Ummm... Ok...
So the other day I was discussing the sad reality of anti-Semitism and it's deep-rooted history. It started when a co-worker, who is amused by my range of weird and often non-useful knowledge gave me a topic to enlighten her upon. Fairy Tales.
Well, naturally the first thing that pops into my mind is the number of Grimm tales that have, over the years, been edited, changed (even by the Grimms themselves...) or outright deleted from the collection over the years. There were around 210 tales altogether in the last of the original volumes produced during the brothers' lifetimes. In current reprints, there's rarely over 50, and those have been watered, neutered and dissected.
And the most notable of all, in my opinion, as it shows in many ways the twisted rationalizations of not only anti-Semitism, but any broad hatred of a people, is
So I searched for it on Google.
Hmm. Nope. After a bit of research I saw it was listed under a different name in online texts. (I originally read it under this name in an old Grimm edition)
Okay, search under new name...
*blinkblink* Apparently I'm not nearly as much of a hateful, offensive person as I'm sometimes led to believe. I've never seen this before. So I pass the link on to my co-worker, who reads the story with a lot of interesting faces.... (if you haven't read it, you really should.... it's..... interesting. http://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/the_jew_among_thorns)
So, says I, what sort of other things are offensive besides thorns???
What about just a hole??
Hmm. Holes seem ok, what about the classic uncomfy maker, the oven?
Hmm. Apparently Jews in thorns is bad, but the Holocaust is funny... So how about dead Jews?
No humor, but not an "offensive result", either. Lesseee.... this should...
No? Oh, wait.... misspelling.
Yay! I'm offensive again!!!
*rolls eyes*. I am not anti-Semitic. I find people like that distasteful as do most people with an iota of human compassion. However, I really don't need my search engines to apologize for me... especially not only for certain words, when the others were equally questionable.
That is all from me and my little AH BEN TOUR.
Well, naturally the first thing that pops into my mind is the number of Grimm tales that have, over the years, been edited, changed (even by the Grimms themselves...) or outright deleted from the collection over the years. There were around 210 tales altogether in the last of the original volumes produced during the brothers' lifetimes. In current reprints, there's rarely over 50, and those have been watered, neutered and dissected.
And the most notable of all, in my opinion, as it shows in many ways the twisted rationalizations of not only anti-Semitism, but any broad hatred of a people, is
So I searched for it on Google.
Hmm. Nope. After a bit of research I saw it was listed under a different name in online texts. (I originally read it under this name in an old Grimm edition)
Okay, search under new name...
*blinkblink* Apparently I'm not nearly as much of a hateful, offensive person as I'm sometimes led to believe. I've never seen this before. So I pass the link on to my co-worker, who reads the story with a lot of interesting faces.... (if you haven't read it, you really should.... it's..... interesting. http://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/the_jew_among_thorns)
So, says I, what sort of other things are offensive besides thorns???
What about just a hole??
Hmm. Holes seem ok, what about the classic uncomfy maker, the oven?
Hmm. Apparently Jews in thorns is bad, but the Holocaust is funny... So how about dead Jews?
No humor, but not an "offensive result", either. Lesseee.... this should...
No? Oh, wait.... misspelling.
Yay! I'm offensive again!!!
*rolls eyes*. I am not anti-Semitic. I find people like that distasteful as do most people with an iota of human compassion. However, I really don't need my search engines to apologize for me... especially not only for certain words, when the others were equally questionable.
That is all from me and my little AH BEN TOUR.