Reading into Things

This painting is called Dutch Proverbs by artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder in 1559. It contains pleasant peasants, showing over 100 proverbs. It is located in Staatliche Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany. A few of the proverbs are "The die is cast," It depends on how the cards fall," and "The big fish eat small." But I think I can find evidence of fairy tales in this painting. I can see Cinderella carrying out her daily chores, or the wicked step-mother preparing her step-son for her husband's stew. The three little pigs are there with their mother as the Little Mermaid's Prince sails out to sea. How many others can you find?
http://www.windowslivetranslator.com/BV.aspx?ref=Internal#http://www.pieter-bruegel.com/proverbe/explication3.htm

Dutch Fairy Tales

The link to these tales and others is: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/dutch/griffis/santaklaas.html



The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese is very similar to Andersen's Red Shoes. In both, the children get much more than they asked for. Klaas Van Bommel loves cheese, his family is rich and they have plenty off other foods, but all he wants is cheese. Fairies carry him into a dreamland where he gets all the cheese he can stand. I think we've all been there... Just when he thinks he's going to explode, he wakes up from his dairy driven dream. I can see how overindulgence in cheese would be a real problem for Dutch parents and children. I was there on my honeymoon and it was a real problem for us (I love cheese and chocolate- Heaven!).

I also read the Dutch version of the Santa Claus tale, it makes for interesting reading. My husband and I happened to be honeymooning in Amsterdam the week before Dutch Christmas which is celebrated on Dec. 6. We were shopping at a various street markets when we wandered onto the BIG Christmas parade of the season. Sinter Klaas arrives on a white horse on a canal boat by way of the Amstel River. He is handed the key to the city, so he can deliver the toys the the children (no chimneys for this Santa). He then rides his horse off the boat and through St. Nicholas Square where his helpers, the black peters, throw cookies and treats to the children. The black peters, De Zwete Zwaren, are literally white people in black face and they wear black gloves to cover their hands (this would be unthinkable in the US!) It was a little weird, but a lot of fun!

Children, Books and Nature

When I was a child, my whole world revolved around nature and books. We lived on a lot of undeveloped land and I was free to explore and learn, hands on, about my world. When I couldn't get outdoors, or when I was traveling, I would read instead. It fulfilled the same purpose, I read to explore and learn about life. And in some ways, books resemble nature. Both can be wild, raw, soothing and enlightening. Each removed me from my ordinary world and transported me into my imagination. I find no irony in the fact that I am an English lit major or that I am also a nature photographer ( I spent two years in Yellowstone with nothing but a camera and a trunk full of books). Books and nature were portals to something much larger than myself, and they remain so. The good ones, anyway!

Displaced Fairy Tale

Ernie Davis, All-American Half Back, Dies at 23

Ernie Davis, as a senior for Syracuse University, was the first African-American to win the coveted Heisman Trophy Award. He was a three-sport standout in high school and a two-time All-American halfback at Syracuse who lead them to their only national championship title in football. He died of complications resulting from leukemia. He was just 23 years old.

Davis was born on Dec. 14, 1939, in New Salem, Pa. and grew up in the deep poverty of Pennsylvania’s coal-belt. His parents separated shortly after his birth, and after his father died in a terrible car accident, he was raised by his mother and step-father in Elmira, New York. He played basketball, baseball and football and he excelled in all three, earning 11 letters from Elmira Free Academy. He chose to try on football, making it his focus when he attended Syracuse University in 1958.

In the National Title game, Syracuse beat Texas 23-14,and Davis scored two touchdowns and had a Cotton Bowl record breaking 87-yard reception. He was selected the game’s Most Valuable Player despite having played the entire game with a pulled hamstring. Davis was supposed to receive his Most Valuable Player award at the awards banquet that night, but bowl officials told him that only white players were invited to the ball. He would have to leave after picking up his trophy, and consequently the Syracuse team refused to go to the banquet.

Despite the events at the Cotton Bowl, Davis became the nation's third-leading rusher, running for 877 yards and a school-record 7.8 yards per carry as he was voted a two-time All-American. In 1961 he became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy award. Davis remarked on the occasion, “Winning the Heisman Trophy is something you just dream about, you never think it could happen to you.”

Before he passed away on May 18, 1963, Ernie wrote an article for the Saturday Evening Post in which he remarked, “Some people say I am unlucky. I don't believe it. And I don't want to sound as if I am particularly brave or unusual. Sometimes I still get down, and sometimes I feel sorry for myself. Nobody is just one thing all the time. But when I look back I can't call myself unlucky. My 23rd birthday was December 14. In these years I have had more than most people get in a lifetime.”

Family and friends are invited to visit Faith Temple Community C.O.G.I.C, Harper St., Elmira on Friday, May 22nd from 6 to 9 pm. His funeral service will be held there on Saturday, May 23rd at 10 am. Rev. James E. Jones, her Pastor, will officiate. Committal prayers and interment will follow in Woodlawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, those wishing may remember Ernie through donations to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Central NY Chapter, 401 N. Salina St., Learbury Centre, Suite 304, Syracuse, NY 13203.

My First Time...Blogging!

It took me a little while to get the hang of this, but I think we're off and running now! So far I have been devouring fairy tales like they're going out of style. But I have found, through my eclectic reading habits, that most novels and short stories I have read are founded on a myth or fairy tale. For example, read Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick or Lonely No More and try NOT to think about Hansel and Gretel. Or try Galapagos and DON'T refer to Adam and Eve's temptation and fall. It's impossible to do so and whether Vonnegut intended to allude to myths and fairy tales is unknown, but it makes for some interesting close readings of his many influential novels.