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capri0mni('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:
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Date: 2016-12-20 07:35 pm (UTC)Me and all my teeth will be over here, thanks. *grah*
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Date: 2016-12-20 07:43 pm (UTC)(also -- that was fast! I hit a nerve, did I?) ;-)
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Date: 2016-12-20 07:56 pm (UTC)(Also, perhaps. Um. Maybe. Yes. I'll be under a rock.)
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Date: 2016-12-20 08:40 pm (UTC)Why?
Is it warm and cozy/safe under there?
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Date: 2016-12-20 09:01 pm (UTC)Sorry, that's a bit of escaped personal shorthand that I didn't define. The TL;DR version is, "under a rock" is where the monsters hide out, right? So I can have a Super Sekrit Monster Lair, with all the modern conveniences, located under a rock for all my hiding out needs.
Alas, this is currently an entirely metaphorical structure.
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Date: 2016-12-21 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-20 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-20 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-20 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-21 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-20 11:36 pm (UTC)Go for it! Your monster sounds rather like the lovely ones in "Where the monsters are" - sharp teeth but sweet and fun-loving.
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Date: 2016-12-21 12:17 am (UTC)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer_%28TV_special%29
It looks like maybe it's only been broadcast in the U.S. ... maybe?
"Where the Monsters are" -- You mean Where the Wild Things Are?
...Maybe my monster is like that, maybe not. I'll have to have a chat with them.
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Date: 2016-12-21 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-21 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-21 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-21 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-21 09:22 pm (UTC)Googling however found some Sendak I want to own.
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Date: 2016-12-21 09:43 pm (UTC)Googling will do that. ;-)
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Date: 2016-12-21 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-21 11:01 am (UTC)Yeah... I think the TV special has only ever aired in the U.S., but boy, howdy! It has almost complete cultural saturation, over here -- having aired every year at Christmas since 1964; in recent years, it's aired many times during the "Holiday season," and there have been spin-offs and sequels, and... yeah.
When I was in grad school, one of my friends who used to hang out in the Disabled Student Lounge (had a TV with a Closed Captioning box -- on a table, etc.) was a huge fan of stop motion animation, and he loved it for the sake of the artistry and skill involved in making it. And his praise of the show softened my opinion of it from "Inferno of Loathing" to "Disgruntled Resentment.'
But still...
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Date: 2016-12-21 04:38 pm (UTC)They take out somebody's teeth? Ewwwwww. I can't see that helping anyone's disposition - it's not making me any more sociable and I only had one out.
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Date: 2016-12-21 05:10 pm (UTC)The book was written by Robert May (an ad man on staff at Macy's), in 1939, as give-away promotional item for all the children who visited Santa that year, and, eventually, Macy's allowed May to have all copyright/royalties.
May asked his brother-in-law to write a song based on the book, and Gene Autry, a movie star cowboy, recorded the song, and that became famous (basically just the beginning and end of the story, without the middle plot). Then the TV special got made, with an entirely new middle, and Robert May earned enough in royalties to pay off crippling hospital debt, after his wife died of cancer.
So... Yay, for him?
Gah! such an American "Success story."
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Date: 2016-12-23 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-23 07:36 pm (UTC)