In Discussion: "The Brave Little Toaster" & HC Andersen's Tragic Anthropomorphized Objects

The Steadfast Tin Soldier Shigeru Hatsuyama for Thumbelina (and other tales) (Japan, 1925)

Yes! This is one of my favorite things: when passionate discussions of lesser-known fairy tales appear in (seemingly unrelated) social media and pop culture/geek discussions!

If I were fancy and extra organized I'd start a whole series or regular feature on this topic. As it is, I will just add a new tag: #PopFTDiscussions (aka #GOLD!) Hopefully this new tag will have a lot of use in future...

So what incited this particular one, you ask? It was The Mary Sue's article "Anthropomorphizing the Mundane: Five Fictional Objects that Messed Us Up" by Sara Goodwin. Under the following picture of the Brave Little Toaster, the article begins:

I was one of those kids who was absolutely convinced that my toys came to life when I was asleep and led full lives. Not only that, but I can remember getting out of bed to put a pair of shoes together so they wouldn’t have to spend the night alone. ... anthropomorphizing objects has been going on for many years in many cultures. Who doesn’t cry when they think about The Velveteen Rabbit and how badly he wanted to be real? 

"Tsukumo-gami,
Spirits of Used Articles"
by ITO Jakuchu
(1716-1800), Japan

Was Mary Poppins' Umbrella 100 yrs old?

And I was REALLY pleased to see that Tsukumogami was mentioned (the Japanese ritual/celebration of an object's 100th birthday), something which I learned more about last year and am completely delighted by. Another Japanese festival not mentioned is Hari-kuyo: Festival of Broken Needles which "is a solemn rite of respect and thanksgiving in which the worn and broken sewing needles used in the previous year are retired to a sacred resting place."

Interesting note: the most popular image representing Tsukumogami in general is an animated umbrella... *turns to look at Mary Poppins suspiciously*

In Japanese culture, there is a concept called Tsukumogami, which is popularly used to refer to an object that has reached its hundredth birthday and become alive. There seems to be a bit of a divide between the religious interpretations and the popular culture use of this word, but from what I can tell from some quick Google research is that it was commonly associated with religion in the past and has been adopted by modern cultures to describe a kind of anthropomorphism.  

Using animals, objects, etc. to tell a story can have practical uses beyond making us cry when we see a lamp that looks like that adorable, hopping Pixar lamp lying in a dumpster. 

It continues being a great read, complete with a list of Brave Little Toaster-like cousins we've all had tug at our heartstrings, so I suggest you hop on over there and read it in total. It succinctly looks at anthropomorphized objects on film we came to love, then cried for (hilarious), but then I began reading the comments and lo and behold, Hans Christian Anderson's name appeared, and not without a little rage attached! #painandtears 

The comments number well over 100 so I'm posting the HCA portion of the discussion here for your perusal. You can always go to the original page and join in the discussion if you become so inclined!
(Note: I have bleeped and asterix'd some of the language for gentler sensibilities and in an effort to redirect nastier versions of spam far, far away... and be warned that the spacing between comments is really, really weird. I don't have time to transcribe it all so it looks neat etc so please bear with the copy and paste results!)

by Kay Nielsen

Wauwy

Hans Christian Andersen was the -bleeping- worst with this, I swear to God. The man could have written a story from the POV of a tongue scraper and it would have been full of pathos, tragedy, and an unbearably sad ending.

^^ Edit FTNH: This sentence - now in bold, care of moi - is so true! ^^

F--- YOU HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, I AM NOT OVER THE FIR TREE OR THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER, AND I NEVER WILL BE

;A;

ETA: lmao I just checked his wikipedia page and look at this sh*t.

