"You have a fluffy buttle, yes you have a fluffy buttle,
bunnies have fluffy buttles and you have a fluffy buttle,
who has a cute little poof loof, you have a cute little poof loof,
and if that poof loof gets cut off, you still have a fluffy buttle..."
There are more verses but that's the important one, now why did I sing about my rabbit having his tail cut off? Well, his "cousin" Rella -who's my friend Julie's bunny- used to live in a chicken coop; Rella only has a half a tail. Her tail was bit off by one of the chickens when she was younger-Rella still has a fluffy buttle.
I sang about his tail getting cut off for another reason too, do you remember the famous nursery rhyme game thing "Ring Around the Rosey?" We know it was about the plague yes? If you don't now you do.
"Ring around the rosie
pocket full of posie
ashes, ashes, we all fall down..."
Most nursery rhymes and children's stories are pretty gruesome and morbid. "Rock-a-bye baby" has the cradle falling from the tree, and Cinderella's sisters cut their feet off to feet in the glass slipper, that's not rated G! Why are these rhymes-and the Grimm Faerie tales- that way??
Probably because us humans are morbid and many of the popular nursery rhymes are derived from history. Even at that though, why do we sing them to our kids I just don't understand?
I guess that's why we're so creeped out by nursery rhyme sounding music in horror movies, it's just so innocent that it's creepy. So bizarre. What do you think?
Aside from learning some new anatomical terminology, this post got me thinking about our obsession with morbid topics, especially as they infiltrate the content we share with our children. I think part of it, as you mentioned, is just because both history and life, both being derived from the other, are often morbid themselves. Possibly putting these kinds of things into nursery rhymes and children's stories were ways of making children aware of these subjects in the most controlled way possible. That way, if by some twist of fate the children came into contact with these kinds of dark realities, G-d forbid, they'd be a little bit more prepared for it. Remember that The Storytelling Animal taught us this was one function of story.
ReplyDeleteOr possible it's due to children not being able to comprehend the traumatic aspects of tragedy. They're notorious for being unaware of things that can be found offensive or mean to other people. For example, after the televised suicide of politician Budd Dwyer in 1987 was followed by widespread jokes relating to the subject in schools around the country.
Whatever the cause is, I think your point's both spot on and thought provoking!