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Author
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Comment
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AlisonPegg
Registered User
(4/19/03 12:49 pm)
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Hans Andersen to Garcia Marquez - the verdict on "great
Is my impression correct that Hans Andersen is somewhat out of favour with people here? And if so, why should that be?
Are some of his over sentimental tales too sweet for current tastes?
Or is it to do with his religious/Christian bias?
Or is it simply that everyone has lauded him for so long that folk have grown sick hearing how brilliant the man is?
For myself, Hans Andersen remains one of the "greats", just as I know with complete certainty Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a "great" and will live on in the future.( here I'm thinking esp of "Love in the Time of Cholera" and "Of Love and Other Demons")
I'm not sure what the criteria for "greatness" are. Only that you recognize it instantly when you see it. And when a writer influences the way other writers write, that surely must be one definition of it.
You can see the influence of Hans Andersen in Peter Hoeg's beautiful "Tales of the Night" and in Rose Tremain's "Music and Silence" and again possibly in "Tales of Ice and Fire".
So.... what are your thougts on Andersen? A "great" or not?
Alison
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(4/19/03 2:18 pm)
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Hans Christian Andersen
Alison,
I'm not sure where the impression came from that the board doesn't like HCA. I think most people here are fans of HCA; he just doesn't get discussed very often. Perhaps that is my fault since the SurLaLune doesn't offer much about him, except for the Princess and the Pea and the Wild Swans (under Six Swans). I am not a huge fan of HCA personally, but have come to appreciate him more and more over the years. The only stories I liked as a child were Princess and the Pea and the Ugly Duckling. The others were disturbing to me and are still not particular favorites--I didn't find them sweet, but depressing as a child. Also, for some reason, most of the tales were not on my bookshelf and I didn't become famililar with them at an early age. I *gasp* had never read "The Little Mermaid" before the Disney movie came out.
However, I am working on adding an HCA area to SurLaLune which will feature the tales, modern interpretations, and book gallery pages for some of his most popular tales. The tales themselves will not be annotated since I am still annotating existing tales, slowly but surely. Snow White was just finished last week after a long wait.
But yes, I think HCA is great; history and his continued popularity also support that assumption.
Heidi
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Kevin
Smith
Registered User
(4/23/03 1:39 am)
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Not my favourite
I never liked him, even as a child. His endings rely on "and then they died and went to heaven where everything was alright" too much for me (I have the same problem with some of Wilde's tales).
Or maybe they were too sad, but either way. Not for me.
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AlisonPegg
Registered User
(4/23/03 9:27 am)
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Death - the last taboo?
Well... Your responses are interesting as always. But I suspect the lack of enthusiasm for Hans Andersen may have more to do with modern attitudes to death than a true appraisal of him as a writer.
When we can no longer look forward to lying with our ancestors in a familiar churchyard and death is something hidden in crematoria in the subburbs, maybe it's become the last taboo.
Yes, we can talk all we like about sex and violence and find it in everything we read if we choose, but death, no.....! That's a closed book.
I remember reading a Grimms' story about death being caught in a bag and hung up in a tree. I bet that doesn't appear in any story collection for children now! Yet there was a lot of wisdom in that story and I have never forgotten it.
Alison
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(4/23/03 10:59 am)
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Death
While I would agree that death is taboo and avoided in our society, I wouldn't consider it the reason why I (and others) don't care as much for Andersen. I agree that I don't care for the way death is handled in some of his stories, especially in Steadfast Tin Soldier and Little Match Girl, but I also have several favorite stories about death from childhood, including the Jack tale you mentioned with death tied up in the tree. And parents do seek out the original Little Mermaid and other tales in the library so they can share the stories with their children. Andersen just has a saccharine aftertaste for me in these stories.
I particularly disliked the Little Match Girl. The story always seemed to celebrate society's neglect of homeless children and their subsequent deaths--perhaps we should let them all freeze so they can go live with the dead grandmothers! Horrible thought for me as a child or an adult! I know there are other messages in the story, but my personal reaction to the tale from the first time I read it was utter horror for the callousness of society, not the death story.
But overall, it is the tone and themes of some of the stories, not the theme of death in general--which I find offputting. However, I do think Andersen was a master storyteller and deserves honor for his work.
Heidi
Edited by: Heidi Anne Heiner at: 4/23/03 1:45:26 pm
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AlisonPegg
Registered User
(4/24/03 12:23 am)
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Death and the Match Girl
Yes, well I do have to agree with you totally about The Little Match Girl story. I never liked it either. There are stories there you just can't defend.
But the main body of his work shows such originality and contains so many beautiful images, that I think you can forgive him for having a few off days!
I am very pleased that you are planning to have more about Hans Andersen here on the SurLaLune site. I look forward to it.
Alison
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(4/25/03 9:59 am)
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HCA another view
First, you must place HCA (a genius, if a flawed human being) smack in the middle of his era, with its emphasis on child saints and hard morals.
Second, you must remember that you are reading work done by translators who often have their own agendas.
Third, remember that we need to look at the bulk of his work (astonishing) and then individual stories (some good, some bad, some awful.) A few of my favorites are "The Nightingale," "The Fisherman and His Shadow," "The Fir Tree," "The Little Mermaid." I hated "Little Matchgirl" and "The Red Shoes."
Maurice Sendak has had some very harsh words for HCA, but I count him the granddaddy of art fairy tales.
And I have a picture book biography coming out next year--or 2005--called THE PERFECT WIZARD. Which he had been called.
Jane
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AlisonPegg
Registered User
(4/25/03 10:16 am)
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Brilliant but flawed?
Hi Jane,
Well, I'm not against flawed human beings or hard morals for that matter! But what you say is interesting.
I also loved the Nightingale story. Must be one of the most beautiful ever written I think. But I also loved the Red Shoes. Maybe because my mother is still very obviously wearing her Red Shoes! In fact I think the Red Shoes is very apt to today's obsession with work. Once that little engine gets going in the mind, it's very difficult to stop it!
Anyway I look forward very much to The Perfect Wizard!
Alison
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(4/25/03 4:16 pm)
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Re: Brilliant but flawed?
I always loved Inchelina - or Thumbelina. We had a record of it and I used to listen to it again and again. I also loved the Nightingale, and the Emperor's New Clothes. And I still do.
Laura Mc
Edited by: Laura McCaffrey at: 4/25/03 4:18:20 pm
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(4/26/03 5:19 am)
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Of course
I would have added Emperor's New Clothes and Thumbelina to my favorites list had I been awake when I was writing the above post!
Jane
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Jess
Unregistered User
(4/26/03 9:12 am)
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HCA
My introduction to fairy tales was HCA. My mother had one book left from her childhood and it was a volume of HCA tales. I still have that book and I treasure it. The pages that are most dog-eared though are around "The Seven Swans." I loved that tale and it was his version that I first read/heard. As a child, I hated "The Snow Queen" and "The Little Mermaid", but I loved "The Nightengale" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". What child doesn't like adults making fools of themselves only to be revealed by a child?
What is interesting to me as an adult is the anti-age of enlightment/rationalism take that HCA makes in so many of his tales. Many of the tales remind me of Dickens that way. Interestingly, since I was raised more in the rationalism mode, I now understand why I disliked SQ and LMermaid as child...they were opposed to the type of logic and realism my parents were teaching me.
Jess
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