In this episode (11) we have dinner with the Donners and the Dickens, somebody says grace, and then we have a limbo party...
Part 1 [03:53] - in which we fail to read the fine print and get stuck with a bunch of insurance disclaimers
Part 2 [06:30] - in which we have a medieval 9/11, read about it in a Norwegian novel, and seat the Donner Party for dinner
Part 3 [10:41] - in which life throws us a limbo party to see how low we can go
Part 4 [17:07] - in which we turn to prayer as an answer to all our questions
Hi and welcome to episode 11 of the Hansel and Gretel Code...
00:05
[ciao!]
🎶 Schubert - Piano Sonata no. 21 in B flat major D.960 III. Allegro vivace con Delicatezza 🎶
in our last 2 episodes, we introduced and investigated the second sentence of our fairytale... and in it we learned that not only is our woodcutter truly impoverished, he has a wife and 2 kids that he’s barely able to feed...
as far as metaphors go, we’ve learned a whole helluva lot about poverty — both the garden variety, involuntary type and the more exotic voluntary versions... and speaking of type, we explored the origins of modern typology and discovered that as poor as our woodcutter family is, they have quite a few decks of Tarot cards lying around... and — quirk of all quirks — each member of the family identifies with a different suit... you know: Wands, Cups, Coins and Swords...
go figure...
today we begin the third sentence of our fairytale and discover that Charles Dickens and the Donner party have invited themselves to dinner, and Dickens has brought along a guest... I’ll introduce him in a minute... although before I do, let’s just listen to the first 3 lines of our fairytale:
Es war einmal ein armer Holzhacker, der wohnte vor einem großen Wald.
Es ging ihm gar jämmerlich, daß er kaum seine Frau, und seine zwei Kinder ernähren konnte.
Einsmals hatte er auch kein Brod mehr [...]Once upon a time there was a poor woodcutter who lived before a great forest.
He had it so rough he could barely feed his wife and two children.
Once, there wasn’t even any more bread, [...]
[aww...]
So, as I said, we’ve now got guests... and of course, they’re not literal guests, since the fairytale makes no mention of them... they’re metaphoric guests...
I’m guessing you’ve heard of the Donner Party — those 19th century pioneers who famously ran out of bread and had to eat, um leftovers...?
[ugh, that is so not cool]
and of course, most everyone knows Charles Dickens... the guest he’s brought along is a certain Thomas Malthus...
[who’s that?]
if you’ve never heard of Thomas Malthus though, don’t worry, neither had I... Old Tom was an 18th century economist who wrote an otherwise famous and influential essay on the problem of population growth...
[crowd noise]
in the essay, he implied that war, famine and disease were very useful... and he called them: “positive checks on population”
[couple of people booing]
and, oh yeah, turns out that he was famous enough that Dickens made a cheeky reference to him and his ideas by way of Ebeneezer Scrooge...
["Many can't go there, and many would rather die" "If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population”]
*🎶*🎶*
Part 1 [03:53]
Teil Eins: in which we fail to read the fine print and get stuck with a bunch of insurance disclaimers
Speaking of Dickens, Hard Times can show up in a heart beat — either for us as individuals, or collectively... Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is often the predictable and inevitable outcome of terrible, or at least unfortunate, personal choices...
[oh no...]
it can also come down to a random matter of that famous insurance disclaimer: An act of god...
["God opens the sea with a blast of his nostrils"] / [ugh! Ew!]
in other words: some natural disaster of, um...biblical proportion, like Covid-19... or maybe just some run-of-the-mill disaster like an earthquake, a drought, a flood, or — whaddya know — a famine.
[oh my god!]
Unfortunately, man-made acts of god are all too common as well: massive oil spills, a housing or dotcom bubble — maybe a war, a serious crime, or even a nasty tax hike.
[nooooo...!]
In short: shit happens, and something we had little or no say in puts the screws to us anyway.
[oh crap!]
Once again, whether or not we can identify any trace of the sublime in our story — or even the fickle finger of some active deity — we now have an overwhelming catastrophe, and one helluva a genuine storytelling crisis...
[roger that]
The manuscript doesn't give us any explanation for the complete lack of food on the woodcutter family table... and given that there’s no indication whether this is just a problem for them alone or includes the rest of the population, it’s still up to our intuition and personal imagination to fill in the blanks...
what’s weird is that the Grimm’s never explicitly say there was a widespread famine... not until their 6th edition in 1843... and while I’m not inclined to just take them at their word in any of this, let’s just run with the famine idea, at least for now...
