Subject: RE: BS: CapriUni's blog: disability in folktales
From:
Mysha
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 05:51 PM
Hi Capri,
I don't see her make the direct assumption that one can not live without hands, but I expect the reason why Midori Snyder treats the maiden sans arms in the story as metaphorical would be that in real life people usually don't regrow arms.
I myself don't really like meta-interpretation of stories much, as such interpreters always seem to assume someone wrote the stories with that purpose. Maybe that writer would be related to that infamous 18th century songwright who created all that folk music? Still, they may have a point in that those stories and elements survive that carry a certain message. But somewhen, when this story much younger, I expect there really was a woman whose use of her hands was limited, and who eventually overcame that. Even more than with folksongs, the problem is that we don't know what the original events were, and how they were changed.
And that's basically the answer to your question about my mention of a current version of Snow White. Most likely, the life of Margarete von Waldeck did not involve talking mirrors, magic apples or glass coffins. So either these have all been separately introduced into her story, or it's she who has been overlain over an older story. That older story may well have had her live with other guardians; robbers for example are quite common providers of refuge in fairy tales, and have the same habit of leaving the camp unguarded but for the girl, the occasional woodsman will also leave his dwelling in her care. Yes, maybe Snow White's guardians were dwarfs even before 1500, and maybe they were nature spirits when they were introduced into the story. But in the version of the last centuries, they may be children miners. I guess that's a problem you have to find a solution for: Will you take the story at face value, in which case they are less-tall human-likes, without any supernatural powers, or will you interpret, in which case there will be layers of story all the way back past the unknown point where the story of the girl in the woods merged with the story of the girl who wasn't dead.
Don't have the literature handy, but searching on the two names will probably give internet results. (The "dwarves", BTW, are Tolkien's approach to a race of smaller stature, whereas the "dwarfs" of folklore can be so mighty that four of them carry the sky.)
And interpretation, but of our own lives, is also what lead us to your "living with a physical disability actually leads you into thinking up new technology, to help you get around your physical limitations." and my "If the human mind is capable of overcoming problems, and overcoming problems does indeed train it". Now, there probably are a few physical disabilities that by their nature are connected to a mental problem, which cause someone to be both severely less agile and less intelligent, but only a few. But generally, we are "Lacking proof of a connection between a handicap and intelligence". So, when there's no proof of any specific connection, all we have left is our approach that a handicap will challenge us to think our way around the problem. Based on that, "what would one expect about the intelligence of the handicapped? " Certainly not that it is generally less than that of less-handicapped, as diagnoses seem to suggest so often. Rather the opposite.
Mercury poisoning is what made hatters mad. I'm not sure it could cripple a grown-up, though it can cripple when it occurs at a very young age. But ignoring the smith's profession: Why would a Greek god ever have a marred body? The Iliad disagrees about how he came to be crippled, which suggests the explanations are a later addition. His birthright isn't certain either, but the stories seem to agree on the fact that he came to the Olympus as an adult. Could the reason the Greek writers accepted a marred god have to do with the fact that he was, to them, an outsider? I know, just speculation.
Come to think of it, Loki, also a god of fire, was an outsider too. Are we seeing two versions of the same pantheon, or two versions of the same development?
Bye,
Mysha
|
sj
