[Thoughts] Cursed Sinuses, Let Me THINK.
Welcome to the second edition of:
The School of SRS Thought For SRS People
Brought to you by...Me.
And today's subject is: Stone Soup.
I know what you may be thinking. "Stone Soup? Why on earth would you want to talk about such a thing?"
Or...you're thinking nothing of the sort, but it was worth a shot because there's no turning back now.
But what I'm talking about is a story. A fairy tale, a short thing of words that last a span of a few pages for children to read and enjoy without realizing the hidden depths of its meaning. And like most stories, there are different versions of it available, but they all pretty much say the same thing.
The one version I remember clearly is about a poor boy who is starving for a meal and sets out to beg for food. As usual, this does not work as planned. Everyone is either just as poor or ignoring him outright as he passes through the town. For some strange reason, he stops to pick up a stone along the road and keep it on his person, probably as a weapon or something because there are dangers and he's left to fend for himself, why not. So basically after a fail session of walking and begging, it looks like he's going to starve again for the umpteenth time in a row...
...Until he happens upon an old woman's lonely ramshackle cottage.
Perhaps he's in luck! Old women are generally good and kind-hearted people, right? He'll get a meal and things will be good! BUT NO he is wronger than wrong. The old lady (or witch - she had that vibe to her) tells him to get off her lawn, saying that she has nothing in her pantries and whatever. Of course, he somehow manages to persuade her to let him stay for a bit, sighing as he emos wistfully wishes he can have...stone soup.
The old lady is intrigued by this. So she starts asking questions about the soup, wondering how you can get everything from a single stone ("Soup from a stone! Well, fancy that.") and the beggar lad obliges, giving her some instruction on how to set it all up. Hint: it starts with a cauldron full of water and a rock. It just needs some bulk. Amazingly, she does have stuff lying around her cottage (including some old bones from the dog house - eeeeh yeah) and the soup is made. They share it and eat their fill, ending this story on a light note since they hung out so much during this time. And the boy takes his stone with him to journey onward.
"So yes, that was a lovely story, Monch, but what is the moral of the story?"
Good character and wit makes for good company and soup?
A little goes a long way?
No.
The moral of the story is this: with the right kind of subtle manipulation, you can dupe anybody into doing things for you without being directly obvious about it.
...WELL, IT COULD BE.
Another version I remember well is a Disney story book one, except it's centered around Daisy Duck who uses a button to manipulate dear old Uncle Scrooge McDuck into making some soup for her and everyone else in the area. But this is not too far an interpretation of her character, really.
But seriously, you can look at this and go "Aw, what a nice story" or say "Hey, he did not- he did, didn't he? He just made the old woman use her rations for the coming winter! Now what will she do?!" Whether or not he would be able to strike again is unknown. "But it's just a story, why bother interpreting it in any other way?" Because adults can read into things that children easily gloss over, screwing with everything that has been known all along!! And this is why we can't have nice things!!!
...Yes. Anyway.
How you view this story is up to you.
This concludes our SRS School of Thought for SRS People.
The School of SRS Thought For SRS People
Brought to you by...Me.
And today's subject is: Stone Soup.
I know what you may be thinking. "Stone Soup? Why on earth would you want to talk about such a thing?"
Or...you're thinking nothing of the sort, but it was worth a shot because there's no turning back now.
But what I'm talking about is a story. A fairy tale, a short thing of words that last a span of a few pages for children to read and enjoy without realizing the hidden depths of its meaning. And like most stories, there are different versions of it available, but they all pretty much say the same thing.
The one version I remember clearly is about a poor boy who is starving for a meal and sets out to beg for food. As usual, this does not work as planned. Everyone is either just as poor or ignoring him outright as he passes through the town. For some strange reason, he stops to pick up a stone along the road and keep it on his person, probably as a weapon or something because there are dangers and he's left to fend for himself, why not. So basically after a fail session of walking and begging, it looks like he's going to starve again for the umpteenth time in a row...
...Until he happens upon an old woman's lonely ramshackle cottage.
Perhaps he's in luck! Old women are generally good and kind-hearted people, right? He'll get a meal and things will be good! BUT NO he is wronger than wrong. The old lady (or witch - she had that vibe to her) tells him to get off her lawn, saying that she has nothing in her pantries and whatever. Of course, he somehow manages to persuade her to let him stay for a bit, sighing as he emos wistfully wishes he can have...stone soup.
The old lady is intrigued by this. So she starts asking questions about the soup, wondering how you can get everything from a single stone ("Soup from a stone! Well, fancy that.") and the beggar lad obliges, giving her some instruction on how to set it all up. Hint: it starts with a cauldron full of water and a rock. It just needs some bulk. Amazingly, she does have stuff lying around her cottage (including some old bones from the dog house - eeeeh yeah) and the soup is made. They share it and eat their fill, ending this story on a light note since they hung out so much during this time. And the boy takes his stone with him to journey onward.
"So yes, that was a lovely story, Monch, but what is the moral of the story?"
Good character and wit makes for good company and soup?
A little goes a long way?
No.
The moral of the story is this: with the right kind of subtle manipulation, you can dupe anybody into doing things for you without being directly obvious about it.
...WELL, IT COULD BE.
Another version I remember well is a Disney story book one, except it's centered around Daisy Duck who uses a button to manipulate dear old Uncle Scrooge McDuck into making some soup for her and everyone else in the area. But this is not too far an interpretation of her character, really.
But seriously, you can look at this and go "Aw, what a nice story" or say "Hey, he did not- he did, didn't he? He just made the old woman use her rations for the coming winter! Now what will she do?!" Whether or not he would be able to strike again is unknown. "But it's just a story, why bother interpreting it in any other way?" Because adults can read into things that children easily gloss over, screwing with everything that has been known all along!! And this is why we can't have nice things!!!
...Yes. Anyway.
How you view this story is up to you.
This concludes our SRS School of Thought for SRS People.