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A comment on The first fairy stories were never intended for children.

Re:The first fairy stories were never intended for children by Rygian on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @05:00PM (#30000888)
"Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror. The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad."

(Quote from Terry Pratchett's "Lords and Ladies")

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Re:The first fairy stories were never intended for children by labster on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @07:52PM (#30002763)
Awesome quote. It incites awe.
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Re:The first fairy stories were never intended for children by technothrasher on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @05:25PM (#30001243)
> "if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad."

Wait, so he's saying that words can change meaning but mythical creatures cannot change character? It would seem to me that those are two sides of the same phenomenon.

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Re:The first fairy stories were never intended for children by monkeydreams on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @05:36PM (#30001395)
I think the commentary is that people who twist the meanings of words in order to charm and beguile are "bad". Like most of Pratchett's work, the subtext is pretty heavy.
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Re:The first fairy stories were never intended for children by ludston on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @05:56PM (#30001645)
It's a quote from one of his ficticious Discworld novels that introduces elves in his specific universe.
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Re:The first fairy stories were never intended for children by smegsicle on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @08:34PM (#30003119)
elves ("daemons") cannot be trusted beyond their own goals- humanizing them can be a costly mistake
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Re:The first fairy stories were never intended for children by dcminter on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @05:50PM (#30001569)
Bad, at least in British slang of a moderately recent era, can mean cool.
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