I've been reading to Zach at bedtime since he was a baby. Only the books have changed. He likes a wide variety of subjects, from fantasy to adventure and even classics like "Old Man and the Sea".Currently we're plowing our way story by story through a collection of old children's fairy tales. You've no doubt heard the names of these stories, but if your only exposure to them is through the syrupy censorship of Disney, you've never really experienced them. Most of these old yarns seem to be aimed at scaring the living shit out of children to keep them from wandering into the woods. Disobeying parents also typically results in a gruesome death.
We just finished "Jack The Giant Killer", which I think is an early form of "Jack and the Beanstalk", as the two stores (both of which are in this book) seem to share basic elements. If "Jack The Giant Killer" was ever made into a movie, it would basically be a hack and slash type gore-fest. The protagonist acquires a cloak of invisibility and a sword of sharpness and goes around the countryside killing giants in the most unholy and sadistic ways, severing their heads and sending them to King Arthur as proof of his great accomplishments. There is a minor subplot about a local duke and his wife who befriend Jack and beg him not to get himself into more danger, but this just coaxes Jack to lure a particularly nasty two-headed giant over to the Duke's castle and slay it in front of a few dozen astonished dinner guests. This is the giant who famously says "Fa Fe Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman." right before Jack dispatches him (them?). And that's pretty much the plot. Jack's huge advantage of invisibility and a sharp weapon pretty much guarantees he's going to win every battle with ease.
Other tales we've read in this book include "The Girl with the Golden Locks", which doesn't resemble Goldilocks at all, and "The Golden Goose" that does not lay golden eggs. And then there was "Bluebeard", a tale about a creepy guy with, you guessed it, a blue beard, who murders his wives and stuffs them into a closet. He gives his new young wife keys to the house and specifically tells her to never go into that closet under the stairs and then goes out of town. So you can imagine what happens. She unlocks the closet, finds the gory bodies, Bluebeard comes home and finds out she was in the closet, and, well, you'll just have to read the ending. If you dare. That particular story, with it's very graphic depiction of dismemberment and murder, scared the bejeezus out of Zach. Bluebeard was supposedly modeled after Gilles de Rais, go read about him too. If you dare.
It is enlightening to read these original tales and realize that long before television and video games, our kids were subjected to large heaping servings of violence and death on a daily basis. And right at bedtime too.
