Highlights of this article:
Wilde wrote only nine fairy tales in his lifetime, but they were classics. The best way to read his fairy tale works is for parents and children to read them together. At every level of Wilde's fairy tales, embellishment rhetoric or dissecting human nature, sharp irony or imagination, adults and children can find their own point of convergence. I hope this article will help you better understand the whimsy of Wilde's fairy tales and experience the power of beauty and thought.
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The full text totals 4699 words, and the reading time is 13 minutes
I saw an article on the Internet about Wilde, and there was a message after the article: "I remember reading a fairy tale of Wilde when I was very young, as if it were the story of a sparrow and a sculpture of a prince. The prince asked the sparrow to give the jewels on his body to the poor, and then the sparrow froze to death, and the statue of the prince fell..."
I felt a little incredible: in this day and age, we are on the verge of forgetting Wilde?
Just like this netizen, we have no memory of his classic fairy tale "Happy Prince", as if it is too old a work. Perhaps even less familiar with the nightingale who pierced his heart for a red rose, the giant who sealed the garden but was ready to taste loneliness, the dwarf who loved life infinitely but died of heartbreak, the fisherman who gave up his soul only to be with the mermaid...
Wilde's fairy tales, which we are not familiar with, are incomparably strange, deep and moving in the garden of fairy tales in the world.
Oscar Wilde was Britain's greatest writer and artist of the 19th century. His creative career began in poetry, but his style was in fairy tales. It was after his first collection of fairy tales came out that people really regarded him as an influential writer. The British "Elegance" magazine compared him to Hans Christian Andersen, saying that his "Selfish Giant" is a "perfect work", and the whole fairy tale collection is the crystallization of pure English.
Some people say that Wilde's fairy tales are not easy to understand, but "not easy to understand" is actually the definition of adults. My daughter often said, "Mom, you say come and listen, I understand!" ”
Of course, the "understanding" of children and the "understanding" of adults are not the same as the "understanding" they think you should have. But so what, who defines "understanding"? At least Wilde wouldn't define it.
Wilde wrote only nine fairy tales in his lifetime, but they were classics. The best way to read his fairy tale works is for parents and children to read them together. At every level of Wilde's fairy tales, embellishment rhetoric or dissecting human nature, sharp irony or imagination, adults and children can find their own point of convergence.
In contrast, I would recommend that children who like to be whimsical read Wilde's fairy tales. Because whimsy often means bursting imagination and rich sensitivity, it is often criticized or even obstructed by some "good intentions", just like Wilde experienced.
But whimsical, isn't it the most exciting way for us to open our lives?
1
I have always believed that Wilde's ideal reader in creating fairy tales is not a child, but he just uses a particularly childlike expression to convey his understanding of the world. And when we read these fairy tales with children's eyes, we will find that the beautiful "gems" that flash between the words constitute the most important reason for children to read Wilde:
First, the peculiar metaphors that can be seen everywhere.
The figurative ability that comes from hand is actually a comprehensive embodiment of a person's observation and association ability. And the metaphors that are "peculiar" enough to make people shoot are mostly from the "whimsical" mind. It requires creators to dare to break the mold, reject clichés, and have enough confidence in their unique experience. In this regard, Wilde is an example.
He described the "Happy Prince" dress as follows:
Around his neck was a pale green emerald necklace, and his hands were like withered leaves. The streets looked like silver, shining and shimmering with white light; long ice edges like short swords of crystal, hanging from the eaves. ”
He described the song of the "Nightingale" this way:
"The nightingale sang to the oak tree, and her voice sounded like the boiling water in a silver jar."
He described the tail of an old water rat this way:
“...... It's like a long strip of black Indian rubber."
Such a metaphor is not an endorsement, not "borrowed" from others, but out of one's own observations, combined with one's own experiences and feelings. Behind such imagery, we can see the writer's own preferences, his living environment, and the aspects of the things he cares about, and thus experience the personality brilliance revealed from it. In my opinion, this "personality" is the basis for the birth of metaphor and even all rhetoric.
Second, the full opening of the five senses.
