Save the Suffering Animals! Grimm's "The Hut in the Forest" Summary and Discussion

Save the Suffering Animals! Grimm's "The Hut in the Forest" Summary and Discussion

The Virtue of Beauty, the Beauty of Virtue: A king is cursed to live as an old man with his servant– now animal attendants–until they are saved by one with kindness for all life.  A poor woodcutter goes hungry while his three daughters get lost in the wood.  The birds of the forest bewilder them to save the kingdom from darkness.   Plot Synopsis of the Story:    A poor woodcutter, his wife, and three daughters live on the edge of the forest.  When the woodcutter goes out to work, he tells his wife for his eldest daughter to bring his dinner.  He strews a path of millet on the ground so that she can find him, but by dinner-time when she goes out with the soup the birds of the forest have eaten all the seeds up.    Lost, she sees a glimmer through the trees and finds a hut with all its windows lit up.  She calls to it, and a gravelly voices tells her to come in, where she finds an old man with a beard down to the floor at a table, and three animals around the stove: a hen, a cock, and a brindled cow.  She asks for food and shelter, and he asks the animals, who reply, “Duks.”  She makes dinner from the plentiful cupboard, and she and the old man eat.  She asks where she should sleep, and the animals reply in a jingle that she has had no thought for them and must find her own.  The man directs her upstairs to beds she should make; she does so and falls asleep without waiting for him, and he sends her through a trap door into the cellar.   The woodcutter comes home without his dinner, and the next day he sets out lentils, which are bigger and harder for the birds to pick up, but the birds get them anyway.  The middle daughter goes out with the soup, and the same thing happens.  Down to the cellar.   Then it was the third and last daughter’s turn.  Mother objects, but father says she’s always been the most caring and obedient, and she’ll come through, especially since he will strew the heaviest food–peas.  This time the wood-pigeons get it, but when the youngest comes into the hut, she caresses the animals, and when she makes dinner, she goes out and gets food and draught for the animals, and she eats what is leftover of the man’s dinner.  The jingle of the animals praises her, and she waits for the old man after making the beds, and she is not sent down to the cellar.     In the middle of the night, she is awoken by loud creaking and bursting sounds, but she falls asleep again, and wakes up in an ivory bed with a velvet canopy.  The man is now a handsome youth, and three servants come to do her bidding.  The man–a King cursed until a girl whose heart was full of love not only for mankind but for animals came and rescued them–orders the servants to get her parents for the wedding.  Her sisters, however, would be servants of charcoal-men deep in the woods until they learned to be kinder, and not let poor animals suffer.   Chapters:   00:00 “The Hut in the Forest” Summary 10:50 Like Beauty and the Beast 13:50 Love Breaks the Spell  20:50 The Hyperfocused Woodcutter 21:46 In the Fullness of Being 22:18 Why was the Prince Bewitched?   (From a discussion on “The Hut in the Forest”)   Thank you for watching!  Please see below for the full conversation:   The full video episode: https://youtu.be/_7PddDonuU0 [https://youtu.be/_7PddDonuU0]   The Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T]   The Episode Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVozxPpnLfIY [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVozxPpnLfIY]   For more in this podcast, please go to: Podbean: https://benomtad.podbean.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863 YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ X: https://x.com/Benomtad Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benomtad [https://www.facebook.com/benomtad]   About Our Guest: LL is a graduate of the Immaculate University of California, Davis.  She majored in psychology and has worked for years in the field of mental health.  She is currently getting training in accounting and loves almost all things weird: aliens, cryptids, ghosts, and sweet bovine love.   I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.   Thumbnail Background Illustration: Arthur Rackham

Emptiness Eating Itself (Clip)

In “Fight Club,” the protagonist tries to find meaning in life through filling his life with purchases.  But that doesn’t give him fullness–he feels dead.  So he goes to cancer support groups, and then group violence in fight clubs.   The zombie culture is a feverish emptiness eating itself.  It has no depth and builds nothing. Everything is seen as a commodity.   (From a discussion on “Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis,” Ch. 1)   Thank you for watching!  Please see below for the full conversation:   The full video episode: https://youtu.be/9Cab_C9YhNk?si=x5SDEOQlL0vAU1Iq [https://youtu.be/9Cab_C9YhNk?si=x5SDEOQlL0vAU1Iq]   Audio episode: https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/why-are-zombies-everywhere/ [https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/why-are-zombies-everywhere/]   The Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T]   The Episode Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqibKcegyTVC5o4oxLsO4Z7 [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqibKcegyTVC5o4oxLsO4Z7]   For more in this podcast, please go to: Podbean: https://benomtad.podbean.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863 YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ X: https://x.com/Benomtad Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benomtad [https://www.facebook.com/benomtad]   About our guest: Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality.  He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness. You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com [http://www.thekindknife.com/] or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado   Photo by Jose Rueda [https://unsplash.com/@notartistic?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText] on Unsplash [https://unsplash.com/photos/a-man-in-a-garment-with-a-woman-in-a-garment-WNGyP4zumE4?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText]   I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Why are Zombies Everywhere?