[you coming, Curtis...?]
*🎶*🎶*
Part 2 [06:30]
Teil Zwei: in which we have a medieval 9/11, read about it in a Norwegian novel, and seat the Donner Party for dinner
For Germans, and Europeans in general, this sudden absence of bread or food in Hansel and Gretel is most plausibly based on the collective experience of The Great Famine of 1315...
While there were numerous and severe famines throughout the Middle Ages, the so-called Great Famine is the likeliest suspect... the damn thing lasted 3 years, took another 4 years to recover from, and was so overwhelmingly harsh and widespread it became utterly egalitarian—affecting poor and rich, peasant and noble alike.
[a disgusted, snooty - "well, then...!"]
In other words: it was a rock and a hard place of apocalyptic proportion.
As far as memes go, the severity and reach of this famine imbedded itself in the European Consciousness and affected changes in behavior in much the same way 9/11 entered and altered the American Consciousness...
Europe was, in fact, a changed place after this famine — especially to the extent that people no longer trusted each other as much as they did before... There had been so much desperation and so much lethal competition for what little food there was, it finally became impossible to trust any and all strangers not to be outright murderers and thieves.
🎶 Mozart - Idomeneo, K. 366 - Act III. Torna la pace 🎶
History aside, we can all understand the concept of famine, whether we've personally experienced one or not... Certainly, we've all been ravenously hungry at some point or another... and if anyone really wants to know what it's like to starve, Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger provides one humdinger of a vicarious experience.
[oh, good] / [belch]
Once again, though, we're looking for metaphoric meaning here, so if we want to get at the jewels in this story, we’ve got to consider this fairy tale bread (and its complete absence) to be symbolic of something other than literal food or famine.
Unless we happen to be, or have been, homeless and starving ourselves, we'd otherwise have no right whatsoever to identify with this family and their current plight... We could only pity them...
So, unless we see this whole business as metaphor, we’d be stuck with a completely abstract, absurdly anemic, and I gotta say: shamefully narcissistic faux-problem.
[that’s bad]
Of course, there's nothing abstract about food or hunger... But that's just the point! It makes for an excellent metaphor!
Food and hunger is such a concrete, visceral concept, it can easily stand for something that we’ve all experienced... meaning: some absolutely vital something we all know and recognize and that is now either in short supply or completely missing from our own lives...
Something that we absolutely need for the sake of life and consciousness... some something that, if it disappeared, we’d become absolutely desperate — desperate enough to steal, and maybe even desperate enough to go the Donner party route....
So what IS that vital thing?
[I dunno]
*🎶*🎶*
Part 3 [10:41]
Teil Drei: in which life throws us a limbo party to see how low we can go
The story tells us that the literal vital thing that’s missing is bread... and while it's obvious that as far as figures of speech go, bread is a very common rhetorical trope (technically known as a synecdoche)
[huh?]
well, that just means using the word bread to mean food of any kind... or even having it mean cash*, if anyone still insists on treating our woodcutter’s poverty as something literal...
[alright, if you insist]
<<< * cash actually makes it a metonymy, I think... >>>
[alright, if you insist]
What about bread though, as a very meaty (or meatless) metaphor?
What can bread symbolize?
[what?]
Before I name some of the possibilities, it's important to remember the context that we’ve so far established: the likelihood that we’re dealing with the connection between Consciousness and the Unconscious... and if our poor woodcutter and his family represent a barely maintained Consciousness, this sudden lack of food — the metaphoric substance maintaining that Consciousness — well, it means that the bottom of Consciousness has suddenly dropped out...
[are you kidding me?]
now we’re not talking about anyone going into a coma — which we’ve already mentioned as one way of thinking about a sudden and complete loss of consciousness... we ARE still talking about degrees or levels of Consciousness...
Jung had a phrase for this that he borrowed from the French psychiatrist Pierre Janet...
[ooh la la]
Abaissement du niveau mental
[oh boy, oh boy...]
um, er... pardon my French...!
[no!]
which sorta translates as a lowering of the level of mentality or consciousness...
The best way to understand it might be to remember that this is what people mean when they’re talking about the so-called reptilian brain... In other words, the way we think and act when our so-called reptilian brain is in charge...
[oh, really?]