Opening Wilde's fairy tale is like stepping into a world full of color, brilliance and sound, so that your five senses are fully opened, and the words become strong and free.
The lovely big garden in "The Selfish Giant" is filled with "tender grass," "star-like flowers," and peach trees that bloom "pink and pearl-white flowers" in the spring. The little king in "The Young King" had a dream in which he wandered in the "dark woods" and saw vipers "sizzling" at him, "brightly colored parrots screaming" and flying by, and huge turtles "falling asleep in the hot baking mud"...
In contrast to science, which requires rigorous rational thinking, literature is particularly focused on the development of sensitivity. In the future, if humans are better than robots, they also need to pay attention to the improvement and strengthening of sensory power. But when our child is immersed in the mobile phone, his five senses are relatively closed, he will ignore the sound of wind and rain outside, he can't see the light and shadow of the sun sprinkling between the leaves, and even the touch of the fingertip tapping on the screen will become numb due to thousands of repetitions...
In Wilde's view, even if such a world is technologically developed and life is comfortable, it has no beauty and is tingular and terrible.
Third, the extraordinary imaginary world
Behind the strange metaphor and the expression of the five senses is a strange imagination. In an era without mobile phones and computers, Wilde used his imagination to construct an extraordinary and bizarre world.
In The Fisherman and His Soul, Wilde envisions an underwater world and its inhabitants: the mermaid's sea tribe, with its "green beard" and "furry," lives in an amber palace with emerald roofs and pearls on the ground. The squid that lived on the edge of the cliff were able to create night "at will"; the Nautilus had small boats carved out of opal and "sailboats carrying silk". There are also male mermaids, who are good at playing the harp and can "hypnotize the sea". If human beings want to intermarry with the sea tribe, they must abandon the soul as a human being...
In the "other world" depicted in this text, everything is familiar and unfamiliar to us. We have learned about the sea in terms of geography, biology, climate and even historical legends, but literature has given us the possibility to transcend reality. This sea is more sparkling and more fascinating, and this is the power of imagination.
In addition to these reasons, we read Wilde's fairy tales because of the sincere empathy and interesting irony contained in them. The history of literature evaluates Wilde as the representative of "aestheticism", but "aestheticism" is a misleading word, making people feel as if he is a ruthless person who respects beauty - on the contrary, it is the person he despises. His goodness and beauty are not lofty, but lifelike, making people smile and deeply reminisce.
2
To paraphrase a popular saying: How bad can a child's heart be? In Wilde's pen, the essence of the "bear child" is nothing more than a "child". Some children who are maverick and whimsical in the eyes of adults may be "unremarkable" in the eyes of children, because they themselves are originally like this.
The protagonist of "The Young King" is a boy who ascended to the throne of the king at a young age. His "giftedness" is a strong perception of beauty. So it is often seen that he "kneels before a great painting that has just been brought from Venice, as if declaring the worship of some new god"; or in the corner of the royal palace, "staring like a lost soul at a Greek gem carved with the image of Adonis". He would also spend the whole night "observing the effect of the moonlight shining on the silver statue of Endemion"...
Does it feel familiar? Are there also children around you who often have a strong interest in things that you find inexplicable, and even "waste" time that should have been used to do homework to immerse themselves in it?
In Wilde's writing, these are curiosities that should be cherished, and they are unique visions before they have been eroded by standardized routines. Reading so far, in fact, it is a small opportunity for you to communicate with your children, you may wish to ask the child: Is this also the case when you take LEGO/watch anime/play games? Whatever his answer, you can tell him that there is nothing inherently wrong with being focused and intoxicated with one thing, and is often a manifestation of talent, like the Young King.
Further, you can also guide your child to recall the "details" that make him obsessed: the young king is obsessed with huge paintings, shining gems, what are you obsessed with? In such an open communication process, you will gradually get closer to a child's heart and cognition, thus transforming his "criticism" into "resonance".