Zombies are everywhere in our culture, in movies and shows, and even in real life, on zombie walks.  They’ve gone from being an object of horror to one of fascination, one that seems to reflect something back to us.  In “Zombies in Western Culture,” zombies are analyzed as a myth of Western culture and a symbol of the meaning crisis.  In this episode, we discuss chapter one, where Vervaeke and his coauthors discuss the zombie as part of the zeitgeist, of something hugely significant in and about our culture.  They think this reflects the crisis based in the loss of the “sacred canopy” of Christianity.     We briefly summarize the chapter and the riff off it.  We compare the zombie with other monsters and discuss its link to consumerism.  We discuss other attempts to awaken us from our slumber and the difficulty to doing so, and we talk about returning to the senses, the body, knowledge, and life.   “Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis,” by John Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro, and Filip Miscevic: http://dx.do [http://dx.doi/]i.org/10.11647/OBP.0113   Chapters:   00:00 Introduction  03:31 General Thoughts & the Aesthetic of the Zombie 05:35 “A Choice to Sleep Through Modernity” 16:00 The Hebrew Golem 17:22 Play Acting a Walking Dead 22:15 Zombie Walks and Serious Play 30:15 Muay Thai, Civilization, and “Fight Club” 34:54 No Meaning Out of Consumption 42:42 The Zombie Mirror, Marketing, & Anger in Society Now 48:45 “The White Zombie”  52:15 Everything is Seen from Your Own Need 56:55 The Zombie & Christian Resurrection 1:01:49 Healthy Seeing by Returning to the Body 1:08:01 The Nightmare of Descartes’ Idea 1:10:30 HP Lovecraft’s Monster and the Desacralization of Our World 1:15:10 The Artist as Shaman 1:22:03 The Usefulness of Form in Art & Twisted Messages 1:29:45 Articulate the Meaning of Your Monsters   (From a discussion on “Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis,” Ch. 1)   Thank you for watching!  If you’re interested in the full discussion, see below:   The full video episode: https://youtu.be/9Cab_C9YhNk?si=x5SDEOQlL0vAU1Iq [https://youtu.be/9Cab_C9YhNk?si=x5SDEOQlL0vAU1Iq]   The Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T]   The Episode Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqibKcegyTVC5o4oxLsO4Z7 [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqibKcegyTVC5o4oxLsO4Z7]   For more in this podcast, please go to: Podbean: https://benomtad.podbean.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863 YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ X: https://x.com/Benomtad Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benomtad [https://www.facebook.com/benomtad]   About our guest: Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality.  He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness. You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com [http://www.thekindknife.com/] or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado   Photo by Jose Rueda [https://unsplash.com/@notartistic?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText] on Unsplash [https://unsplash.com/photos/a-man-in-a-garment-with-a-woman-in-a-garment-WNGyP4zumE4?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText]   I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

God is Turned Down (Clip)

At the beginning of the story, the man has had his 13th child, and in a panic he runs out into the street looking for a godfather, and God shows up.  He turns him down, pontificating to the Almighty, and showing the creator his puny reasoning and narrow focus.   (From a discussion on the Brothers’ Grimm’s “Godfather Death”)   Thank you for watching!  If you’re interested in the full discussion, see below:   The full video episode: https://youtu.be/QMR3sj33mRo [https://youtu.be/QMR3sj33mRo]   Audio episode: https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-brothers-grimms-godfather-death/ [https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-brothers-grimms-godfather-death/]   The Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T]   The Episode Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vpY9MModKJtD9o999pFQ34L [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vpY9MModKJtD9o999pFQ34L]   For more in this podcast, please go to: Podbean: https://benomtad.podbean.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863 YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ X: https://x.com/Benomtad Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benomtad [https://www.facebook.com/benomtad]   About our guest: Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality.  He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness. You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com [http://www.thekindknife.com/] or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado   Illustration by Heinrich Lefler (1863-1919) Illustrations by Otto Ubbelohde, 1909   I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The Power of Foresight in Grimm's "Godfather Death"

A man works very hard but there is no one left to ask to be the godfather as his 13th child is on the way.  He rushes out into the street and is approached by three prospects.  The first is God, whom he rejects because of the unfair assortment of lots, the second, the Devil, he rejects because of his trickery.  The third, however, he accepts because he treats everyone equally: Death.   The boy starts to grow up, and his godfather gives him a gift that will make him rich and famous: he will be a physician who will be able to tell who will die and who won’t.  His fame spreads, and when the king is ill, he sees that the king will die.  However, thinking the godfather will be indulgent with him, the physician uses trickery to save him.  He does get a pass, but then when he sees that the beautiful daughter of the king is sick and he can marry  her if he saves her, he counts on his relationship with Death to spare him once again.   This time, Death grips him with his icy hand and takes him down into a cavern filled with candles.  These, he explains, are the lives of each human on earth, and the more one is burned down, the less that person has to live.  The physician asks to see his own, and it’s a mere nub.  He asks to be saved, and he is told another would have to die in his place.  When Death goes to light the big candle with the little one’s flame, he drops it and kills his wayward godson.   Chapters:  00:00 Reading of “Godfather Death” 07:27 The Original Tale Without Death’s Trick 09:00 Death is Friendly 11:36 God Shows Up at the Beginning 20:00 First Thought, Best Thought 25:50 The Devil as Godfather? 30:49 Why He Says No to God’s Offer 35:36 Death’s Gift of Life 47:25 “Be on Time, Death” 48:18 Why Does the Physician want to Save the King? 57:58 Death’s Revenge 1:06:31 The Doctor and his Godfather, Death 1:16:24 Living in the Present and Learning how to Die 1:25:10 Religious Need for a Figure of Death 1:26:43 Does Closeness to Death Help the Physician Heal? 1:28:46 There’s No Changing Your Nature 1:34:42 Trying to Control Others is Like Necromancy’s Dark Side   Thank you for watching!  Please check out:   The full video episode: https://youtu.be/QMR3sj33mRo [https://youtu.be/QMR3sj33mRo]   The Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T]   The Episode Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vpY9MModKJtD9o999pFQ34L [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vpY9MModKJtD9o999pFQ34L]   For more in this podcast, please go to: Podbean: https://benomtad.podbean.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863 YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ X: https://x.com/Benomtad Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benomtad [https://www.facebook.com/benomtad]   About our guest: Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality.  He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness. You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com [http://www.thekindknife.com/] or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado   I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.