Maybe Inappropriate?

Okay, so Dan, I asked you to send me the Grimms' auf Deutsch book, and I may have left a rambling message that didn't really explain what I needed it for besides saying I'll explain later.

That's the book for those who don't know what's going on. This is a German language copy of the Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales, a copy of a book I salvaged years ago from high school. I was hoping it had survived various moves and, it turns out, it had.

The reason I was asking after it was because of the Art Exchange's Marathon Project. The Art Exchange is a non-profit organization here in Long Beach that does different shows and projects and is involved in our Second Saturday activities. The Second Saturday happens each month and consists of a street fair with arts and crafts and performances. This Marathon Project was a 9 AM to 9 PM reading of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, similar to an activity the husband of the husband and wife directing team of the Art X used to do while he was the head of the English department at Texas Tech in Lubbock.

I heard about it one day walking by, since the Art X in literally down the street from us. I mentioned that I or my brother had a copy of der Bruder Grimm auf Deutsch, and if we could get our hands on it, would they like someone to read a story in the original German? They thought that would be super cool, and asked me to get back to them if we could find the book.

You can kinda see it posted up on the table below:

The day I got it in the mail, I walked it over to the Art X and they put it on display in the window. I thought it was pretty cool.

The way this "marathon" reading worked was local merchants signed up for blocks of time, read their tales, then had the kids present do some kind of activity. The young lady in the red dress above is an illustrator and taught the kids how to make a tiny book out of an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. It's actually pretty cool.

Below is a local librarian after reading a pair of frog prince stories:

Outside I was almost surprised to see my own name and icon for Robot Crickets, since I hadn't yet given them the digital image:

So, then it was my turn. I picked probably the shortest piece I could find so as to, as I put it, "not assault their ears with German for too long."

I had translated it with the help of Google translate and my own memories, and it turned out to be one of the craziest tiny stories, and it highlights how sensibilities change, but stay the same, across centuries and oceans. I was going to transcribe the whole thing here in German, and then put the loose translation along with it. Instead, here it is in English:

*

The Stubborn Child

There was once a stubborn child who didn't do what his mother wanted. This angered God, who let him get sick, so sick a doctor couldn't help, and soon they laid him down onto his deathbed. It was so that he was sunk into a grave and dirt thrown over it, but then his arms started to reach out of the dirt, so they threw more dirt on top, but it didn't help, and his arms kept trying to climb out. Then his mother had to come herself to the grave and beat his arms back with a metal rod, but he grabbed the rod and took her down into the grave with him, and finally he was able to find rest underground.

*

Mostly Grimms' Tales, in the original German or not smoothed over, are not really appropriate for little kids. Well, I guess that depends on how you feel about violence in today's America. Grimms' Tales though have violence and death and maiming but also lessons, ultimately, like "The Stubborn Child" here. It has what we consider zombie imagery mixed with the lesson of "do what your mom says or God will punish you" mixed with maybe how some parents of unruly kids may feel (being dragged into the grave). 

I didn't give my audience the translation beyond 'a stubborn kid doesn't do what his mother wants and get's punished', because I felt it may not be appropriate. I guess if any of the kids in the audience watch any television, they've probably been exposed to far more violent images that are in the story, but that realization came to me later.

That's the difference, I suppose, between scaring kids straight and desensitizing them.