"Bear kids" are "bears" because they often do a little destruction and seem to be inherently "cold" – just look at the boys who bully insects and small animals. But parents often overlook that "willfulness" is nothing more than "following nature": they fight selfishly, they are mischievous, all out of nature, not out of malice. And they learn to understand, to care, to learn to love, but this is the result of growth — in the eyes of the Catholic Wilde, this is the "redemption" of children for the original sin of human nature.
"Star Child" is a very moving story, although many people will think that it is too religious, but it ultimately shows a story about "growing up".
The protagonist, Star Child, was found in the forest, when he was wrapped in a cloak with a golden thread and star pattern, and he looked so beautiful that people thought he was a child who fell from the sky and loved him very much. Later, a woman who looked depressed and poor came to the door, claiming to be the biological mother of the star child, but was swept out of the door by the arrogant and vain star child.
Seeing this, I once discussed with my daughter: Star Child kicked his mother out of the door, what will happen to him next? The daughter said very angrily: He must become very poor and ugly, who called him so proud!
You see, children have a simple sense of right and wrong, and even a sense of discipline, and my daughter's ideas actually coincide with Wilde's: in later stories, star children are punished by the gods and lose their beauty. Suddenly awakened, he wandered hard all the way, and finally found his parents again, and learned selflessness and love in the process.
In the process of reading the story, the child will realize the price of growth, and what we have to do is to help him point out this price, let him know that his parents will always tolerate his mistakes and wait for his growth, just like the mother of the star child, like Pinocchio's father. Through such reading, we can get closer to each other and reconcile with each other.
3
"Irony", a very interesting and advanced feature of Wilde's work, even in fairy tales. To put it simply, irony in literary creation refers to the opposite of the positive, or the opposite, in short, it is impossible to understand its true meaning according to the literal meaning, and its true meaning is often the opposite of the literal meaning.
So, does the child really not understand irony?
Wilde didn't think so, and he "willfully" used irony in almost every fairy tale. "Faithful Friend", this fairy tale even the title is "ironic": the "faithful" friend described in the whole article is a selfish and reckless, ruthless and exploitative person. He exploits the faithful nature of others, takes advantage of moral kidnapping, and finally destroys the other person's family.
I suggest that parents can read such stories with their children, ponder the meaning behind each sentence together, and enjoy the fun of treasure hunting. For example, the bad miller tells him to seize the flowers of his neighbor Hans Jr., "True friends should share everything." "Reading this, we may as well ask the child: Do you think so?
Most children answer in the negative by thinking briefly. In the story, such irony can be seen everywhere, and the impatient children may refute one by one, constantly refute, so as to naturally understand the meaning of irony.
Similarly, the fairy tale "Extraordinary Rocket" is also full of "ironic" golden sentences, and often expressed in the form of dialogue, which can be described as interesting to read.
"What is a sensitive person?" The cannon asked for Roman fireworks.
"It's just a person, because he has chicken eyes, he always steps on other people's toes."
"He must have had a true romantic nature," said Catherine Turner Fireworks, "because he could cry when there was nothing to cry about." ”
The king blew badly, but no one dared to say it to his face, because he was the king. ...... No matter what he did, everyone would shout, "Wonderful! Wonderful! ”
The joy of reading and understanding irony lies in the moment of "I didn't understand it all of a sudden, and I couldn't help but laugh when I thought about it". It's a challenging way of expressing it, and it can lead to a challenging reading experience that's hard but rewarding. When children have a certain interest in reading, they can "advance" and experience the charm of thinking and irony in Wilde's fairy tales.
Perhaps, reading should be like this: "cool text" can be used to stimulate interest, but it is not suitable for continuous energy supply to our brains. Only in rich and free imagination and expression can we exercise first-class creativity; only in deep and sharp reflection can we build a more complete, rational and intelligent cognitive system.
Suspenseful stories are fascinating, but we, especially our children, still need the power of beauty and thought.
As Wilde famously said:
we are all in the gutter，but some of us are looking at the stars.
We are all in the gutter, but there is always someone looking up at the stars.
Author | Star One Master of Chinese Department of Fudan University Practitioner of humanistic education and literary critic He has presided over the development of k12 humanistic literacy courses Have your own writing studio
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