The Natural Boy is Connected, but the Vain Boy always compares himself. In Rousseau’s Emile the Vain Boy “goes to sleep full of countless vain projects, humbled by countless whims.” This can serve as a reminder.

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I read again from Rousseau’s Emile, where he shows that his ideal pupil has compassion but is not lost in that.  He instead reflects on his own condition and is thereby made happier.  This may be considered almost morally bad to us, in our empathy-drowned discourse, but it seems natural to me.  Note the pupil is not, of course, cruel; he is not even experiencing schadenfreude.  

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Rousseau compared the spoiled child tyrant and his ideal pupil.  I read a paragraph from his Emile about the vain boy, raised and praised in the bosom of his family, and Rousseau’s independent and calm pupil.  The former’s desires have always been satisfied, “everything gave way to him,” and then, as a young man, how many hard lessons will lead to his withdrawal from the world.  

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Both Plato and Rousseau present a tyrant as something like a spoiled child, an adult who operates on their base desires, their Id (“it” from Freud), and projects those out into and onto the world.  Plato’s wise man, in contrast, is wise, in balance with the parts of the self sort of properly fed, and so is not controlled but in control.  Noteworthy also is the large scale of the tyrant and the individual scale of the wise man.  A question is how can the wise man gain power without becoming corrupt?

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I read a passage from Rousseau’s Emile contrasting a boy raised praised in the bosom of his family and his own ideal pupil, raised by nature.  The first is vain and, going out into the world, is in turmoil and full of schemes because he is no longer the center of the world.  However, Jean-Jacques’ friend sees suffering in people and experiences the pleasure of commiseration and, noticing he is not suffering, becomes even happier than he was before.  

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Thinking of the ratiocination of the stepmother and the witch, both of whom have position and need and skills in a time of want, vis-a-vis the helpless children, I tentatively conclude a theme here might be that faith wins over cold calculation.  

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Grimm Bros.’ “Hansel & Gretel:” The Stepmother’s Magical, Mysterious Death (Clip)

The Witch and the Stepmother: when they return home, the stepmom happens to be dead. I wonder if there is “folktale/myth logic” where their killing the witch also leads to the stepmother’s death.

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Thresholds and birds border the transitions from the normal, albeit decrepit, world, and into a world of unknown, new and monstrous dangers like starvation and monsters.  LL points out the duck river ride after their saving (“salvation”) resembles a rebirth like a baptism.  I wonder why they have to do the crossing independently.  This is a departure from their constant handholding before Hans’ imprisonment.

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Birds play a big role in this story.  LL points out birds are symbols of salvation in Christianity, that they often represent the Holy Spirit and I generalize this to the function of guidance in religion and spiritual transformation.  Birds in this story indeed move the story forward.  Even the bird that leads them to the gingerbread house saves them, for they had not eaten for three days.

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H & G survive by their wits where so many others haven’t.  The evil women in the story also chide them (“simpleton,” etc.), which reminds me of the old formula of hubris leading to destruction.  The story has a lot of reversal: non-nurturing women, the sentimental father, the children bring home the bacon, home is not a safe place.  Only when you go deep into the forest can you find sustenance.

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