Mother Goose, revisited...

[missroserose]

While shelf reading today, I came across an interesting little book called "Father Gander Nursery Rhymes," which advertised itself as being "Mother Goose Rewritten: Nonsexist, nonviolent, nonracist nursery rhymes for children of all ages," or something to that extent. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for promoting tolerance and equality and whatnot, but this is a symptom of something that's really bugged me for some time - what is with this obsession with rewriting traditional literature so that it's politically correct? Those poems have been with European and American culture for hundreds of years, in both oral and written form, and now someone has decided to rewrite them so that they fit the standards of society *now*. What they're missing is the fact that those poems are a window of sorts into a time and a culture that's now gone. When you declare them "unfit" for children who've been listening to them for centuries, you're depriving them of a part of their heiratage. No one's yet rewritten the Bible for being politically incorrect, and it serves much the same purpose - but people know not to take the messages of racism and sexual abuse and such seriously, because it's from a past culture. So in a way, we're also insulting our children's intelligence by saying that we don't trust them to understand that what was common then is no longer acceptable now.

That aside, however, there was one poem that cracked me up, and that I'll probably be posting in childfree:

There was an old couple who lived in a shoe
Who had so many children they didn't know what to do.
So they gave them some broth and some good whole wheat bread,
And kissed them all sweetly and sent them to bed.
But here's the one thing that I don't understand,
If they didn't want so many, why didn't they plan?

@->--Rose

Comments

[eventhewaves.livejournal.com]

I can reply to the entire first part -- about rewriting poems and things to reflect the *now* -- with a simple sentence. America, these days, seems a hell of a lot more concerned with the here and now than with anything that happened before, or anything that will happen in the future.

As a result, we seem to have gained the bizarre perspective that now is all that matters, so we'd better make sure everything is maximized for that effect. Witness, for instance, all of the endless remakes of old classics -- almost entirely unnecessary, almost all awful, but they sure can tell you a lot about the society producing them if you keep your eyes open.

> No one's yet rewritten the Bible for being politically incorrect, and it serves much the same purpose - but people know not to take the messages of racism and sexual abuse and such seriously, because it's from a past culture.

Well, some people know better than to take those messages seriously. It's the ones who are convinced that the Bible is 100% factual that you have to worry about...

> That aside, however, there was one poem that cracked me up, and that I'll probably be posting in childfree:

That's pretty funny stuff. Which reminds me that I still need to read that gag book of politically correct nursery rhymes I picked up while you were here... Maybe later.

--Brian

[hereticorp.livejournal.com]

It's more that people have apperently used up all the original ideas in the world and have to resort to re-writing old ideas with new prejudices.

The bible is actually an excelent example of this. The translations and translators are a rather fun thing to study.

The Poem: ROFL.

[errant-variable.livejournal.com]

Ive never run across a "politically correct" set of poems that ive been able to take seriously - it has to be a joke, y'know? Or at least thats the way it seems. Maybe ive just too steeped in the "incorrect" culture to understand it. Yeah, my whole life is wrong. FUCK YOU TOO!!!

*chuckle*