Dreadful, dreadful indeed are the stories from some children's books. Books with stories of evil fairies, with tales of witches and demons, with burning death and horrifying men... Do you know Heinrich Hoffman's "Struwwelpeter"? Shock-headed Peter's the English title. It was by far my most favourite book when I was younger and I still remember it... I wonder why.
Infamous for it's dark appearance and dark ways to teach morale to children, it has been criticized to no end. But its sort-of unique dark humour made it a success on Broadway and many people love it, for it has scared its way to many minds of the world, including mine.
Snip! Snap! Snip! the scissors go;
And Conrad cries out - Oh! Oh! Oh!
Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast;
That both his thumbs are off at last.
I've already expressed my opinion on people who ruin their imago with one very false move or decision or with a single unsightly detail. But that nuances-thing works the other way around equally well...
Have you ever seen an ugly duckling with something so mesmerizing about it that you can't help but forget all its faultiness? And what's more - sometimes you'll just end up liking not what you are used to, but the very same deviations from your imagined model of perfection you are used to despise. Of course being the horrible person that I am, I would never forgive chubbiness for example, but anything else - I could, I think. That old man in the bus, if you remember... What I liked about him was his wretched appearance, his closeness to lifelessness. Even that can be appealing...
Although maybe it's a general thing I like? Weakness, frailty, and porcelain dolls...
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