Oranges and lemons
Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's
You owe me five farthings, say the bells of St. Martin's
When will you pay me, say the bells of Old Bailey
When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch
When will that be, say the bells of Stepney
I'm sure I don't know, says the Great Bell at Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head
Chop chop chop chop - the last man's head!
I was eating a clementine (buy 1 free 1 from Sainsbury's!) when this old rhyme came into my head. Ever noticed how so many nursery rhymes and childrens' stories have a sinister/violent/at least mildly disturbing element to them? Just to name a few: Humpty Dumpty who fell off the wall and couldn't be 'put together again'... Jack and Jill climbing up a hill to fetch water, only for Jack to fall down and break his crown and Jill come tumbling after... Old Mother Hubbard who went to buy bread for her dog but when she got home the dog was dead, and later after coming home from the undertaker's the dog was laughing???? Or the three blind mice whose tails got cut off with a carving knife? Or a baby falling from its cradle in 'Rock-a-bye Baby'? What about the old woman who lived in a shoe, who gave her children broth without bread and spanked them before sending them off to bed?? HELLO?!?!?! Does anyone else feel and share my concern for the kind of stuff our children are being taught and exposed to at such a tender age??
Lol. 'Emo sial...'
You owe me five farthings, say the bells of St. Martin's
When will you pay me, say the bells of Old Bailey
When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch
When will that be, say the bells of Stepney
I'm sure I don't know, says the Great Bell at Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head
Chop chop chop chop - the last man's head!
I was eating a clementine (buy 1 free 1 from Sainsbury's!) when this old rhyme came into my head. Ever noticed how so many nursery rhymes and childrens' stories have a sinister/violent/at least mildly disturbing element to them? Just to name a few: Humpty Dumpty who fell off the wall and couldn't be 'put together again'... Jack and Jill climbing up a hill to fetch water, only for Jack to fall down and break his crown and Jill come tumbling after... Old Mother Hubbard who went to buy bread for her dog but when she got home the dog was dead, and later after coming home from the undertaker's the dog was laughing???? Or the three blind mice whose tails got cut off with a carving knife? Or a baby falling from its cradle in 'Rock-a-bye Baby'? What about the old woman who lived in a shoe, who gave her children broth without bread and spanked them before sending them off to bed?? HELLO?!?!?! Does anyone else feel and share my concern for the kind of stuff our children are being taught and exposed to at such a tender age??
Lol. 'Emo sial...'
Labels: thinkingoutloud
posted by may at 1:19 AM
3 Comments:
I DO..I've always thought that, too! It's like I used to say.."Rub a dub-dub, three men in a TUB???" Hmmmmm *raised eyebrows*
And look..not just rhymes, man, but what about all the classic "children"'s fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Cinderella, Red Dancing Shoes (?). Like, don't think they were called the Bros Grimm for nuthin'!
Either the people of that time had a seriously morbid outlook in life or they used this cover-up to express their dissatisfaction with the establishment of the day. Evil stepmother=autocratic new government, maybe?
Hate to say this, but reading Enid Blytons again at this age also make me go "Wha?" a lot of the time. Telling kids who make faces that they would stay that way when the wind changed direction/turning children into pigs after a gluttony tea-party can be funny but a tad weird, too.
-My ha'penny's worth-
Ah.. kids nowadays are sissies.. everything has to be oh-so-politically correct for them. There isn't any edginess anymore in children entertainment. Look at what we had as kids: really f-ed up fairy tales, disney films, poems.
Today: harry potter dan rakan rakan
wtf???
Classic examples in Disney animations:
Little children smoking cigars and turning into donkeys in horror! (pinocchio)
Bong smoking, insanity caused by lead-lined hats, dictators who behead their subjects (alice in wonderland)
oh yeah.. do you know that in the original bro. grimm story, the stepsisters of Cinderella cut off the back of their ankle with a scalpel just so their foot could fit in the shoe? There was even a children's programme in the 80's that graphically showed that scene. "what's the hell????" was probably my reaction then. =P
My conclusion? We only start to realise the morbidity in fairy tales because EVERYTHING presented to children nowadays has to be bright and sunny and PC.
My action plan? Force your kids/future kids to watch/read the classics so that we don't raise a generation of wusses or worse... metrosexuals!
Nursery rhymes were often very political or relating to current events. For example, 'Ring around the rosey, pocket full of posies, ashes ashes we all fall down' refers to the bubonic plague; ring around the rosey describes the symptoms of the disease; posies were thought to ward off plague; ashes describe the burning of bodies to prevent further spread. You can find most of these meanings on the internet.
I think Grimm's fairy tales were meant to scare little children senseless. Like at the end of Cinderella when the wicket stepsisters cut off their toes to try and fit the slippers, and when their eyes are plucked out by birds - that's probably a not-so-subtle warning against vanity, dishonesty, cruelty, etc.
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