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('Cause I know the TV story is different from Robert May's original book. But it's the TV story that most people know -- anyway -- it's the one that I know)
Okay, we all know that "Rudolph" is a terrible story, because it teaches the 'moral': "Difference will inevitably, and naturally be despised until it can be exploited, so that the resulting exploitation must be celebrated as a happy ending."
Right?
We know this? We are agreed?
Good.
So you know what else sticks in my craw?
The "happy ending" for the "Abominable Snowman" -- being turned from Mean/Evil to Kind/Nice by having all his teeth forcibly removed.
No. No. No. No. NO!!
It's not whether or not you have teeth that makes you "bad," but how you use them.
It makes me want to write a Christmas story out of spite, where the day is saved by a giant monster with 5,000 sharp teeth, and three dozen sharp horns, and black shaggy fur. And, furthermore, the way the monster saves the day has only a tangential relationship to those teeth and horns.
(Meaning: they don't save the day by biting through or cutting anything, but by being smart, and compassionate, and maybe understanding of [problem at hand] because they know what it's like to be feared and misunderstood)
Eta: something like this critter:
Okay, we all know that "Rudolph" is a terrible story, because it teaches the 'moral': "Difference will inevitably, and naturally be despised until it can be exploited, so that the resulting exploitation must be celebrated as a happy ending."
Right?
We know this? We are agreed?
Good.
So you know what else sticks in my craw?
The "happy ending" for the "Abominable Snowman" -- being turned from Mean/Evil to Kind/Nice by having all his teeth forcibly removed.
No. No. No. No. NO!!
It's not whether or not you have teeth that makes you "bad," but how you use them.
It makes me want to write a Christmas story out of spite, where the day is saved by a giant monster with 5,000 sharp teeth, and three dozen sharp horns, and black shaggy fur. And, furthermore, the way the monster saves the day has only a tangential relationship to those teeth and horns.
(Meaning: they don't save the day by biting through or cutting anything, but by being smart, and compassionate, and maybe understanding of [problem at hand] because they know what it's like to be feared and misunderstood)
Eta: something like this critter:
