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I don’t know if you have ever read the real Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson instead of the Disnified version where everyone lives happily ever after once the evil sea witch is destroyed. Don't get me wrong, I like the Disney version, but there is a lot (of bad things) to be said for judging a book by its movie. In the original version, the little mermaid DIES after she is given the option to save herself by killing the prince and decides against it, but then she gets to be a lady of the air for three centuries where if she is good then she gets a soul and goes to heaven instead of being turned into sea foam like all other mermaids when they die.
The first time I read this was when I was in the second grade, and I bawled my head off for days. IT WAS SO UNFAIR. For some reason I have been thinking about the Little Mermaid off and on all day. I think I may need to revisit fairytales, because as a kid, you just take everything literally. Today I was thinking about cultural differences in the Little Mermaid and how an inability to communicate pretty much doomed the relationship. I also thought about how she was willing to sacrifice for something that she really wanted, and even in the end it wasn’t about satisfying her will but instead about expressing her love.
It irritates me that the prince never figured it out that she loved him and that he always saw her as some sort of lap dog or bosom buddy. Then again, I have to question the mermaid’s desire for something so far beyond her reach that she had to self-mutilate. It’s the knives, though, that really made an impression on me. She loved the prince so much that she endured this constant stabbing pain in her legs to be with him, and he was completely oblivious all the while, since she had no way to tell him without a tongue (oh yes – in the real version the witch viciously cuts out her tongue and doesn’t just take her voice by magic). When I was a kid, I always wondered why she couldn’t just DRAW HIM A PICTURE that conveyed the message “Look you goon, for me to be here with you there are knives stabbing me in the legs and I will die if you do not marry me within three days. Also, I love you, and you love me but are too dumb to recognize me or my love. It was I who saved your life, not that other xxxxx who just happened to find you after I did all of the work.”
The moral of the story: women will always do stupid stuff to get men’s attention, and men will always go for the one with the biggest boobs, although a mute is a close second.
Question: Guys, are you really that s-l-o-w when it comes to such things?
The first time I read this was when I was in the second grade, and I bawled my head off for days. IT WAS SO UNFAIR. For some reason I have been thinking about the Little Mermaid off and on all day. I think I may need to revisit fairytales, because as a kid, you just take everything literally. Today I was thinking about cultural differences in the Little Mermaid and how an inability to communicate pretty much doomed the relationship. I also thought about how she was willing to sacrifice for something that she really wanted, and even in the end it wasn’t about satisfying her will but instead about expressing her love.
It irritates me that the prince never figured it out that she loved him and that he always saw her as some sort of lap dog or bosom buddy. Then again, I have to question the mermaid’s desire for something so far beyond her reach that she had to self-mutilate. It’s the knives, though, that really made an impression on me. She loved the prince so much that she endured this constant stabbing pain in her legs to be with him, and he was completely oblivious all the while, since she had no way to tell him without a tongue (oh yes – in the real version the witch viciously cuts out her tongue and doesn’t just take her voice by magic). When I was a kid, I always wondered why she couldn’t just DRAW HIM A PICTURE that conveyed the message “Look you goon, for me to be here with you there are knives stabbing me in the legs and I will die if you do not marry me within three days. Also, I love you, and you love me but are too dumb to recognize me or my love. It was I who saved your life, not that other xxxxx who just happened to find you after I did all of the work.”
The moral of the story: women will always do stupid stuff to get men’s attention, and men will always go for the one with the biggest boobs, although a mute is a close second.
Question: Guys, are you really that s-l-o-w when it comes to such things?
. You need to relax. Breathe in.....Breather out....Go to your happy place....aaaaah.....
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