Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Smart grandchild exposes huge PLOT HOLE in "CINDERELLA"!

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » The DU Lounge Donate to DU
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 09:52 PM
Original message
Smart grandchild exposes huge PLOT HOLE in "CINDERELLA"!
This is cute...

My seven-year-old granddaughter gets to see a lot of films with me because I'm a movie reviewer.

Yesterday, we were talking about movies she had seen, and why she did or didn't like them. I told her I didn't like "Cinderella" because it depicts a wicked stepmother. (I'm a stepmother and I'm NOT wicked, so there...)

She said she didn't believe "Cinderella." Here's her reason:

"The story says that the magic spell turns everything back to what it was at the stroke of midnight.

Cinderella's carriage turns back into a pumpkin, her horses go back to being mice, and her clothes all turn to rags.

But what about her glass slipper? How come THAT stays the same so the Prince can find her and fit it on her foot? The glass slipper should not have just stayed a glass slipper. It should have turned back to leather or rags. It's not logical."

Is that a smart kid, or what?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
ZombieNixon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 09:57 PM
Response to Original message
1. ...and then the world exploded.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:08 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. You're just a big fisted --
smart ass...

But, I forgive you.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ZombieNixon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:14 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. Reason will be the death of us all!
:P
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:52 PM
Response to Reply #5
21. And a LACK of reasoning will create -- WHAT?
A bunch of SHEEPLE? Lousy movies with lots of things that wouldn't or couldn't possibly happen?

What's your point?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ZombieNixon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:54 PM
Response to Reply #21
22. Things like Cinderella.
Sorry, I forgot to insert this: :sarcasm:

My bad.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 11:07 PM
Response to Reply #22
26. You not bad. You just forgetful. Not a problem...
It's late -- I've got to get to bed. Regretfully, alone. Hubby doesn't keep my hours.

In peace,

Radio Lady
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ZombieNixon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 11:11 PM
Response to Reply #26
27. G'night
I should go to sleep too. Alone as well, but that's because I live in a dorm.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
RevCheesehead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:11 PM
Response to Original message
3. Hey, Radio Lady!
I've been dying to ask you - how did your surgery go? Did you share any of your "jokes" with the doctor that day? :hi:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:15 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Y'know, I did use two of the jokes, but he told me he'd heard about
every one in the book! When I asked him to make me "a perfect A**HOLE" -- he quipped, "I'll do my best!"

P.S. I have to go back for more "radical" rectal treatment in a couple of months. It ain't over 'til it's over. Larry D. and I have another date after the holidays... 'Nuf said.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
RevCheesehead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:16 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. So it all turned out OK in the end?
:7
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:27 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. Well, it's a work in progress, so to speak...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
RevCheesehead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:32 PM
Response to Reply #11
15. There's a joke in there -
(trust me, it's there) but I don't want to get your thread locked, like last time. :evilgrin:

I'm glad things went well, and hope that the rest is relatively painless.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:54 PM
Response to Reply #15
23. It was so painless that I really thought nothing had happened.
Edited on Thu Sep-29-05 10:55 PM by Radio_Lady
I'm still not sure. And, unlike with the sigmoid test, he didn't put the procedure on a TV monitor so I could see for myself.

PM me with any of your good jokes. Or else this thread will get "rear ended"...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Az Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:13 PM
Response to Original message
4. Ya got a junior skeptic there
Get her watching old school Scooby Doo right away. Keep her away from the Scrappy Doo stuff. No masks or investigation involved there.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:18 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. You're right. This is the kid who gazed on Christmas decorations
when we were driving around the neighborhood.

"God doesn't DO anything!" she burbled. I love her to death. She's going to give her mother lots of fun in a few years. As people say, "Grandchildren are parents' revenge on their children."
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Az Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:28 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. In case you are interested in really feeding the "beast"
There really is a Skeptic Jr. Its a pull out of the Skeptic magazine. The main part of the mag may be a bit dry for her, but the skeptic jr part is very entertaining and teaches critical thought and a respect for science.

http://www.skeptic.com/oldsite/index.html
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:46 PM
Response to Reply #12
19. Great idea! Grandma and Gabrielle are skeptics! Super site!
Edited on Thu Sep-29-05 10:48 PM by Radio_Lady
Thanks so much. I'll look into Skeptic, Jr. Sounds like something I'd read on my radio program.