There are many different degrees of this, and plenty of benign examples, although benign as they are, they can still land us in hot water: anything done out of fear, for instance, or even anything done absentmindedly or by force of habit...
and we could be talking about this on an individual basis — by simply and carelessly getting drunk, say, failing to read the fine print, or even falling asleep at the wheel...
[uh, oh]
we could also be talking about a more collective situation — by following the crowd and parroting some popular opinion, or getting involved in a questionable crowd, say, and succumbing to peer pressure, or even mob mentality — just as certain people wearing certain red hats spent their um, red letter day in our nation’s capital...
[oh, and I suppose you think that’s funny, huh?]
this lowering of our level of consciousness — our degree of conscious awareness and control over our own behavior — can sometimes be just as dangerous psychologically as it can be physically... Severe enough, in fact, to indicate a major depression — with its attendant risk of suicide — or even a full blown, frank psychosis with all the trimmings: hallucinations, delusions and bizarre, catatonic behaviors...
[I ain’t never seen nothing like that before]
obviously, the fairytale doesn’t give us anything resembling psychosis, not until we get to the psychopathic behavior of the gingerbread witch, and certainly not at this point in the story
although we ARE being forced to talk about something terribly problematic... something with very serious consequences**...
[what are they?]
the story is telling us that something has happened to overtake and overwhelm our own capacity for (and level of) conscious awareness...
[no way...]
<<<
**
Indeed, Jung was adamant about the dangers involved in dealing with the Unconscious — even for therapeutic purposes — and constantly warned his readers and students about the potential dangers of psychotherapy, and the consequences of therapeutic carelessness. The most disturbing and unpredictable consequence being the danger of triggering what he called a latent psychosis — i.e. a psychotic break from reality, replete with hallucinations and delusions, and otherwise known as full-blown insanity. That is to say, a psychosis ready to drown out the consciousness of an otherwise normal, or slightly neurotic, person who is perhaps not so obviously having difficulty maintaining that normalcy... someone who, knowingly or not, is quite near the end of their rope. To illustrate the danger, he cited the analogy of a boat (as an individual consciousness) being inadequate for the task of taking on the size and weight of fish it is trying to land, and so, when attempting to take such an overwhelming weight of fish on board (i.e. some especially heavy or difficult unconscious content) it founders and disappears.
>>>
and yes, we are, indeed, talking about ourselves here, since we’re bound to identify with the plight of this family, just by the very nature of good storytelling... not to mention the immense and magical power of metaphor...
[maybe]
so let’s just take a step back and have a think...
What is this thing that most effectively feeds Consciousness what it so desperately, and instinctively, needs and even hungers for?
What is it that strengthens Consciousness against sinking into boredom, depression or even insanity?
Why is it so poorly available in this story (and by extension, even in our own lives), and why is there now such an acute and absolute lack of it?
[who cares?]
Could this thing just be Ego...? is THAT what we’re talking about...?
Something obviously necessary, and easily propped up — although pretty leaky and precarious, even in the best of times...
And just what the hell is Ego anyway...? beyond some fragile sense of self requiring constant effort and resources of reassurance, lest it find itself crushed or laid low by the force of any random troll or some stronger opponent or rival.
[do you give up now?]
nah...I don’t think so...
well, the Grimms, being fervent Christians, give us THEIR answer in the form of a convenient religious trope...
🎶 [church bells ringing] 🎶
Funny enough, coming from them, it’s actually a helpful clue, although not necessarily the right answer...
[let’s see if you can figure this out... no pressure, no one else has yet]
*🎶*🎶*
Part 4 [17:07]
Teil Vier: in which we turn to prayer as an answer to all our questions
as I said, it wasn’t until the 1843 edition that the Grimm’s added the specific idea of Famine to the story... and all that did was tell us that our Bohemian family bread-winner was not directly to blame for the sudden lack of bread...
[aww-cute-reaction]
right from the get-go though — the 1812 first edition — they had already thrown in their own 2 cents to answer the question of what the bread was meant to symbolize...
so, let’s kill 2 birds with one stone and listen to that later version of the story... and just so you know, this is from a very nice Librivox recording of Hansel and Gretel that’s read by Bob Neufeld
Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children. The boy was called Hansel, and the girl, Gretel. He had little to bite and to break, and once, when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure daily bread.
well, there it is...
🎶 [choir-sound] 🎶
an unmistakable reference to the christian Pater noster: The Our Father... and that there daily bread in the prayer is still edible food, of course, yet, given the context, it’s also something else... something transcendent*** — numinous or otherwise sacred...
