, declaring that he is not one of their kind? ..…
The tear jerking properties of the treatment of Dumbo’s mother doesn’t get enough attention. There really is no greater love than that of a mother for her child. / notice I said “greater” leaving space for an equal ie a father’s love
You don't really know the intensity and unconditionality of the love your own mother has/had for you until you have kids yourself and see how your wife loves your child. I always appreciated my mother, but I was only able to fully appreciate her after I had kids myself.
Re: The original “Bambi”
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't be afraid, they're wrong.
List a single shred of scientific evidence showing that kids who are exposed to stories with similar themes to traumatic events they experience in real life are more likely the have better outcomes. Be afraid to call someone wrong without more than just-so stories and anecdotes.