SHATTERED FABLES - TSQ-IV (AND FROZEN AND OTHELLO)

Since The Midnight Archives is on hiatus, I have moved to another podcast in the same genre: Shattered Fables. Notably, the Fourth Story/Clever Princess subplot is centre stage and COMPLETELY GUTTED here, as a critique of courtly/intellectual society and analyzing this character's strengths and flaws, hinting that she may be neurodivergent (like Yours Truly) being a collection of data, but not integrated or experienced... and adding the what if...? her silver-tongued prince were actually a dishonest psychopath ready to betray her once he won her over - like Hans in Frozen - or mind-controlled by such a psychopath - like Othello, by Iago -, Andersen gives his subplot a happy ending, but peel the paint and discover what could have been!

the world of intellect and society represented by the prince, and the princess. 

A new prince has just come to the kingdom, and this prince has married a princess who is terribly clever. She had read all the newspapers in the world and forgotten them again. She was that clever. She announced that she would marry any man who could speak well for himself. Not just someone who looked important. Suitors came in droves, but they were all intimidated by her intelligence and the grandeur of the court, but one young man, a poor boy, came along who was not intimidated. He was witty and charming, and he spoke as well as the princess. They fell in love and were married. And ... this clever young prince might be Kai. He had arrived alone in simple clothes just as Kai might have.

This seems promising, but look at the subtext. This is a story about social climbing through intellect. The princess is not valued for her goodness, but for her cleverness. The prince is not valued for his character, but for his wit. This is Andersen commenting on the world of the salons and the courts that he had so desperately wanted to join. A world where cleverness was a currency, where a sharp silver tongue could win you a princess. He is also subtly continuing the theme of the cold heart. The princess's defining trait is that she has read everything and forgotten it. Her knowledge is vast, but it is not integrated. It is a collection of data, not wisdom from experience (could she be autistic, being a human Wikipedia?). It is another form of the flawless snowflake. 

 ... to help ... sneak into the palace to see if the prince is Kai... has a position at court and can get them in through a back door. They sneak in at night. The palace is grand and imposing. They creep through the halls, up the grand staircase. They finally reach the royal bedchamber. The prince and princess are asleep. Gerda creeps closer. She holds up her lamp. She sees the prince's neck. And it is not Kai. Her hope is utterly crushed. She lets out a little cry. 

The prince and princess wake up. They are not angry. They are kind (DK: gode). They listen to her story. They are moved by her loyalty and her courage. They represent the best of the civilized world. They are intelligent, compassionate, and generous. They give Gerda new clothes, warm boots, a muff, and a magnificent golden coach to help her on her journey. 

They are good people, but they are part of a system. They are insulated by their wealth and their status. They can offer charity, but they cannot truly understand the brutal world that Gerda must travel through. The golden coach is a perfect symbol of this. It is a wonderful gift, a piece of their gilded world. But in the wilderness, in the lawless places Gerda is heading, a golden coach is not a help. It is a target. And so Gerda leaves the palace dressed like a little lady riding in a golden coach with a postillion and footman. She is leaving the realm of civilized society and she is about to enter the third and most terrifying stage of her journey, the world of the robbers. 

The coach drives into a dark forest. The gold glitters in the gloom and it attracts attention. Robbers see it. 

"Gold, gold," they cry. They attack the coach. They kill the postillion, the coachman, and the footmen.  

... into the robbers's den. This is the absolute antithesis of the princess's palace. The robbers's castle is a ruin, full of smoke and grime. Ravens and crows fly out of the holes in the walls. Great bulldogs leap around a fire where deer are roasting on a spit. The little robber girl has a menagerie (a zoo) of captive animals, a hundred pigeons and a reindeer all tied up. She and Gerda lie down to sleep on a bed of straw. 

The civilized world of the prince and princess for all its kindness could not help her. Their knowledge derived from newspapers was useless. True knowledge, the knowledge of the wild places and the hidden things comes from the outcasts, the victims, the captive animals who see things from a different perspective. 

This section of the story (Fifth Story, Robber Maiden) is a brutal refutation of the Romantic idea of the noble savage. The robbers are not Romantic rebels. They are damaged, dangerous people. Criminals. Their world is not free. It is a prison of violence. Andersen is showing his readers the real cost of poverty and social collapse. He is rubbing their noses in the ugliness that their comfortable Victorian homes were designed to ignore. Imagine being a wealthy Copenhagen (or Gothenburg) mother in 1844 (when The Snow Queen was released), reading this story to your children by the fire. You have just read about the kind prince and princess, a world you understand. Now you are confronted with the robber maiden, a child who sleeps with a Bowie knife, a child who expresses love by biting. This is not escapism. This is social commentary disguised as a fairy tale. 

... the distraction of worldly society, the palace, and the horror of worldly violence, the robbers's den. ... the limitations of civilized society, the palace, ... the casual murder of the coachman, ...

The danger of a society that values cleverness over kindness.

(Nothing said about the honeymoon of the prince and princess in the finale in this version!)

(Mind blown! The Fourth Story subplot, this "world of intellect and high society," - a satire of social climbing? Is the prince lying? When he wins her through his clever liveliness, is he being honest or not? --Think of Hans in Frozen! Disney split the prince in half; the dashing and charming, witty and extraverted Hans --a psychopath-- and the modest and sincere Kristoff in worn deerskins, more introverted but a diamond in the rough. Or if he is sincere, he could be mind-controlled by a psychopath, a court being a nest of snakes --Othello, Iago, I am looking at you!--)

Also the fact that she has read a lot but has not integrated anything, all vast theory and no wisdom, a vast collection of data but no experience (she's not only a human Wikipedia, but a female Cassio --another favourite character-- "mere prattle without practice"), resounds with me... both due to this (neurodivergence?) and other factors (youth, wealth, isolationism), they are both intelligent, altruistic, generous, and compassionate, but insulated, out of touch with the outside world ("ivory tower" syndrome) - though they have the best intentions, their knowledge gleaned from newspapers, for all its kindness, is useless in the criminal underworld - that Rococo carriage is a TARGET, it attracts the robbers' attention, they massacre the entourage.

This subplot is called "the world of intellect and society," "the distraction of worldly society," and "the limitations of civilized society..." beyond the adventure story's romantic (with a lower-case r, related to love) subplot, there is a critique of a society that distracts and that is detached from the outside world, an ivory tower, a collection of data and vast knowledge ("mere prattle without practice") but not integrated and bereft of experience, and therefore useless in a hostile outside world, despite its best intentions. There are connections to both Othello and Frozen, to the dark side of this high society that values cleverness over both kindness (something negative) and appearances (something positive), cleverness above all, where cleverness is a currency, a commodity, and where a little silver-tongued clever liveliness can win you a mate who may be your intellectual equal... but peel the paint and have your mind blown - the Clever Princess was lucky, but she could have been, like Anna her Disney counterpart, deceived by a snake in the grass! Or, like Desdemona, murdered by a husband who is sincere, but mind-controlled by a snake in the grass! Read between the lines...