I guess we could even say, mana from heaven...
[oh boy]
***
And in this regard it is more than interesting to note that the Chinese ideogram for Qi, the otherwise ineffable life force, pictures rice being cooked in a pot...
氣
***
well, if we’re going to allow for this hyper-christianized clue added by the fervently Calvinist Grimms to enter our discussion, then I‘ve still gotta ask:
[vinyl needle scratch]
what is this transcendent, numinous thing that food in the form of Hansel and Gretel bread represents to Western Consciousness...??? and not JUST in Christianity and Christian prayer
or even in Old Testament mana...
remember, this metaphor has to hit home with every single one of us, regardless of our religious preferences, otherwise our fairytale is just some bible thumping, Calvinist propaganda story...
[for the love of everything sacred and holy, would you please shut your yapper]
see, it’s all too easy to give a rote, catechetical response to this question — which is pretty much what the Grimm’s have done, and which is how much of christian religion is taught and learned...
[and the same, again and again and again... repetetive]
and yet, full-blooded, honest fairy tales are not meant to paper over the abstractions of life or parrot the nostrums of any religion...
[no sir!]
Limiting our understanding of fairy tale metaphors to abstractions of belief — religious or otherwise — cuts them off at the roots so that they are no longer alive, or connected to the vital human experience that once gave them life.
So, in attempting to find and restore that vitality, is it valid for us to say that this prayerful Daily Bread is, just as the Grimms' revisions imply: a religious or sacramental Grace...?
[why the fuck not?]
Sure, maybe in the Middle Ages — given the enormous power and influence of the Vatican over the life and liberty of just about everyone living in Europe, this would have been a perfectly adequate explanation, even a numinous, experiential metaphor...
[that’s correct]
not now, though... and certainly not for everyone... still, given the fact that this story might have been written back in the Middle Ages, we’re gonna have to see if calling this bread Soul Food is, indeed, the right call...
[I am getting a little hungry] / [alright, yeah — let’s get some food and plan out this next adventure]
🎶 Schubert - Piano Sonata no. 20 in A major, D. 959 - I. Allegro 🎶
Well, in our next episode, we’re going to find out exactly why calling this bread Soul Food is pretty much right on the money...
[cha-ching]
and in order to prove that, we’re gonna have to go out grocery shopping... we’re also gonna have to take another trip on the time machine because there’s an old Roman recipe for soul food that we have to authenticate... and once we’ve got that straight, we’re gonna go even further back in time, so we can crash the most famous super bowl party in history, and watch the play of the millennial...
[a confused, what?]
um, sorry, that’s the play of the millennium...
[dad joke groans]
well, thanks for listening...
I sure hope you’re enjoying the story so far... because I sure as hell enjoy sharing it with you...
and if you would please, please, please share it with someone you think might enjoy it too...
that at least make um, like, uh 3 of us...
[oh my god]
alrighty then... ciao a tutti...
[ciao, ciao]
so if you haven’t already hit me up for a copy of my manuscript version of the story, please do that so that you can follow along and know what’s coming...
and maybe do some literary sleuthing on your own in between episodes...
just hit the talk to me link on the website between the lines.xyz and ask me for the free pdf...
I'll send it to you and put you on my mailing list...
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
*German Fairytale Reading by Jürgen Lexow*
*Chapter Titles read by Anna Jacobsen*
*Librivox recording of A Christmas Carol read by Bob Neufeld*
*Librivox recording of Hansel and Gretel read by Bob Neufeld*
Music Credits
*🎶*🎶* Bleeping Demo by Kevin MacLeod of filmmusic.io
Schubert - Piano Sonata no. 21 in B-flat major, D. 960 - III. Scherzo：Allegro vivace con delicatezza - performed byPaul Pitman and courtesy of musopen.org
Mozart - Idomeneo, K. 366 - Act III. Torna la pace - Idomeneo I - courtesy of European Archive and musopen.org
Schubert - Piano Sonata no. 20 in A major, D. 959 - I. Allegro performed by Paul Pitman and courtesy of musopen.org
kristo's awesome Peanut Gallery
(all courtesy of freesound.org)
["ciao"] 00:05
"ciao" courtesy of Nighteller and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["awww"] 02:14 & 17:35
"awww" courtesy of vahdena and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["not cool"] 02:38
“ugh, that is so not cool...” courtesy of LittleRainySeasons and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“who’s that?”] 02:50
"who’s that?" courtesy of iccleste and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[crowd noise] 03:07
Crowd Noise from Henry VI courtesy of FillMat and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["boo"] 03:18
"couple of people booing" courtesy of jayfrosting and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.
