Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Hans Christian Anderson

When I was a child, I was drowned with storybooks galore... I have the a whole collection in which is now collecting dust in a shelf hidden in my storeroom. With my very bad habit (but I think its a good one) of having books to "accompany" my toilet time, I decided to bring one of those unfinished collections in for a flip. Out of the lot, I pick out Hans Christian Andersons collection of stories which included The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Lil TinSoldier and a whole lot more...


As I read through those wonderful stories, I realised they still hold some truth in the lessons that we are still learning today. Take for example, The story of the Emporer's New Clothes. The naked truth is that we believe in what others think and no matter how foolish it was, we are blinded by the fact that we believe in even a myth than trusting our own instincts. Sad but true. We listen to what seemed to be the "acceptable view" and never even question it, worried about being the "odd one out". In this case, a child asked the most simplistic question and shamed the king and his men!

How about the story of the Fir Tree where he longed to be what he heard from the sparrow and worst, he wished that he was chopped down just so that he could "experience" what other "fir trees" have. At the end of the day it was nothing to shout about rather, it hurt him so much more... We longed to be all but ourselves and we are never grateful for who we are until we experience it but too late, we've crossed the line!

Oh and my personal favourite during puberty was "The Ugly Duckling"... I wonder if I have ever turned into swan (I hope, cross me fingers)but we all judge one another by the way someone looks don't we? We talk about their apperance not knowing whats within and they turn out to be the great and amazing people...

We have heard these stories a million times and they possess beautiful messages yet, today, these are the very lessons we fail to learn! Is it just us or is it our human nature, that we never are able to learn from our mistakes? Or is our dear author so divine that he could forsee that in us? The best part, such stories speak to me so much as a gay guy and to my suprise to find Hans Anderson a Bi!

13 comments:

[SK] said...

wow, you are so multi-tasking, reading while poo-ing, and at the same time, thinking as well!! haha :p

MrBunnyBan said...

Okay, now I've got very salah images of you reading on the toilet in my head. Eeeee.

The moral of these stories are easier to understand when put to real life examples, imo.

^^WiLLY LaM^^ said...

oh, you wish to transform into swam as well? can try to get advice from sotongzai and daren... they are great teachers ^_^

i love story books though, because the moral from those stories are easier to understand, as Ban commented ^_^

Little Dove said...

I love Hans. The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Snow Queen, The Little Match Girl were all moving stories for my childhood. Disney captured the essence of The Ugly Duckling story with this cartoon that won itself an Oscar. I could never forget this story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW_bbTpYXgA

JD Cole said...

hurmmmm which fable story do i like??

cinderella i guees...very gay, i know~!! wakakaka ;P

Glog said...

SK: Of all places... that the only one I can multi task in!!!

Ban: Stop imagining!!!

Willy's Diary: I wanna be a swan not a swam... Yeah I love stories like that too...

Lil Dove: My goodness... you and I also sama-sama disney fan...
thanks for sharing!

JD Cole: Ish... Kenot... Cinderella is me... you can be the step mother...

joshua said...

His actual version of The Little Mermaid is so OMG so sad I almost cried when I found that it was so different from Disney's. I felt cheated.

Okay, I was barely a tween then. lol

Glog said...

Joshua: thank god disney changed it cos I only believe in happy ever after and ever ever and ever ever...

Anonymous Blogger said...

Hey bud

to keep it honest, I didn't get a chance to read your post but I wanted to swing buy and take a look around. I responded to your comment on my blog. But are you vietnamese?? I noticed that you had something about pinkville on the bar to my right. haha.

Anonymous Blogger said...

oh wait i take it back, pinkville is the name of another blog. Sorry, that might of confused you. haha. but hope to hear from you soon.

Chris said...

oh? who is him ar? Never heard b4. :p

Glog said...

Dear Anonymous Blogger, thanks for dropping by and don't feel bad about not reading my ever so long posts... Am not vietnamese though how do you know from that tiny lil picture i have???

Chris: How can you not know Han? You need some hot guy to sit by your bedside and read you those lovely stories!

Reszurrecdito M. d'Saintner said...

Wow, you are also a book worm hor. I also have got a lot of book, all of which are now collecting dust. But then, I occasionally refer to them, even though they are not related to the work I am doing now.