Jack’s dead father has left him and his mother a house, a cow, an axe and other tools.  He reasons with her a cow provides them milk, but she convinces him they need more, so he goes out to the market, but at the bridge he’s approached by an old man who convinces him to trade the cow for three beans because they will proliferate. Jack rejoices but his mother is crestfallen and tosses them out the window.  The next day Jack is driven to climb the stock and on three trips he acquires bronze, a silver egg-laying chicken, and a heavenly harp, defying boy-eating giants and being hid by their wives each time.  He is able to gain food, wealth, reputation and finally political power through his exploits and judgment, and at the end of the story he sits on the throne, battling the elemental forces of the fallen giants for his kingdom. 

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode:

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-nyntt-183a586

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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

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https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

We summarize and discuss Jonathan Pageau’s The Tale of Jack and the Fallen Giants. Jack’s dead father has left he and his mother a house, a cow, an axe and other tools.  He reasons with her a cow provides them milk, but she convinces him they need more, so he goes out to the market, but at the bridge he’s approached by an old man who convinces him to trade the cow for three beans because they will proliferate. Jack rejoices but his mother is crestfallen and tosses them out the window.  The next day Jack is driven to climb the stock and on three trips he acquires bronze, a silver egg-laying chicken, and a heavenly harp, defying boy-eating giants and being hid by their wives each time.  He is able to gain food, wealth, reputation and finally political power through his exploits and judgment, and at the end of the story he sits on the throne, battling the elemental forces of the fallen giants for his kingdom. 

This story is about growing up, with basic needs, courage, rationality, helpers, and truth, order and beauty all playing parts.  This also seems like a Christian story of triumph of will, divine order and beauty over primordial, greedy, and destructive forces; the triumph occurs through a once-lowly character that becomes the ruler of a great earthly kingdom.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

I thought the story might be a bit complete, then we analyze it as the girl being the protagonist.  It’s partially about her death and rebirth, being made whole.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-jtnzf-182a0d5

For more in this podcast, please go to:

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https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Like in “Rumpelstiltskin,” several men with responsibility around the girl make huge moral mistakes that cost the central female much suffering.  This story emphasizes her piety, as opposed to her cleverness and luck. The appearance of gold treasure from dealmaking is also prominent here.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-jtnzf-182a0d5

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

We summarize the Grimm Brothers’ story “The Girl Without Hands,” which has much more of God and the Devil themselves than other stories we’ve read.  A destitute miller unknowingly makes a deal with Satan that enriches him but he ends up mutilating his pious daughter, who sets out, hands bound, to the mercy of the world.  She is taken in by the King whose garden gives her sustenance after she enters it with the help of an angel, but the Evil One is not done with her yet.  She and the king end up suffering and toiling for years, separated by war and malicious trickery, but they are finally reunited in a quasi Heaven.  She is restored in body, her son comes to know his father, they return to the kingdom and are remarried.  We discuss and analyze the story, drawing parallels in Christianity and emphasizing the element of water, the suffering and time involved. Here, there is temporary bounty for the foolish and weak but ultimate prosperity for the good and patient.  Please share your thoughts.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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There is a lot about water here and it reminds us of holy water, a protective; water is also associated with cleanliness spiritually.  In this story it also serves as delineation of borders.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

Please see below (to be published 3/3/25).

For more in this podcast, please go to:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The princess stays in the cottage refuge for seven years.  The king returns to the castle and finds out what has happened.  It takes him seven years to find his wife, during which he fasted and was provided for by the Lord.  He refuses the food the angel offered and he rests.  The angel brings his queen and their son, who puts a handkerchief on his face, but it’s blown off.  The boy learns this is his father and the family, including the body of the queen, is made whole.  They return to the castle.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode: 

Please see below (to be published 3/3/25).

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The vindictive Prince of Darkness returns, exchanging both their letters for fakes and causing terrible grief.  The child-strapped princess leaves the castle and comes upon a welcoming cottage with a “snow white” maiden, an angel sent by the Lord.

(Sorry about the technical difficulties and bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For Part 3 of the Summary:

For the full episode: 

Please see below (to be published 1/3/25).

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Podbean:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

A destitute miller, chopping wood, laments his situation, and the devil appears in the guise of an old man.  Old Mephistopheles gives him an offer but with a trick. Three years later, the devil returns to get his due, and the pious but wily daughter begins to battle the Evil One.  On the third day, she sacrifices her hands for the life of her father and puts off their adversary.  She leaves the protection of home and begins to depend on the goodwill of the world.  After praying, an angel helps her get a pear.  The farmer, a priest and the king witness the spectral girl; the king marries her.  When he’s off to war, she gives birth but the messenger falls asleep near a stream.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For Part 2 of the Summary:

For the full episode: 

Please see below (to be published 1/3/25).

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

We conclude our talk on pleasant happiness and living in the present with our thoughts on treatment of the body after cessation: we’re not big fans. We give our opinions and experiences (indirect!).  Isn’t the chemical processing of the body just a very artificial and somewhat costly preservation of an illusion? In Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, a new kind of son of man, Robert Valentine Smith, raised by Martians, is astounded we waste all that… food. I'd love to hear other opinions though!

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

Please comment, like, and subscribe!

For the full episode: 

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-pxavk-182131e

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube: 

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.