["Many can't go there..."] 03:32
Librivox / public domain recording of Dickens' A Christmas Carol read by Bob Neufeld
[“oh, no”] 04:26
“oh, no…” courtesy of qubodup and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
["ugh! ew!"] 04:39
"ew!" courtesy of isabellaquintero97 and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["oh my god...!"] 04:57 & 22:38
"oh my god" courtesy of pyro13djt and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[“nooo...!”] 05:15
“nooo...!” courtesy of Junuxx and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License
[oh crap!] 05:25
oh, crap! courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[“roger that”] 05:43
“roger that” courtesy of theuncertainman and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
["are you coming, Curtis?"] 06:22
"are you coming, Curtis?" courtesy of IPaddeh and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[a disgusted, snooty "well, then...!"] 07:27
"well, then..." courtesy of Reitanna Seishin and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["ooh, good!"] 08:46
“ooh, good!” courtesy of Iceofdoom and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[belch] 08:49
“belch” courtesy of jppi_Stu and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“that’s bad”] 09:36
"that’s bad" courtesy of Reitanna Seishin and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[“I dunno”] 10:32
“I dunno” courtesy of nfrae and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[huh...?] 11:10
"huh...?" courtesy of Adam_N and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["if you insist"] 11:24
"if you insist" courtesy of bogenseeberg and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
["what"] 11:35
"what" courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“Are you kidding me?”] 12:07
Are you kidding me?” courtesy of LittleRainySeasons and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
["ooh la la"] 12:30
"ooh la la" courtesy of Amy Gedgaudas and Tim.kahn and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“oh boy”] 12:35 & 18:51
“an exasperated, “oh boy... oh boy...” courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“No!"] 12:39
“No!” courtesy of theuncertainman and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
["oh, really?"] 13:01
"oh, really?" courtesy of xyahka and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[uh, oh] 13:32
"uh-oh" courtesy of DWOBoyle and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
["think that’s funny, huh?"] 13:59
"oh, and I suppose you think that’s funny, huh..." courtesy of shawshank73 and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“I ain’t NEVER seen nothing like THAT before”] 14:34
“I ain’t NEVER seen nothing like THAT before” courtesy of alphahog and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
["what are they?"] 14:57
"what are they?" courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“no way...” guy] 15:10
“no way” (guy) courtesy of kathid and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“maybe...”] 15:26
“maybe” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“who cares?”] 16:02
“who cares?” courtesy of ballOOnhead and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["do you give up now?] 16:37
"do you give up now?" courtesy of pyro13djt and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
🎶 [church bells ringing] 🎶 16:48
"Venetian Church Bells" courtesy of freesoundjon01 and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["let’s see if you can figure this out... no pressure, no one else has yet"] 16:57
“let’s see if you can figure this one out... no one else has yet” courtesy of KieranKeegan and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License
🎶 [choir-sound] 🎶 18:26
choir singing" courtesy of Vann Westfold and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License
[vinyl needle scratch] 19:03
vinyl needle screetch courtesy of ZeSoundResearchInc. and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["...shut your yapper!"] 19:35
"...shut your yapper!" courtesy of Airborne80 and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["this is repetitive..."] 19:55
"this is repetitive..." courtesy of honest_cactus and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[no sir!] 20:11
“no sir!” courtesy of theuncertainman and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
[“why the fuck not?”] 20:11
“why the fuck not?” courtesy of cheesepuff and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[“that’s correct”] 21:01
"that's correct" courtesy of bogenseeberg and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["I am getting a little hungry"] 21:19
"I am getting a little hungry" courtesy of IPaddeh and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
["alright, yeah — let’s get some food and plan out this next adventure"] 21:20
"let's get some food..." courtesy of IPaddeh and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[“cha-ching!”] 21:40
“cha-ching!” courtesy of angelak_m and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[a confused “what...?”] 22:09
“what...?? (girl)" courtesy of Alivvie and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
[dad joke groans] 22:14
lots of moans and groans courtesy of TeamMasaka and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
["ciao, ciao"] 22:50
"ciao, ciao" courtesy of Nighteller and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Episode 10 - The Four Horsemen / Episode 12 - Soul Kitchen Nachos