I already teach my granddaughther skepticism. Her mother keeps Kosher and believes in Conservative Judaism. I don't. Consequently, my granddaughter and grandson are allowed to have bacon, shrimp, sausages or other stuff when they eat out with us -- and even non-Kosher corn dogs when they're at our house. This was a truce we won in a well-fought battle throughout the past seven years.

Every little step helps with the re-indoctrination.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
LisaL Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:16 PM
Response to Original message
8. There is no hole in the story.
Edited on Thu Sep-29-05 10:17 PM by lizzy
Slippers were not magic.
They were actual glass slippers given to her by her godmother. Not some old shoes turned into glass slippers.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:26 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. Quoting from one of the 1,500 renditions of the story of Cinderella --
From: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/english/story_telling/cinderella/documents/cinderellatext.doc

"...Cinderella soon returned with the pumpkin and the cat with seven mice he had caught in the cellar. With a flick of the magic wand the pumpkin turned into a sparkling coach and the mice became six white horses, while the seventh mouse turned into a coachman in a smart uniform and carrying a whip. Cinderella could hardly believe her eyes.

“You shall go to the ball Cinderella. But remember! You must leave at midnight. That is when my spell ends. Your coach will turn back into a pumpkin and the horses will become mice again. You will be dressed in rags and wearing clogs instead of these glass slippers! Do you understand?” Cinderella smiled and said, “Yes, I understand!” ... etc.

What's your source?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
LisaL Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:41 PM
Response to Reply #10
16. The cinderella cartoons and movies I saw as a child.
The godmother always used her magic wand on the rest of the things. But she gave her an actual glass slippers, they weren't made from old shoes using magic. You know, somebody besides your grandson might have realized there was a hole in a story, so, in cartoons and movies, it was corrected.
:rofl:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:44 PM
Response to Reply #10
18. That's just it - there is no ONE definitive version
Every version of Cinderella has its own merits. And since it's a folk story, handed down and passed around, shitloads of variants exist that have meaning to each specific community that retold the story.

Disney simply followed the pattern that had been established, that fairy tales and kid's stories like Cinderalla were totally open to whatever changes or interpretations the story teller wanted.

When it comes to folklore, there is NOTHING that is canonical.

NOTHING.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:51 PM
Response to Reply #18
20. Hey! I understand that! Sounds like the Bible and its various
interpretations. That's been going on for at least a couple of thousand years -- and even before, if you count the various inanimate and animate objects that people have worshipped throughout the ages.

So, it all comes down to a religion thing after all.

I knew it.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:57 PM
Response to Reply #20
24. No, interpretation is entirely different from changing the story
and that's not to say that the Biblical story didn't change throughout its existence before canonization - the evidence seems pretty clear that there was a lot of editing, changing, mixing, etc. That's just normal, and not to be taken as a reason why should throw the Bible away, OR embrace it. It's just truth, and has no moral value of its own.

I only want to be clear that *interpretation* and *rewriting* are entirely different beasts.

Whether it's the Bible or any piece of great literature, anyone can interpret it, and will likely intperpret it differently than someone else. But that doesn't mean they are changing the story.

This whole post is an argument on semantics, not on Biblical criicism.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 11:12 PM
Response to Reply #24
28. Y'know, Rab-six rs, this is way too authoritarian and argumentative for
Edited on Thu Sep-29-05 11:12 PM by Radio_Lady
me. I feel like I'm back in debating club.

My thesis: All Bibles (or whatever written text you follow) were written by MAN not GOD (or ALLAH or BUDDHA). Translations are not necessarily "interpretations" but they certainly can be. Rewriting is also a kind of "interpretation" although perhaps it shouldn't be.

You are certainly into splitting hairs -- I know that's what's going on here.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-30-05 10:01 AM
Response to Reply #28
33. I am indeed splitting hairs.
Edited on Fri Sep-30-05 10:06 AM by Rabrrrrrr
Which is why I said my argument was about semantics, not Biblical criticism. And ultimately, it's a small hair, but it's an IMPORTANT hair.

