Author: Fardels Bear

Ceci n'est pas un ours.

Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures

Adults had some strange ideas about what children should read in the 19th century. The cautionary tale, with appropriate punishments for transgression of the Christian moral code, served as both a warning and (theoretically) an entertainment. Only a milksop, goody-two-shoes could possibly find them readable. Heinrich Hoffmann (1809-1894) stands head and shoulders above these authors, satirising the genre in full Swiftian mode. The clue’s in the subtitle. Der Struwwelpeter (Shock-Headed Peter) kicks up the punishment dial to 11. Most of his subjects die horribly, or are dreadfully mutilated, for minor infractions of social etiquette. And apparently his book was hugely popular with children, who know a good thing when they see it.

Here’s the introduction, with links to individual poems.

Title Page

CONTENTS

Merry Stories And Funny Pictures

Shock-headed Peter

Cruel Frederick

The Dreadful Story of Harriet and the Matches

The Story of the Inky Boys

The Story of the Man that went out Shooting

The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb

The Story of Augustus, who would not have any Soup

The Story of Fidgety Philip

The Story of Johnny Head-in-Air

The Story of Flying Robert

It’s not surprising that The Tiger Lillies, who I saw twice in Seattle, gleefully seized on Shockheaded Peter and created a stage show based on these tales. Here’s a clip.

The Ideas of March

People tell me that blogs are coming back into fashion as the Fediverse takes on the big beasts of corporate social media. As a Mastodon user since November 2022, I’m chuffed pink at the thought of Elon Musk running Twitter into the ground, and us mopping up those of its users who aren’t racists, bigots and xenophobes. It won’t happen that way, of course, because Twitter is too big, and many good people there have a community and connections they don’t want to lose. But I’m glad we’re there for them when they’ve had enough egotistical bullshit from Himself.

So it seems like a good time to resurrect this blog, which I started in 2020 and made little progress with. I’ve deleted the four posts I wrote then and reused the media on Mastodon because I hate things going to waste. My other WordPress blog is a huge, bloated wreck, breached on the rocks of another life. I hope to salvage useful items from it, like a latter-day Robinson Crusoe.

Why ‘Belated Leap’? As a procrastinator, it seems appropriate, and the words sound well together. It will be a generalist blog, unfocused as hell, but with a strong interest in art, books, photography, film, television, politics and social issues. I’ll be posting links to the Fediverse at:

@riggbeck@mastodon.social

@riggbeck@mas.to

@riggbeck@troet.cafe

I don’t know yet if those links will work.

I’ve mostly forgotten how WordPress works so it will be a learning curve, but I’ll try to post something every day. In the meantime, have a happy Ides of March and always believe your spouse when they have dire premonitions about you going to work.

Till next time, have some Magic Flute.