deepblue
10-19-2014, 11:36 PM
Fantastically Wrong: The Murderous, Sometimes Sexy History of the Mermaid (http://www.wired.com/2014/10/fantastically-wrong-strange-murderous-sometimes-sexy-history-mermaid)
EXCERPT:
Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is a heartwarming tale of a mermaid falling in love, battling evil to be with her love, and living happily ever after as a human. Just kidding. That’s the Disney version. In Andersen’s, the young mermaid has her tongue cut out, gets burned hard by the prince when he chooses another woman, and eventually dissolves into sea foam instead of saving her own life by ritualistically stabbing said prince through the heart and bathing in his blood. Seriously (http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheLittleMermaid_e.html).
It was for this reason that Starbucks adopted the mermaid as its logo. (No it isn’t (http://www.starbucks.com/blog/so-who-is-the-siren), that’s libel. Is it still libel if I admit it’s libelous? I guess we’ll find out.) Regardless, it took mermaids millennia of mythology to land on those coffee cups. But relations weren’t always so good between our two species—mermaids have largely been thought of as hell-bent on seducing sailors into the depths, or just smashing boats with storms if they’re not really feeling like putting the effort into being charming.
MORE article at the link (http://www.wired.com/2014/10/fantastically-wrong-strange-murderous-sometimes-sexy-history-mermaid). And some great illustrations.
EXCERPT:
Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is a heartwarming tale of a mermaid falling in love, battling evil to be with her love, and living happily ever after as a human. Just kidding. That’s the Disney version. In Andersen’s, the young mermaid has her tongue cut out, gets burned hard by the prince when he chooses another woman, and eventually dissolves into sea foam instead of saving her own life by ritualistically stabbing said prince through the heart and bathing in his blood. Seriously (http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheLittleMermaid_e.html).
It was for this reason that Starbucks adopted the mermaid as its logo. (No it isn’t (http://www.starbucks.com/blog/so-who-is-the-siren), that’s libel. Is it still libel if I admit it’s libelous? I guess we’ll find out.) Regardless, it took mermaids millennia of mythology to land on those coffee cups. But relations weren’t always so good between our two species—mermaids have largely been thought of as hell-bent on seducing sailors into the depths, or just smashing boats with storms if they’re not really feeling like putting the effort into being charming.
MORE article at the link (http://www.wired.com/2014/10/fantastically-wrong-strange-murderous-sometimes-sexy-history-mermaid). And some great illustrations.