The distinction between "interpretation" and "translation" and "rewriting" IS important. Especially when speaking of the Bible, mention of which you made first, which is what started me on this subthread. There are many translations of the Bible, and every translation is also a form of interpretation, because one cannot translate anything without some interpretation going on. But there are at least as many interpretations of the Bible as there are people who read it.


Though I don't know that it's worth arguing over, especially not in this thread, and I'm sorry for raising what is a rather minor issue in the totality of the subject of this thread.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Az Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:30 PM
Response to Reply #8
13. Technically it was a translation error
The original story really has the slippers being made of fur.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:58 PM
Response to Reply #13
25. No wonder they have so much trouble at the United Nations.
Can you imagine having to translate big, long speeches from one language to another -- almost instantaneously? And what hangs in the balance? The relationships of nations -- the fates of people. It's almost painful to think about it.

We can't even get the story of "Cinderella" right!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Lex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:30 PM
Response to Reply #8
14. I sort of remember that too.
That the shoes weren't part of anything that "turned" that night--they existed already.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 10:42 PM
Response to Reply #14
17. Hm-m-m! Alternate endings! How interesting! You are a bright crew!
Edited on Thu Sep-29-05 10:42 PM by Radio_Lady
Thanks for the fascinating input.

In peace,

Radio Lady
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Lex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 11:33 PM
Response to Reply #17
29. Here, this is the first one that popped up on Google for me

"Oh! yes," cried she; "but must I go thither as I am, in these nasty rags?"

Her godmother only just touched her with her wand, and, at the same instant, her clothes were turned into cloth of gold and silver, all beset with jewels.

This done, she gave her a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in the whole world. Being thus decked out, she got up into her coach; but her godmother, above all things, commanded her not to stay till after midnight, telling her, at the same time, that if she stayed one moment longer, the coach would be a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen lizards, and her clothes become just as they were before.

-------

Some of it was magic, but the slippers she "gave" her--and didn't say they would go away at midnight.

That's the way I remembered it.

http://www.rickwalton.com/folktale/blue07.htm

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Radio_Lady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-30-05 08:26 AM
Response to Reply #29
30. Well, thanks for this great thread. My granddaughter and I will have
Edited on Fri Sep-30-05 08:28 AM by Radio_Lady
fun discussing "alternate endings" for movies and fairy tales.

In fact, we might even talk about "Corpse Bride" (which she is afraid to see because of the macabre nature of the subject). This is not a children's movie, but its humor outweighed its dark material, in my estimation. The ending is purely cinematic, because in the original story, there is no "other woman" -- just a corpse that accidentally gets married to a living man. "Be careful with your vows" seems to be the message.

How about an alternate ending for "Sleeping Beauty" or "Snow White"? Let's work on those another time!

In peace,

Radio Lady
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
jackelope72 Donating Member (726 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-30-05 09:25 AM
Response to Reply #17
31. The Grimm Brothers version doesn't even have a fairy godmother...
if I remember correctly. Cinderella goes to her mother's grave, where her tears have turned the branch being used for a grave marker into a tree. Her mother's spirit is in the tree, and she somehow shakes the clothing from the tree onto Cinderella.

There is no curfew, either, and Cinderella actually goes to the ball three times. After she runs away the first two times, the Prince tries to ensnare her by smearing the stairs with pitch (tar). Her shoe comes off and she escapes.

The shoe-fitting scene is pretty gruesome, too. In order to make the shoe fit, one of the stepsisters cuts off her toe and the other cuts off her heel. The shoe fits, but the Prince notices the blood in the shoe and realizes he's been tricked.

And then, when the stepsisters show up at Cinderella's wedding, birds fly in and peck out their eyes.

They may have been good folklorists, but the Grimm Brothers were pretty fucked up individuals.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
northzax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-30-05 09:30 AM
Response to Reply #31
32. I have a 1911 first edition
of a printing of the Brother's Grimm, and it is not pleasant reading. I mean the stories are good, but not for children.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Lisa0825 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-30-05 10:16 AM
Response to Original message
34. That always bugged me too!!!
good for her! question everything!LOL! :applause:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
redqueen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-30-05 10:25 AM
Response to Original message
35. Good catch!
Smart, indeed! :D
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Tue May 07th 2024, 10:25 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » The DU Lounge Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC