|
Author
|
Comment
|
ChrisCalabrese
Registered User
(6/3/02 10:53:04 am)
|
Baron Von Munchausen Tales
I'd appreciate any input (which from this group is always excellent) on this. . . particularly in light of how the medical profession has used Munchausen's by proxy for child abuse.
I'm just reading the Armless Maiden. . .a jewel.
Chris
|
Gregor9
Registered User
(6/4/02 8:52:10 am)
|
Re: Baron Von Munchausen Tales
I have an old hardcover of Munchausen Tales. The world's grandest liar.
If I remember the psychological "by proxy" diagnosis, it says there are mothers who abuse/harm/poison their children in order to gain attention and sympathy for themselves--is that correct?
Greg
|
Judith
Berman
Registered User
(6/7/02 6:09:16 am)
|
Re: Baron Von Munchausen Tales
Greg, is this the same as the book I have, THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN? Mine was published by "Illustrated Editions Company," New York, with illos by Gustave Dore, and no discernible publication date, though the look of it suggests an inexpensive ca. 1920 reprint of an older publication. The "portrait" of the baron bears a striking resemblance to Munchausen in the Gilliam movie...
There was also an animated movie a few years back of one of the fairy tales that shows up in the Gilliam movie (a Russian one, featuring the three helpers/servants who can hear best, run fastest, etc.) which is very hazy in my mind at the moment except for the fact that Robin Williams was one of the voices.
Judith
|
Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(6/7/02 10:50:00 am)
|
Re: Baron Von Munchausen Tales
Rabbit Ears Radio did an audio version of the Russian folk tale THE FOOL AND THE FLYING SHIP - which doesn't mention Munchausen but does have the extrordinary hearer, eater, strong man, etc. Robin Williams did the reading. Perhaps you're thinking of a Rabbit Ears Video version of this?
Laura Mc
|
Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(6/8/02 2:35:28 am)
|
Answer
Nope, Laura--in the Terry Gilliam directed Von Munchausen movie, one of the main sub stories is about Munchausen's three helpers: one who runs faster than a speeding bullet--literally--and two others (I can't remember them exactly.)
As I say in an upcoming book about this particular tale:
The parent tale is called “The Four Skillful Brothers” and fourteen variants can be found in Turkey alone. There is even an interesting--if brief--retelling in dialect in the Sea Islands of South Carolina called “Trackwell, Divewell, Breathewell” in which Breavewell <sic> says, “All for that which you folk have done, the woman is mine, because she was dead, an’ I brought life into her again.” In the old Hindu collection Vetalapanchauinsati (Twenty-five Tales of a Demon) there is a similar story. A rather well-known children’s book beloved in the mid twentieth century was “The Five Chinese Brothers” which is the same basic story.
According to folklore scholar Jack Zipes, “<t>he first European literary version of this tale type was written in Latin by Girolamo Morlini, and Straparola translated it and adapted it.” The story thus entered European consciousness and ended up in multiple versions across the Continent and into the Grimm’s collection as “The Four Skillful Brothers.”
Jane
|
Judith
Berman
Registered User
(6/8/02 9:11:31 am)
|
Re: Baron Von Munchausen Tales
Yes -- I looked and it turns out that Rabbit Ears also did an animated version of the Williams-narrated THE FOOL AND THE FLYING SHIP:
www.greattapes.com/cart/p...ying.phtml
Judith
|
Paradigm8
Registered User
(6/10/02 4:08:53 pm)
|
Re: Answer
In the Terry Gilliam movie, the Baron's faithful servants were a man who could run so quickly he had to wear leg irons with weights to stay in one place; a man who could hear a fly washing her wings from a continent away and see her, too; and finally the strongest man on earth. These abilities did not last into old age, though. The fast man was crippled, the one with accute seeing and hearing required an ear horn and thick glasses, and the strong man was feeble and gentle (serving tea to Hephestus and his Giants because it made him feel "dainty"). The contrast of youth's invincibility and greatness to old age and the power of Time.
On a related note, I vaguely recall one of my "Let's Pretend" records in childhood including the story of very similar characters, though they were aiding a talking duck named Drakes Tail. The duck was as clever as the Baron, but less suave, since he quacked when distressed. Not much of a lady's man, either.
P8
reading: Little, Big by John Crowley
listening to: Indigo Girls
|
