小说与文学2020lareviewofbooks.org
托尔斯泰的儿童故事
Tolstoy’s Children’s Stories
导读
这篇书评谈托尔斯泰的儿童故事，标题夸张地警告：它们会“摧毁你的孩子、让你想死”——因为这些故事黑暗、直白，不给孩子留任何缓冲。对写作者来说，它值得一读，因为它追问：我们给孩子讲故事时，到底在掩饰什么、又为什么掩饰。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先想清楚你真正在为谁写：同一批民间故事先服务成人，后来才被“净化”成童书，受众是历史塑造出来的，并不是天经地义。
- 02
不要用当下的道德标准直接审判旧故事；先弄清它的语境，再判断这种黑暗是噱头，还是当时生活的写实。
- 03
残酷的情节用具体物象来体现：削掉的脚趾、鞋里滴下的血，比任何形容词都更有力。
- 04
最简单的形式（童谣、短故事）可以承载最沉重的主题，短不等于轻。
HN 评论精选
民间故事本为成人而作，是后人把它“净化”成童书的；体裁的受众会随文化变迁而改变。
很多人忽略了一点：民间故事原本不是给孩子看的，它们是孩子睡下后大人们在成人之间讲的。可当民俗学者（比如格林兄弟）开始收集并出版这些故事，“净化版”童书就成了一种潮流。去读读未删节的《一千零一夜》，它们显然不是给孩子的，就像《五十度灰》不是给孩子的，儿童版都被大幅删改。我猜它们变成儿童文学是文化变迁的结果：19世纪受过教育的成年人没法再认真对待民间故事了（除非当作人类学研究），只觉得幼稚——就像19世纪的通俗文学（大仲马、凡尔纳）在20世纪变成了童书。迪士尼常因此挨批评，但《白雪公主》和《灰姑娘》其实相当忠实于原著；《灰姑娘》依据的是佩罗版本，不是残害情节多得多的格林版本。
goto11查看英文原文
Important point many are missing: Folktales were not originally for children. They were told among adults after children had gone to sleep. But when folklorists (like the Grimm brothers) started collecting and publishing folk tales, it became a trend to publish sanitized edition for children. Read something like the Arabian Nights tales in an uncensored version - these were clearly not intended for children anymore than 50 Shades of Grey are for children. The children's editions are heavily sanitized. I suspect their change into children literature was because of cultural changes - educated 19th century adults couldn't take folktales serious anymore (except as anthropological studies) and found them childish. The same way that 19th century popular literature like Dumas and Verne became children's books in the 20th century. Walt Disney is often criticized in this context, but both Snow White and Cinderella are actually pretty faithful to the source material. Cinderella is just based on the Charles Perrault version of the story, not the Grimm version which contain a lot more maiming.
评判旧故事要放回它的时代语境；同一故事的不同版本，残酷程度可以差得很远。
不该用今天的标准去评判这些书。它们不是写给今天的孩子（更不是写给今天的父母）的，而是写给生活在完全另一个世界里的孩子。比如佩罗版《灰姑娘》——也就是我们熟悉的那个版本——恶毒后妈曾劝一个继姐妹削掉脚趾，好把脚塞进舞鞋。她差点骗过王子，但鸽子提醒他脚上在滴血。王子折回去让另一个姐妹试鞋，她削掉一块脚后跟硬塞进去，又骗过了王子；在回王宫的路上，鸽子再次提醒他脚上的血。这样的晚安故事，你觉得怎么样？
ivanhoe查看英文原文
Those books shouldn't be judged by today's norms. They were not written for the children (nor parents... especially not parents) of today, but for children back then who lived in a completely different world. For instance, in the version of Cinderella by Charles Perrault - the version that we all know - one of the evil stepsisters was advised by her mother to cut off her toes in order to fit the slipper. She almost fools the prince, but doves warn him about blood dripping from her foot. He then goes back again and tries the slipper on the other sister. She cut off part of her heel in order to get her foot in the slipper, and again the prince is fooled. While riding with her to the king's castle, the doves alert him again about the blood on her foot. How about that for a good night story?
故事的黑暗程度对应着读者真实的生存处境：黑暗不是猎奇，而是写实。
很多人都在说童书有多黑暗。可那时候孩子的生活本来就黑暗：婴幼儿死亡率高，相当比例的孩子失去过兄弟姐妹；产妇死亡率高，许多孩子可能因难产失去母亲；农活危险、医术原始，许多孩子的父亲、叔伯死于或残于事故。这还没算频繁的战争——士兵四处强奸、劫掠、杀戮。死亡就围绕在孩子身边。
RcouF1uZ4gsC查看英文原文
There have been lots of comments about how dark children’a books were. But, back then, children’s lives were pretty dark. With the high infant and childhood mortality, a good proportion of children had lost a brother or sister. Given maternal mortality, many children had probably lost a mother in childbirth. Given the nature of farmwork and the primitive nature of medicine, many children probably had a father, uncle, etc who was killed or main in an accident. And that is before you consider the frequent wars in which soldiers roamed across the land raping, pillaging, and killing. Death would have been all around children.
童谣用最简单的韵律就把死亡和意外写了进去，简短的形式并不等于安全的内容。
“摇啊摇，宝贝在树梢／风吹来，摇篮摇／树枝断，摇篮落／宝宝、摇篮一起掉下来。”还有：“下雨了，下大了，老头在打呼／他上床睡觉，撞到了头，早上就起不来了。”你说这些不黑暗吗？
rosstex查看英文原文
Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come Baby, cradle and all. or It’s raining, it’s pouring, The old man’s snoring. He went to bed And he bumped his head And he couldn’t get up in the morning. Tell me these ain't dark.
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