A very early fairy tale by Andersen called The Tallow Candle (Danish: Tællelyset) was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012. The story, written in the 1820s, was about a candle who did not feel appreciated.

ridiculous.

by vacation-challenge

• Kris Smith  Wauwy • 

  
  

  That's because candles are ***holes. Especially Danish ones.
  • Snow Monet  Kris Smith • 

    
    

    And matchsticks just bring tears. 
• Ceaen  Wauwy •

  
  

  The Andersen book I have is broken up into thematic sections. There is an entire "Anthropomorphic Objects and Animals" section in that book.
  • Sara Goodwin  Ceaen 

    
    

    I remember that! The roots of my malady are slowly being exposed! :-)

  • 

    by Angela Rizza

• silaria  Wauwy • 

  
  

  The Tin Soldier story confused me so much as a kid. I couldn't understand the point of a story where no one rescued him.
  • Wauwy  silaria •

    
    

    The point is pain and tears. Regalli  Wauwy • 
    • 
      

      Isn't that the point of all of Hans Christian Andersen's work? Wauwy  Regalli • 
      • 
        

        Not The Snow Queen, aka best fairy tale ever!

        But yeah everything else lol.

         Regalli  Wauwy • 
        • 
          

          You forget: Frozen happened to that.

          
          

          
          

           Wauwy  Regalli •
          • 
            

            LALALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU

            GERDA x KAI OTP, LITTLE ROBBER GIRL BEST SIDE CHARACTER, FABULOUS TRUE NEUTRAL SNOW QUEEN, CRYING AWAY MIRROR SHARDS AND SNATCHING UR FAVS' WIGS

            
            

            
            

             

             

            

            by Pedro Bascon
            • 
              

              
              Regalli  Wauwy 

              
              

              Please. Little Robber Girl/Gerda/Kai post-story friendship and eventual OT3 is where it's at. (SO p*ssed that they basically took all the side characters and turned them into Kristoff. YOU HAD A PERFECT CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING PROGRESSIVE WITH YOUR LINE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE LIKE THE 1930S, DISNEY, YOU HAD DAMN WELL BETTER MAKE UP FOR IT IN THE SEQUEL.)

              (Seriously though I will forgive... not all, but like 65% of that movie's faults if they cash in on its mediocrity and give Elsa a female love interest. If we have to get a sequel, at least give us that.) 
              

              Cat C  Wauwy • 
        • 
          

          That has ALWAYS been my favorite!

          
          

          
          

          Sara Goodwin  silaria •
  • 
    

    The point was that he fed on the tears of children. 
• Sara Goodwin  Wauwy •

  
  

  Totally! I'm so glad you mentioned him and his anthropomorphic ways! That fir tree .... and the Steadfast Tin Soldier .... why, Hans C.A.? Why?

  
  

  
  

    

• 

  from the Andrew Lang Yellow Fairy Book (by Henry Justice Ford)

• 
  

  
  othellia  Wauwy • 

  
  

  OH MY GOD. I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THAT FIR TREE STORY FOR YEARS NOW.

  I had a picture book of it as a kid and I swear it's traumatized me for life as far as getting real Christmas trees go. I've told other people about it and no one else had heard of it. Their reactions to my summaries were pretty much all along the lines of "J---- C-----!" Looked on amazon and google for Christmas tree children's books, but do you know how many Christmas tree books there are?

  So thank you. (And omg I should have known it was HCA! *shakes fist*)

  ETA: No really. I even described to people how the Christmas Tree felt pain after it was chopped down but bore through it because it was so happy to covered in decorations and lights, just like the Little Mermaid when she got her feet. Fffffffffu- I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!

  • 

    by P.J. Lynch

  • 
    

    Wauwy  othellia •

    
    

    I'm happy to help you recall your childhood trauma.

    Mine involves a Mercer Meyer book about a sad rabbit whose friends all forget her birthday and okay I really can't talk about it. Even though they all throw her a surprise party at the end, it does nothing, NOTHING, to make up for the fathomless depths of pain she and the reader have suffered.
• Miss_Dahlia  Wauwy • 

  
  

  Apparently a friend of his made a bet with him that he couldn't write a story that would make people feel sympathy for a pin. Hans won the bet
  .
• *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Studio Soyuzmultfilm in 1976

Ah yes:

"..he fed on the tears of children...".

Thank you Ms. Goodwin. I will never forget that throwaway comment now. It's fits so very,very well.. (Sorry Mr. Andersen. It was bound to happen when you made us love your characters and then- *neck slicing motion with SFX*!)

Here is an evil IKEA commercial (brought to our attention by the same Ms. Goodwin) that will not help you at all:

Told you it was evil. (You had to look...)