tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770811529718101789.post304423563978119547..comments2024-01-19T01:29:20.930-08:00Comments on Fairy Tale Fandom: Fantasy Literature Rewind: "Goblin Market".Adam Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16129844426168129584noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770811529718101789.post-30025987499956222742016-10-26T12:05:04.314-07:002016-10-26T12:05:04.314-07:00An interesting one, thanks for sharing. Not sure a...An interesting one, thanks for sharing. Not sure about an interpretation yet. Your summary is hard to understand at times, when it comes to who does what. Yyou might want to read over it again.<br /><br />My thoughts:<br /><br />a) Were crabappels actually sold at markets? If they were they must have been bought by very poor people who could not affordregular apples. Their presence at the goblin market that otherwise only sells awesome fruit seems couterintuitive, unless of course the implication is that *even the crapappels* are awesome. Their ordiariness of course also makes a nice contrast to the pineappels in the next line. Pineappels were both absurdly expensive and absurdly popular in Victorian times to the point where they even could be rented for a day to impress guests. (Source: http://www.levins.com/pineapple.html) So heir presence at the goblin market heightens the sense of wonder.<br /><br />b) I can definitely pick up sexual undertones, especially in the second half. I think one of the blogs I follow recently had a post abouthow food is a often replacement for sex in children's lit (I assume that the poem was intended for children?), but I follow too many blogs to be able to recall which one it was. Can anyone help out?<br /><br />However the undertones go beyong food metaphors:<br /><br />"Tore her gown and soil’d her stocking,<br />Twitch’d her hair out by the roots,<br />Stamp’d upon her tender feet,<br />Held her hands and squeez’d their fruits<br />Against her mouth to make her eat."<br /><br />reads to me like a rape scene.<br /><br />c)animal motivs associated with goblins is not unheard of, but uncommon. I was reminded of the Puca, a fairy-like being that can turn into different animals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%BAca<br /><br />d)Antisemitic tendecies - I can kinda see it, but associating any negatively portrayed merchant in older literature with antisemitism is in my opinion neither fair to the authors nor to the Jewish community. I couldn't detect any stereotypes about Jews that I'm familiar with in the description of the goblins (except that they are overzealous merchants, which as I said, does not immediately scream "anti-semitism" to me). Especially that they are explicitly not motivated by money seems to speak against Rosetti (consciously) working in anti-semitic viewpoints. <br />I couldn't read the source, because it's from am e-zine that my university is not subscribed to. So anyone who knows more about the topic or has access to the source, please fill me in if I'm mistaken.<br /><br />e) The ending really confused me... what's the implication here? That you can get cured by simply eating the fruit for a second time? No addiction where you are depedent on the fruit for your whole life, you just have to eat it *twice*? Then what's the problem in the first place?<br /><br />Ok, I know it was meant as a Frozen-style "Cured by sisterly love", but that should have *really* been made clearer in the text. Because if I had read this text as a kid (I still assume it was intended for children?), I would have been confused as hell.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11593854763215902252noreply@blogger.com